Hamster does not respond to me

[Luminity]

Hello there

My brother has a syrian hamster but he does not tame it or should I say that he's already bored with him. He is a 2 month old Syrian named Shion. I feel sad for him because I cannot place him in a play pen because he acts frantic on it, and I don't want him to get bored inside of his cage. My brother pays a little to no attention to him after the first month we got him. I tried to tame Shion inside a play pen but he is very nervous inside, the next night I placed him in a fairly small container with a towel and his toys from his cage but he still acts the same. I tried to tame him inside his cage like I did with my own dwarf hamster but he won't acknowledge nor sniff my hand even when I put treats on it, he just keeps running on his own wheel and acting like he doesn't notice me at all.

Any tips on taming this kind of hamster? I want to take care of Shion since my brother won't do it.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Its lovely of you to want to take care of your brother hamster and to tame him. As he hasn't received much interaction he will be more wary of changes and of you so just take your time and I found with my nervous hamster, Toffee, lots of repetition really work well with them plus patients.

I would make sure the playpen is filled with lots of toys and places where Shion can hide and feel secure - keep play pen session initially very short I would say no longer than 15 mins. Just leave him alone and don't try to hold him at first until he settles. As he should start to get more familiar with the playpen and start to realise nothing bad happen in the playpen and settle down.

Is their any way you could place his cage inside/or attach the playpen to his cage - as I found with my girl having her cage inside the playpen was good way for her to get comfortable with the playpen as if she felt overwhelmed or scared she could return to the comforts of her cage herself and decide whether she wanted to come out again or not.

I would also recommend doing the tissue trick with Shion - this involves placing unscented white tissues up your sleeves for a while so your scent will get on the tissues - tear up the tissue and place inside his cage as most hamster will take the tissues to their nest where they will sleep amongst your scent - therefore will get familiar with your scent plus associate it with relaxation.

How does Shion react when inside his cage? will he allow you hand inside his cage? (My girl was very cage territorial so I couldn't do this) but if he is relaxed inside his cage this might be the best place to do taming as he will be familiar with the environment plus he will know where to go if he want to be left alone.

I hope this is helpful to you and Shion confident will grow.

[Luminity]

Originally Posted by SKB_Hamsters

Its lovely of you to want to take care of your brother hamster and to tame him. As he hasn't received much interaction he will be more wary of changes and of you so just take your time and I found with my nervous hamster, Toffee, lots of repetition really work well with them plus patients.

I would make sure the playpen is filled with lots of toys and places where Shion can hide and feel secure - keep play pen session initially very short I would say no longer than 15 mins. Just leave him alone and don't try to hold him at first until he settles. As he should start to get more familiar with the playpen and start to realise nothing bad happen in the playpen and settle down.

Is their any way you could place his cage inside/or attach the playpen to his cage - as I found with my girl having her cage inside the playpen was good way for her to get comfortable with the playpen as if she felt overwhelmed or scared she could return to the comforts of her cage herself and decide whether she wanted to come out again or not.

I would also recommend doing the tissue trick with Shion - this involves placing unscented white tissues up your sleeves for a while so your scent will get on the tissues - tear up the tissue and place inside his cage as most hamster will take the tissues to their nest where they will sleep amongst your scent - therefore will get familiar with your scent plus associate it with relaxation.

How does Shion react when inside his cage? will he allow you hand inside his cage? (My girl was very cage territorial so I couldn't do this) but if he is relaxed inside his cage this might be the best place to do taming as he will be familiar with the environment plus he will know where to go if he want to be left alone.

I hope this is helpful to you and Shion confident will grow.

Unfortunately i can't attach his cage to his playpen because there's not much space in our house. But I think that placing him in a cardboard box will do. I will put his toys in the cardboard box later and see how he reacts. This is the size of the cardboard box I am intending to use later to tame Shion. (Please see the image). Rin, my dwarf hamster is inside of the box because I am cleaning his cage at the moment.

I will try the tissue trick, i hope he gets familiar with my scent. But I think that Shion allows my hand inside his cage because whenever I put it inside he doesn't care about it, he doesn't bite me or attack my hand.

[Luminity]

Update!

I did place Shion on the cardboard box just a moment ago. It took a while before I managed to get him out on his cage, because he does not pay attention to the mug that I was holding.
I managed to place him and his toys inside the box, but something happened. Shion developed a habit when running on his wheels, he pokes his head outside his wheel when running, but tonight he accidentally hurt himself in the wheel while running. I was shocked as well because he flinched immediately and sat still, i observed him for a while because I still cannot pick him up without being scared. He stood still for a moment and he ran for a few steps and froze, he did that for a few times and when he got back to his wheel, he ran like crazy. I've never seen him done that before.
After that I immediately placed him inside of his cage. I am scared that something may happen to him, because when that happens I know that there's no vet here that could help him. All vets in my town are focused on cats and dogs. And we got Shion from a small pet shop two towns away from where I live.