Jumpy hamster getting worse

[Jasper94]

I’ve had my white Syrian male for around 8 months now. He was particularly hard to tame and took much longer than my previous hams, but with some patience he came around and would always jump out of his cage into my hands.

He’s always been quite jumpy and has felt like he is nervous when being handled, but recently he has got so much worse! He almost feels as if he is shaking when being held and will often jump. He will still climb out of the cage into my hands though, but seems so wary when doing so. I’m really worried about his behavior, I just want him to be happy and feel safe. It’s so strange though because when I put him back in his cage, he will still always come back the door and come out onto my hand again (still being wary).

I’m not really sure what to do? I had bought a play pen so I could try and build confidence again, but he doesn’t seem to like it and just climbs/jumps out.

Any recommendations?

[cypher]

It's a shame he still seems so wary but it sounds as though he trusts you just fine which is the main thing, if he doesn't like the playpen have you tried just letting him run around on the sofa or maybe try sectioning off an area on the floor with cushions where you can sit with him & he can run around a bit maybe with some toys & have some handling time too.
I think you'll just have to try a few things to see what works for him.