Robo hamsters scared of everything

[Chaerx]

Hiya!
I’m wondering if anyone can help me with my problem.
I brought a robo dwarf hamster about 9-10 months ago. She’s not vicious at all and she’s never bitten anyone or showed any violent behaviour, but she’s terrified of everything. She got suspicious about a house I put in her cage, she freaked out over a stick recently and any time I try to touch her she gets obviously frightened.
I’ve been trying to take her out in her ball often, but she gets so scared that I’m too worried to get her out more than twice a week as I don’t want to stress her out. She’s very sweet and will (very hesitantly) take food from my hand.
For around 6 months now I’ve been putting her in a hamster play penn to try to familiarise her with me and my room, and she’s still very afraid.
Appently this isn’t how robos are meant to be, and I’m not suure if it’s just a little quirk in her personality or if somethings wrong.
(I do have a Syrian, he’s very friendly and will crawl into my hands and likes being taken around the house every day. This is why I don’t think it’s a problem with my care of the hamsters as he’s very keen to be held and played with)

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to HC.
Some robos can be very nervous & hard to tame, to begin with I would say don't use a ball for her, they can be dangerous & very frightening for such a small hamster & putting her in the ball may be setting back your taming & any improvement in her confidence each time you use it.
For a nervous hamster like this I wouldn't change anything in the cage unless absolutely necessary & keep cleaning to the absolute minimum so she can really feel secure in her own environment.
If you want to get her out for taming it would be best to use a taming bin, a largish plastic storage box, with some substrate, toys or things to explore & a wheel to run in if she gets stressed, you would need to being with very short sessions & gradually let her get used to it.
Some robos are content to stay in the cage as long as they have plenty of enrichment, lots of toys, hideouts etc, you can try scatter feeding or hiding some of her food & treats around the cage so she can spend time foraging, things like that will keep her active & she may be happy enough with that & not really want out of cage time.