Shy / Scared hamster - need help

[Tripple B]

Dear fellow hamster lovers,

About two weeks ago I bought a cute little hamster in a pet shop.
I tried following some of the taming guides available on this forum, but I can't seem to tame my hamster.

What basically happens is:
1) Hamster sleeps all day and only becomes active around midnight
2) When he is out, I try to sit next to the cage and talk to my hamster with a soft voice
3) In general, my hamster will just freeze (can last a couple of minutes) and then run really 'flat' (belly against the ground) down to the bottom of the cage and starts digging himself under
4) Because of 3, it is impossible to 'tame' him as he is either sleeping or he just freezes / runs of so feeding out of my hand is not an option

I don't know how old my hamster is (I assume they only sell young ones in the pet store) but I still think he's young enough to still be tamed. Cage is a Karat 100 (was pretty expensive) so his cage should be big enough

Any experts who could give me some tips? He's a real cutie but i'm getting nowhere with him like this. What I wil try as of today:

1) Currently wearing a tissue in my sock. After a couple of hours it should have my scent after which I will put it somewhere in his cage
2) I'm taking out sunflower & pumpkin seeds from his foodbowl. I thought perhaps I could place them somewhere in the cage with the scent tissue, so he might associate his favorite food with me scent

Any help would be much appreciated, I really want to make this work

Kr,

Bram

[Petite]

Hello Tripple B, and welcome to Hamster Central.

I am by no means an expert, but here's a few things it may help to bear in mind.
Your hamster's sleep routine sounds normal. As he gets older you may see more of him. Sometimes it can help to gently call him when you feed him, and he may learn to get up then as he learns to associate it with food.

You say you've only had him for two weeks, so it's really early days for him yet. He's had to get used to a whole new environment, and it's important to take taming at his pace, not yours. Given time, there is every chance your ham will eat out of your hand, but he needs to learn to trust you. Try washing your hands with unscented soap before feeding him, then put a treat in your palm and just place your hand on the floor of the cage. If he approaches, don't move, just let him take the food, and keep repeating that for a few days until he becomes comfortable with it.

You are approaching this in the right way, especially scenting a tissue and talking to him gently. It's worth bearing in mind that some hamsters never become especially tame, because they are, after all, just being hamsters! But as he's so young, it's very likely that, given time, you will make progress with him and he will learn that you have his best interests at heart

For what it's worth, I can only stroke my dwarf hybrid when she's totally absorbed in some tasty snack. She's never become as tame as my previous dwarf, but that's just her. We have a relationship of sorts, even it does occasionally involve the odd bite!

Good luck, and enjoy your ham. Does he have a name?

[LunaTheHamster1]

Hi Tripple B, 2 weeks is still early days. I have adopted a few rescue hamsters and with Twinkle my latest syrian hamster it took about 6 weeks until he stopped running back into his house. I could be right across the room, not making a sound or moving and he would still know and run back into his house. I thought how on earth am I going to tame him when he keeps doing this, but gradually I guess he just got used to his new surroundings and the noises and smells and now he is so tame.
During this time I didn't move things or clean him out, just because he was so timid.

[MaryRobinson]

Originally Posted by LunaTheHamster1

Hi Tripple B, 2 weeks is still early days. I have adopted a few rescue hamsters and with Twinkle my latest syrian hamster it took about 6 weeks until he stopped running back into his house. I could be right across the room, not making a sound or moving and he would still know and run back into his house. I thought how on earth am I going to tame him when he keeps doing this, but gradually I guess he just got used to his new surroundings and the noises and smells and now he is so tame.
During this time I didn't move things or clean him out, just because he was so timid.

Hi Luna, I know this wasn't aimed at me but your advice is really useful, thank you. I've tamed hams before but my new baby - first proper baby - is getting up so late that it's really hard to spend enough time with him and we are just doing 20 mins or so at the moment. So thanks - your note was encouraging!

[MyHamsterAdventures]

Hi Tripple B and welcome to the forum. I think you are doing well, you probably just need to lower your expectations in the early days of being a new hamster owner. Follow the advice on here and I am sure positive results will follow. Good luck!

[mikatelyn]

Hi Tripple B,
In the early days, our little hammie also wouldn't come out until we had gone to bed.
We started trying to trick him into coming out earlier by turning all the lights out and leaving the room, and in general being very quiet earlier in the evening. That helped for getting him up earlier
Once he's up, it might be helpful to get him into a cup to transport him to a dry bathtub, where you can let him run around and all over so he gets used to you. If he looks frantic, transport him back. With our little guy, having more frequent trips back and forth was more important for taming than the amount of time spent in the tub. Once he realized he could go back home when he wanted, he calmed down and was able to explore the tub. I kept food in my hands, treats that he liked (like a sunflower, piece of almond or walnut, flax seeds, oats, etc), and let him "find" it while he was exploring. Then he would scurry away and I would get another small treat so that when he came back it was another positive experience. Once he started reliably coming around to check my hands, I made it variable whether or not there would be a treat there. That way he wouldn't always expect a treat, but still saw the hands as a source of potential treats.
After he got used to me, then I started doing pick up (head at wrist, tail at fingertips like you are picking up a computer mouse), put on palm of other hand, hold for a couple of seconds, then let him walk back of your hand. Again, frequency was more important than length of time actually being held. After a week he no longer had any issues being picked up.
I had to experiment with a lot of different training techniques. I should mention that it took 4 months for me to figure all this out and get my hammie completely tamed. Hopefully you find one that works for you, and hopefully in a shorter period of time!