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Old 02-10-2019, 07:03 AM   #1
Kerry2894
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 1
Default New hamster won’t come out of his house

Hi,

My 6 year old son got a male Syrian hamster last week, we were given some advice from the worker at Pets at Home, where we got the hamster from, and we were told not to lift/touch or remove the hamster from its cage for a week to give it time to adjust to its new surroundings.

We have now had our hamster for 8 days and we cannot get him to come out of his home. He appears terrified of us, he will poke his nose out of his house and dash back in again whenever we introduce our hand to the cage or speak to him.

He is only coming out of hiding at night and storing his food in his house and not coming out again, he also has not been on his wheel inside his cage. I have cleaned out the area where he is toieting but would like to get him out into the exercise ball and play pen that we have for him but don’t want to just remove him from his house which might upset and scare him, I also don’t want my son to see him biting and become scared of him.

Is this normal for new hamsters? He is around the age of 6-8 weeks.

Can someone please offer me advice, thanks
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Old 02-10-2019, 12:47 PM   #2
Quicksilver
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 186
Default Re: New hamster won’t come out of his house

Hi Kerry2894 - welcome to Hamster Central. You've come to a great place to get advice. I have some experience with hamsters (though I myself am relatively new at all this so other forum members will no doubt with many more years experience be able to give you more detailed advice).

You've done the right thing in giving your new hamster time to settle into its home and surroundings (hamsters have a great sense of smell and hearing I believe too but not great sight). Coming home for the first time must is very scary for them and it takes time to settle in. Every hamster is different.

What's your hamsters name by the way?

When we had our previous hamster Ralph, we gave him over a week to settle in and then very slowly started to get him used to initially our voices (I would quietly speak to him by his cage), very slowly from this moved onto getting used to sense of my smell by slowly placing my hand in the cage (no sudden movements and let your hamster come to you on their terms to smell you). From there I think we tried to give a food treat from our fingers once our hamster became more confident of us, and knowing we are not something to be feared of. Hamsters can bite obviously, they nibble when investigating and can bite when scared. It just takes time and you need to be patient. Our current hamster, Tali (Syrian female) is adopted from Pets at Home, we've had her since May last year and still working on being able to pick her up, we can however stroke her easily and hand feed her food whilst our previous hamster Ralph loved being handled and cuddled.


It's normal behaviour for your hamster to be scared at first and you have to go along at the hamsters pace.


What helped us was also the looking at the hamster taming videos on YouTube by ErinsAnimals and HoppingHammy. They have many years experience on hamster care.

Hamsters are amazing animals, with all different kinds of personalities.

I wish you well with your taming.
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Old 02-10-2019, 10:41 PM   #3
cypher
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Join Date: May 2014
Location: Wales UK
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Default Re: New hamster won’t come out of his house

Good advice from Quicksilver, don't try to go too fast, one step at a time!
Get him used to your voice & you being around the cage first, if they're nervous I often talk to them then leave a treat by the house or wherever they're hiding then walk away so they can come out & get it, that helps them associate you with good things, once they get a little more confident offering treats either through the bars or with your hand unmoving just inside the door is the next step.
Once he's got a bit more confident you might want to find a tube or box or something he's happy to climb into so you can safely transport him to the playpen. Keep sessions short to begin with, 5 or 10 minutes might be enough, just let him get used to coming to your hand, climbing on or maybe even just running over them at first before you begin to pick him up. Put some toys in the playpen for him to explore & you could put his wheel in there too.
I wouldn't put him in the ball, many hams get very scared in a ball, it doesn't offer them any benefit really & doesn't give you any opportunity to interact & bond with him.
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