Hamster frantic/stressed, hates playpen, help???

[HammyAngel]

Hey All,
So I've recently discovered my syrian hamster absolutely hates any kind of playpen. She gets very frantic and stressed whenever I remove her from her 40G tank. After I put her back she is all over the place in her tank, climbing, knocking things over and trying to climb up my arm. After a night she'll settle and be fine again, but if I remove her from her tank she's the same way again.

Ive temporarily stopped taking her out and just playing with her in the space. She keeps falling off things and I'm worried she'll hurt herself. I don't think it's a taming thing, because inside her tank she's very calm, sits in my hand, eats treats. It's only when I remove her from her familiarity she panics. I've tried big and small playpens.

I know every hamster is different but I feel bad shes always just stuck in a tank, but I worry that "play time" is just too stressful.
Has anyone else ever had this issue? How did you deal with it? Should I just leave her alone and trust that she is happy in her home?
Thanks

[cypher]

Have you tried sitting in the playpen with her? She might enjoy just climbing on you & playing that way to begin with.
Sometimes I think it can be hard to tell if they are stressed or just getting a bit over excited & overwhelmed, I find if they get very stressed the first few times they come out they tend to just run off & hide when they go back in the cage.
I would try just sitting with her for short sessions & see how that goes.

[SyrianHammie]

It can be a very stressful thing for hamsters to leave their familiar surroundings. I always used to interact with mine in the cage first, then when I move them into the playpen, as well as being in their with them I used to take toys from their cage that had their scent on them already rather than putting in spare ones. It does take time but I found it helped for my Hammies.