Taming questions (+ photo of the ham Kalli!)

[sophiedoe]

Hello,

I thought I would finally share a photo of Kalli, now that I finally managed to catch her sitting still.

I'm still having problems with taming her. I have been doing the bathtub method but she seems a bit freaked out by it and generally gets back into her ball quite quickly. I can stroke her, but she doesn't seem to want to climb on me, she bites my toes and when I tried to get her to walk onto my hand she bit my finger. She just bites everything! I can stroke her in her cage too, but nothing more. Any advice? I'm a bit nervous from the biting.

When people talk about letting their hamsters run around on their beds - does the hamster know not to leap off the edge? I'd like to try this but I would be worried she'd just run straight off the edge.

I'm just worried she will never be tame, which I can accept but it would be a shame, as I feel she could have a lot more fun if I could hold her and take her out in less secure places than the bath.

Thanks a lot.

[cypher]

You do have to be careful letting them run around on the bed, it usually means putting your hand in front of them to keep them from running off where you don't want to go so I wouldn't try that until you're both a bit more confident!
I think a playpen might work better than the bath tbh, you can make one so she has plenty of space to run around in with lots of toys & you can slowly begin to interact more with her in there, maybe start by just putting your hand in & stroking her then move on to sitting in the playpen with her.

[CMB]

As you have a ball. You could let her get in it. Then take her to the bath tub and place your hand next to the ball. Hopefully she will walk over your hand to go and explore.

You can also have your hand near the ball, so she has to climb over your hand to get back into the ball.

Have her wheel and some tubes in the bath and an open fronted box so she can run when nervous or hide.

Hamsters can run off the edge of the bed, so be careful if you try. My hamster tried to climb down the side of the bed and fell onto the floor. She was fine, but It did worry me.

The bed is a soft landing when handling a hamster, so it can also have it's advantages.

[BethandLil]

Hey Sophiedoe,

After reading a couple of your other posts, it sounds as though we are at similar stages of taming our young, female syrian hamsters

I had my hamster Lil in the bath with me this morning and she was so full of energy it was hard to keep her from crawling up my body and escaping.

So if Kalli (who is gorgeous by the way!) is as energetic as Lil, I wouldn't let her loose on the bed just yet

I'm sorry to hear she is biting.
As I think others have suggested, try burying your finger tips in the substrate when palm feeding her, or place the food on the back of your hand to try and avoid nibbled fingertips.

Try not to be too disheartened, i'm sure she will come along in her own time

[Bellatrix]

Seriously get a pair of bamboo gardening gloves. Turn then inside out so the rubber side isn't on your ham but on your palm because it'll pull their fur otherwise.

But trust me, I hand tamed my dwarf with them in three days.

[sophiedoe]

Thanks everyone. Cypher, I thought about a playpen, but I can't really afford to buy anything new at the moment. All I have is cardboard, not sure if I could make on from that?

CMB, I will try adding in the hand part when transporting her with her ball.

BethandLil, I will have a look at your posts to see if I can learn from what you have been doing! Thanks, I'm just hoping she isn't going to get used to not being tame.

Thanks Bellatrix, I think I might try getting some gloves!

[cypher]

If you've got some big cardboard boxes you could certainly have a go at making a playpen, plenty of people have done that before.

I really wouldn't start using gloves now, that would be a step back & not get her used to your hands at all.