Sudden aggression?

GhostlyLynx23 · 11-07-2016, 05:24 PM

Hello there!
I'm the owner of 3 syrian hammies! few times I've posted about my oldest but this time it's 1 of my two younger syrians.
Jett is a 10 week old Syrian girl! from a young age (since ive had her since she was born as she belongs to Merlin my oldest) I've socialised her and she was the most friendliest hamster out of the entire litter!
Up until the date of writing this 08/11/16 she has been friendly, but tonight things are a lot different, I sort of noticed it over the last few days with Jett often running at my hand when I'd put it in her tank to move her carefresh or generally fix her cage from her nights of 'going mental'. But tonight every time she runs at me, she bites me even if my hand is on the other side of the cage she CHASES for my hand to bite it!
She's been chewing her glass so I went to put her bendy bridge in the way and she ran at my hand and took a chunk out my finger making it bleed.
I really am stumped to whats causing this sudden aggression!? any ideas??

cypher · 11-07-2016, 11:25 PM

Sudden changes in behaviour like that are usually do to something in the environment (cage or room they are in) that has disturbed them or ill health & or pain.
Is she acting normally otherwise, eating & drinking normally, sleeping the normal amount? I'd give her a health check & observe her for any other behaviour changes just in case she's unwell & have a think about anything that may have disturbed her.

GhostlyLynx23 · 11-08-2016, 07:11 AM

Thank you! She is eating fine and drinking fine! we're hoping it's just to do with the recent fireworks that have her unsettled and upset! If it continues into late this week I'll take her to the vet and see if notices anything wrong!

Amber_x · 11-08-2016, 08:50 AM

I don't want to worry you but I once had a Chinese hamster that was always fine and suddenly got really aggressive - she was bar chewing, biting and just generally being aggressive for no apparent reason. She also seemed to sleep more. This continued for a week before she passed away

Obviously it could be caused by something such as fireworks though. Have you tried getting her out of the cage? Some hamsters are just like that in the cage as they are very territorial. As far as illness goes, it may be worth trying to weigh her daily for a couple of days to help indicate if there is a problem there. This may not be possible if she's biting you though! Sorry for the long reply, I hope some of it helped!

GhostlyLynx23 · 11-08-2016, 11:25 AM

I'm sorry for your loss!
I do try to get her out her cage but it's difficult when she's always trying to bite me, I'm just hoping if it is fireworks it fixes soon, my mum is saying we might have to put her down to her aggressive nature all of a sudden as it is really bad. She's not losing weight so she's obviously not sick? if anything she's gotten rather fat last few days!

AmityvilleHams · 11-08-2016, 11:34 AM

Have you tried using pots or anything else instead of your hands?You might not be able to actually pick her up by hand at least for now,so using an alternative method to try and get her out would be a good idea.Use anything you possibly can,it doesn't have to be one specific thing as long as it works as intended!

spacebyte · 11-08-2016, 12:55 PM

I think near ten weeks is the time when syrians start getting more teritorial about their homes. Luna would not let anyone put their hands in her cage when she was young (despite being handled regularly at the pet shop, and when we went to visit her there!) but she was fine with being held once we actually got her out of the cage. A lot of people try training their hamsters to be more used to getting handled somewhere neutral like the bath!