How get Syrian used to being held?

[xosunflowerox]

Hey guys! It's been a while since I last posted. I've been slowly working at taming my Syrian in a playpen as well as in her cage. The last two times I took her in the playpen, she was crawling on my legs, but she avoids my hands and arms. I've had her for about two and a half months now. I am trying the cupping method to pick her up, but she just runs away when I try. If I do manage to get her, she jumps out of my hands right away. It seems like it's scaring her a lot. She's fine with me petting her and is fine with taking treats off my hand... Is there a method to picking a Syrian up? I feel like I'm doing more harm than good by trying, but maybe she will get used to it if I keep doing it?

[frodo]

I don't have any experience with the bathtub method - mainly because I've had much better luck getting incredibly loyal hamsters taming in the cage. So somebody else might help you if this is the route you're going.

But it does sound like it is way too early for you to be picking her up. Especially if she doesn't willingly step onto your hand with all four paws yet. Since she is already comfortable with taking treats out of your hand, I'd try to lay both of my hands in the cage, while placing the treat in the hand furthest away from her - Meaning she is forced to step on your hand with all four paws to reach the treats! Repeat this a few times until she's fully comfortable and then try doing it on one hand only and see if she'll still do it. (If she tries to fit onto your hand, but can't due to her size - that'll be a good sign too!)

When you think she seems comfortable enough - wait for her to step onto your hand with treats and slowly raise her from the cage just a few inches, while giving her an additional treat from your other hand. Keep repeating this, while slowly increasing the inches every time you try to pick her up.

This has really been a great method for me. I did this daily for 8 weeks and now my hamster will be waiting outside the gate of his cage at 1am to run onto my hands just to get handled or get some time in his playpen! Slow taming really gives the best results in the end IMO.

[souffle]

If you have had her two and a half months it's not to early to pick her up. Even with a nervous hamster we would be picking them up from about 3 days of arrival. We start with a lift and lay from above. Pretend the hamster is a computer mouse and the cord is her tail. You pick up from above with the tail nearest your fingers and the head at the heel of your hand. They cannot bite that part of your hand. Do lots of lift up and lay right back down. Once comfortable with that we start transfer to the other hand and allow running though a hand tunnel so they feel your hand round their body. They will be very fast and may wee on you but you need to keep up with them. Gradually they slow and will start to walk better hand to hand. It needs done several times a day and be sure you are low down and in a safe place should they jump. We are on our 3rd taming now from the last few weeks and all these hamsters have been very skitty and bitey at first. Try and be confident as it transfers to them.
This is Bean 5 days in to taming - you do need to do this lots of times every day.
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[Ria P]

You say the taming sessions need to be done a few times per day but my hamster is always in his house. Should I get him out of his house for this? I've never really fully understood what "tame"means or when a hamster is classed as tame. Please enlighten me and thanks in advance.

[souffle]

When taming we do ensure they have nothing they can jam themselves in to like enclosed wheels, enclosed house or tubes. It is essential that you can reach in to the cage and they can't get in to a small space where they can get scared when you try and get them out. Taming cages are kept quite simple here. We use a cardboard box with the whole bottom cut out and doors cut in the side as a house or an igloo type house. With these you can simply lift if up after talking to them so they know you are coming and they can then be stroked as they wake then lifted out. It has to be worth it to spend a couple of weeks with less 'stuff' to get them tamed for life so that they will be able to enjoy out of cage time and exploring new places without being scared of handling to my mind.
We do expect our hamsters to be able to be woken and to come out of the cage at any time of day. This is critical if hamsters are part of a family with children so that they can enjoy time with their young owners. I don't mean all the time but for 15 minutes or so during the day then they can go back to bed it isn't an issue. Hamsters don't sleep all day and do get up every few hours to eat, drink and toilet and you may not see them do this. They need to feed frequently to maintain their bodies with being so small.
Tame to me means that they are happy to be lifted, held and are confident enough and comfortable with being handled by humans.
It doesn't mean they are slow or cuddly as such as few hamsters are. They just need to be not scared of handling and are curious and happy to interact with you.

