biting?

[emilymcllar]

hello! i recently got a female dwarf hamster. she’s my first dwarf ( i’m much more accustomed to syrians, however i’ve always wanted a dwarf. ) however i’m cautious that she’ll bite me.

she’s yet to actually use her teeth, yet she seems jumpy and cautious whenever my hand is near. i’ve had her for nearly a week and a half, yet i waited four days to introduce myself to her ( besides changing water, spot cleaning her wheel & offering the odd treat now and again. ) she’s been out of her cage once, which was tonight - i let her roam the bathtub with some new toys etc.

i’ve noticed that whenever she gets close to my hand ( which she’ll often run at if she’s close by ) she seems to try to grab me with her paws. i suppose it looks like she’s scrambling to grab me :s i’ve not actually waited to see if she bites, i just pull my hand away in panic ( i’m assuming i probably shouldn’t do that. )

is she trying to bite me? how can i make her feel safe? sorry if i sound silly, i’ve had four syrians & not one has acted like this. is it a dwarf thing? did i do something wrong?

[cypher]

If she was going to bite I think she would have done it by now! It sounds like she's just trying to explore you really, if you pull your hand away suddenly you will startle her & she may then bite out of fear so do try to keep your hands still when she comes toward you.
Try not to worry about getting bitten, if you're nervous or anxious then your ham will pick up on that & it will make her nervous too, she sounds as though she's doing fine so just keep spending time with her & interacting with her, it's early days yet but I'm sure she'll tame easily enough.

[emilymcllar]

hey! thank you for your reply.
i got home today and decided to test her by just putting my sleeve into her cage ( so like my hand rolled in ) and she was chewing on it. i’m a little nervous of being bitten still, so my boyfriend rested his hand lightly in her cage. she did the same thing, became twitchy and alert - she came to his hand and batted at it a few times before beginning to nibble. he kept his hand steady and slowly pulled away. after a few minutes he did the same again, this time she began to nibble quite a bit harder ( but not breaking the skin )

is this bad? i’ve had plenty of experience with syrians yet i’ve never actually had a bitey / nibbley hamster.