Taming trouble

[Kyrkogrimr]

Hi,

I'm a newbie to the site and also haven't had hamsters in over a decade, so sort of new to that too.

Recently got a Russian dwarf hamster, and obviously gave her a few days to settle in before trying to do anything with her, but I'm finding that any attempt to interact - such as offering her treats - results in her scurrying back to her hide and staying in there for ages :/ I'm aware that it's very early days, and perhaps she just needs a little longer, but how am I supposed to do any taming with her when she runs away any time I try to interact with her? She seems ok to run around, use her wheel, burrow etc with me in the room if I don't open the cage, but that's as far as it goes.

Maybe she just needs a bit longer and she'll start feeling more confident, but what do I do if she keeps hiding like this?

[mazzypan]

I wouldn’t be worried as it’s still early days. Every hammie is different, mine took four days to (nervously) take a pumpkin seed from my hand. I’d keep trying each day when you know your hammie has been awake for a lil while with a yummy treat - mine would do anything for pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

Every time I’d put my hand in the cage he’d scurry in his tunnel but I’d stay quiet and still and hold the seed in my fingers. Eventually he plucked up the courage to take it. Don’t give up though! It’s early days and the taming process can be annoying and long, but it picks up quickly and is so so rewarding

[Kyrkogrimr]

Thank you for your advise, she's definitely getting better; she doesn't tend to bolt the second I appear now and will go about her business if I take the top off the cage and talk to her, and she's started coming to the front of the cage if I don't come over and take the top off. She seems ok with me handling things in the cage as long as she's not using it and has started coming to sniff treats in my hand, though she usually ignores them after a sniff until I put them down, she has taken a treat once or twice, but she's also nibbled me a few times. All in all she's made a lot of progress Or it seems like it to me lol

[Pebbles82]

It's sometimes easier to start taming out of the cage as they behave differently there. So if you can set up some kind of playpen area, and get her out of the cage by letting her walk into a tube or hamster ball etc with a treat in, then she can have a run around in the playpen area with a few toys in (I also hide treats like pumpkin seeds to keep them busy). And you can sit in it too. She can then run over you and get used to your scent and presence and you can start gradual handling.

[Kyrkogrimr]

Thanks, I'll give that a try

[Kyrkogrimr]

Hi,

I'm a little confused by Cadmium's behaviour at the minute, and was hoping someone could maybe shed a little light. I've been taking taming very slowly with her, and she's making (I think) good progress. She'll accept treats she wants from my hands and will climb on my hand to collect sunflower seeds (her current favourite) quite happily, but the whole time, she's nibbling my fingers. It's not hard, and it doesn't hurt, but it is consistent and persistent. And it's definitely not accidental nibbling, she will just nibble when she doesn't want the treat and she'll have a nibble at areas that clearly do not have treats. I do wash my hands before I do anything with her and I rub her substrate on my hands so they smell more familiar, but I'm not really sure what exactly she's trying to tell me. Perhaps I'm just being dense...

[mikatelyn]

I'm no taming expert by any means, but I find that my hamster will nibble at things to check what they are. Any materials he hasn't encountered before definitely gets a chew, but then if it's not food, he almost gets a "blech!" expression and he doesn't tend to chew on it in the future. If he nibbles at my fingers I just move them slightly away and he gets a slightly surprised look like "oh! That's what that is!" And stops doing it.