Winter white behavior

[Shelleyzeus]

Hi everyone I'm new to this forum. Last week I got two new hamsters for my two daughters. We got a Syrian hamster which I have had when I was a child and a winter white dwarf hamster. My question is when my winter white is out playing and zooming around the cage like a mad one, he will all of a sudden drop and lie down where ever he drops. Is this normal? I've just never seen it before with Syrian hamsters so just got a bit worried

[cypher]

They do that sometimes when they're young & using lots of energy, if he seems fine otherwise then I wouldn't worry.

[CMB]

It could be when something scares them. Laying as flat to the ground as they can and freezing.

[SimonandSyril]

I've never heard of this in hamsters. Like cypher said it could be just because they're young, but I think you should keep and eye on it and if any other health or behavioural problems emerge let us know.

[Shelleyzeus]

Thank you for your messages. Can I also ask if this sounds like I'm doing OK because I've never had a dwarf hamster.
At the moment I wear gloves when holding him just because I let some one get into my head that if they bite they bite hard so I'm a bit scared. When I call he's name he will come to the top of the cage and look for me or my children if its them that called him. I put my hand in (with the glove) and he climb's straight on to my hand. I can then let him walk from hand to hand but he does get really fast so I have to put him back into the cage or the play park we made him. He will take food from my hand and also sit on my hand while he's cracking the sunflower seed open. He is so hyper though he will run around like mad in my hands or play park. Does this mean its normal behavior or is he agitated?

[cypher]

That all sounds normal to me, they are very fast & enjoy zooming around! They will run around if nervous too but he really sounds as though he's doing fine.
Try to be brave & let him come to your hand without the gloves if you can, some will bite but most definitely not all, it's not unusual for them to nibble hands a little when they begin to figure out what's food & what's not but that's very different to a bite & doesn't hurt so if he does that don't move your hands away or make any sudden movements as that could scare him.
He won't ever get used to hands if you use gloves which would be a shame, as he doesn't seem to have made any attempts to bite so far I doubt he'll suddenly start to do it now, give it a go!

[CMB]

He sound like he is confident with being handled. So not wearing gloves should be ok. It can be hard to overcome the fear of being bitten. You could do one glove and one bare hand, just to build up your confidence.

As he is young, he is more likely to move faster. One of my dwarf hamsters (Willow) has slowed down as she got older and more confident when being handled. My two new dwarfs are not tame and won’t sit still on my hand.

[Shelleyzeus]

I've just had him out again and my daughter wears gardening gloves when she holds him. He started biting the glove this has set me back a bit now. I was going to try the one glove on and one glove off. Not sure if its the material of the glove but he didn't do this last time.

[cypher]

It could well be that he thought the fabric of the glove was worth a good chew rather than just being bitey.