[mikatelyn]

Souffle, can you elaborate on the topic of waking up and taming the hamster?
There seems to be a wide range of opinions on this topic on the internet, with the strongest opposing opinion being to never ever wake up your hamster because they can stressed out and die from it.
I would love to get more interaction with my hamster during the day. He gets between zero to two 5-60 minute sessions a day, depending on when our schedules match up. On average I'd say he probably gets about one 20 minutes a day. I would say he's semi tame based on your definition. He's scared of handling sometimes, but not at other times. Luckily, he doesn't bite. I'd like to get him fully tame. I don't want to do this wrong and have him get stressed out and die from it.
Specifically:
1. Is there a limit to how many times a day you wake up the hamster? When you say the hamster should have lots of taming sessions a day, can you give me a number to shoot for? Or at least what you guys do?
2. Does this only work if you start them young? My hamster is probably 7 months old already. If I lift his house off of him, I'm worried he'll freak out. I haven't done that since the first couple of days of getting him, before I started reading all this stuff on the internet
3. When you lift up the hamster, don't they just jump back off if they aren't tame? If so, how many times do you lift them up during that taming session? What if they run away from you?
4. I know Custard Hamstery breeds for temperament and health. Are certain hamsters just not tameable because they weren't bred for it? Mine is a petshop hamster from Petco.

I hope you don't mind all the questions!
I've been trying very hard to follow the methodology of never picking up the hamster until they voluntarily walk on to your hand, and it has only gotten my hamster semi tame after 4 months. Admittedly, I have had to pick him up on occasion against his will for various reasons (like catching him after a jail break), so I didn't know if that was setting him back. I don't want to lose the progress we've already made. He does run up to take treats from my hand and lets me pet him, crawls on me in the play pen/bathtub and walks from hand to hand after he climbs onto me, but he doesn't often climb voluntarily onto my hands.
I'm hoping a different method can yield better results! Thanks in advance!

[mikatelyn]

Sounds like sunflower, ria and I are having similar taming issues, so I'll post my progress.
I re-read souffle's method for picking up hamsters, and it is quite effective. Jumping not an option.
I wanted to wait for clarification on how to wake up a hamster, so I just waited for Smokey's normal wake up time, then I'd repeatedly pick him up, hold him for maybe a minute while giving him a treat, then put him back in the cage. I did this maybe 10 times over the course of 90 minutes (is that overkill?)
He did try to escape when I reached for him, but not frantically. Once he's being held securely he doesn't seem to mind, which I think is due to the 4 prior months of taming sessions. This morning I went to pick him up and he already seems calmer about it. Not sure if it's a fluke or if he was just too sleepy to try to run away, but thought I'd share, seeing as this is probably the most progress we've made in months!

[Ria P]

Well, i've done two short taming sessions today and they went ok but the third attempt later in the day was a non starter because all i could see of my hamster was his tail sticking out from the woodchips. I don't think he was scared but made sure i couldn't bother him again. I will continue with the sessions next time i can see a whole hamster.....just as well i'm old and grey already.

[souffle]

Glad to hear things are going well. When you feed your hamster every time you should rustle the substrate and rattle the seeds a little so they know that they are being fed. They will start to recognise the noise and get up when called and hearing the food. Always give them a little then lift them out. Ours usually come out but of not we just lift the house up and stroke them and they will normally get up anyway. If they really don't want to then obviously we wouldn't force them to. We all have off days or can't be bothered days so would just try again later. Taming sessions are only about 10 - 15 minutes. 90 mins is much too long really as they need to rest and chill for a bit however if he was having 10 minute breaks and was up and about already it is a good intense way of teaching him that coming in and out the cage is just fine.
I'd say aim for 3 or 4 sessions a day with two of these at least being evening when the hamster is already up. Each one a maximum of 15 minutes out time and mainly being handled. If your hammy is up then a few more short sessions do no harm. This is only needed during the initial intense taming and once they come out happily you can go back to when you like to have them out.
Taming can happen at any age however it can take longer if the hamster is a bit older as they get used to not being touched and it does take longer to gain their trust. Hamsters from any source can be tamed.
It doesn't matter if when you lift them that they jump back down because this initial stage is just getting them used to the hand coming down and lifting them. You may be just lifting and laying for several days at first before going the next step.
I've not seen many hamsters that are intractable and if they are there is usually a reason like suffering abuse or poorly bred from aggressive lines or having a severe fright when young eg Cat attack or something like that.
We are just had a new arrival today for tame and stay so I will try and get some pictures of her as we go. This little lady is a screetcher though and has been yelling at us already!

[Ria P]

Your method is definitely working. I had Henry out again this evening and even got a photo of him eating a peanut while sitting on my desk. Thank you ever so much!