How/When to Tame a Dwarf

Natasha95 · 10-29-2018, 08:13 AM

I posted another thread about how my new Djungarian hamster was shaking like crazy last weekend, and she's finally stopped that. It's been over a week since I brought her home, and I was wondering if now would be a good time to start taming. I thought she was pretty tame the night I got her, but now that she's settled in and claimed her cage as her territory, she's started nipping at me when I feed her and spot clean her cage.

It's been about a year and a half since I got my Syrian, so I don't remember how to properly tame a hamster. I know I should start hand-feeding her treats, but how do I know when to move on to the next stage? Also, are there any differences between the two species and/or sexes that I should be aware of that would affect the taming process? As of now, the only difference I've noticed is that she tries to bite me, whereas he never did, and that he was big for my hand, so taming was more about getting him comfortable with sitting in it.

cypher · 10-29-2018, 08:23 AM

She may be getting a little territorial in her cage now she's settled in & made herself at home so it would be best to interact with her out of the cage.
I find a playpen works best, if it's big enough you can sit in with her & just let her explore you & climb on you if she wants to, she's much less likely to bite of nip out of the cage.
Give her plenty of things to explore in the playpen & just begin to interact with her at her pace, offering treats usually helps win them over so you can begin with that.

Natasha95 · 11-07-2018, 10:26 PM

I started taming outside of the cage, but I'm not sure how well that went. She didn't really want anything to do with me, but she didn't try to bite me, so that was good.

We did have a breakthrough last week, though. I've been pretty consistent with feeding time, so I think she learned when to expect me to come with food, so one night she came over to the corner and crawled into my hand! I let her eat out of my other hand, and that seemed to be a turning point. We did that every night for a few nights, and now she comes up to me even when I don't have food, and she'll climb into my hands even when she's not hungry. My only issue with her now is that she won't just sit in my hand anymore. She starts crawling around and won't sit still, and I'm afraid she's going to fall, so I let her down. And when free roaming, she won't stay in my hands long enough to put her back in her cage (if I can even catch her), so I have to wait until she sits in something I can transport her in.

As for the nipping, the first time she ate out of my hand, she bit me pretty hard, and instead of backing away or dropping her, I just stayed perfectly still and said "ow" loudly, which seemed to startle her, and she let go and hasn't tried to bite me since. I have no explanation for why that worked, but I'm glad it did.

cypher · 11-07-2018, 11:00 PM

It sounds as though she's doing well, not wanting to sit still in your hand is totally natural for a busy, young, active & curious ham, lots of other things to do! One of the benefits of a playpen is you can sit in with them & just let them climb all over you without having to worry about dropping them or them falling.