Syrian suddenly more aggressive, and I may have lost her trust?

[Distraughtlemon]

Ok, IDK if this is necessarily related to Dio's behavioural issues but yesterday she moved her nesting material and food storage to her 'sand cage' and she was trying to sleep there. Is this normal or should I be worried? Also, would it be ok for me to put in a proper hide for her (there's one there but she can't really use it as a den area) or should I stick to leaving her alone?

[LunaTheHamster1]

It can be related to you cleaning her cage, hot weather and she is looking for somewhere cooler or some hamsters just like to build their nest in the sand bath. I think I would just leave her alone and see what happens. Did she move out of a house/hide? If so you could maybe put some new food and bedding back in her house/hide to see if it will entice her back.

[Pebbles82]

What Luna said She may have moved her nest because she wasn't quite settled and the cage was disturbed with the spot cleaning. I think that is the most likely thing - although they look for somewhere cooler when it's hot they tend to just lie there rather than taking their nest and hoard with them. Although her behaviour in that respect may be a bit different because there are two separate, connected, bins. I personally don't feel two connected cages works very well and they do much better with one larger area than two connected ones. It helps them have normal behaviours so they have everything in one area and the cage is like their habitat.

But agree, leave her alone for now and see what she does. I wouldn't do anything in the cage at all just yet as she got so freaked recently. Except put food and water out. She will go back to the main cage for the food and water. You could perhaps put a bit of cucumber inside her old house to see if that tempts her to move back into it, but she's more likely to just eat the cucumber and go back to her new nest.

She needs that two weeks. Then think about how to adapt things a bit. Although if you "spot clean" the sand bin a bit that might make her move back again! But I'd leave it a couple of days before attempting that.

[Maker]

I would complete leave her alone apart from food and water, go about your usual business in her room but don’t interfere with her. Let her put her bed where she wants, it won’t do her any harm, neither will not cleaning for 2 weeks. Once the two weeks is up don’t go crazy cleaning, just do one thing, the pee place perhaps, but not the poo. Definitely don’t wash anything, if in this two weeks she is a bit smelly you will just need to put up with it

[Distraughtlemon]

Okay, it's been well over a week since I originally made this post so I think now would be a good time to update. I left Dio alone for about a week, apart from food and water changes I didn't interfere with her. The hissing has stopped however she's still upset by my presence. After that week I started sitting outside her cage again and she just doesn't seem comfortable with me yet.

At this point I'm pretty sure she's just aggressive by nature, because every time anything comes near her, whether it's a hand, a stick or a brush (was cleaning outside of her cage because some sand got out) she always tries to bite it and if she can't bite, she'll make every effort to be as close to the object as possible.

I'm still going to carry on with taming though, I bought some gardening gloves yesterday and I've tried interacting with her while they're on. I know it's not ideal but they're effective enough, without them I wouldn't be able to continue taming at all because the risk of her biting hard is too high. I'm hoping that with the gloves, she'll either get tired of biting them or realise my hand isn't a threat and feel less upset. One of you mentioned squeaking to communicate to her that her bites aren't good and I'm doing that too.

I'm curious about y'alls opinions on a few things though:
1. I keep Dio in my room, and since I spend a lot of time there during the day I'm wondering if it's negatively impacting her? I don't want to stress her out or mess up her sleep schedule, so should I move her to a different room or is the stress of moving her not worth it?
2. Since she's nearing the age of 10 weeks and is probably going to start going into heat soon, is there anything I should know in advance, particularly about aggressive hamsters in heat?

[LunaTheHamster1]

Hi, I have my hamsters in my living room, which is where I spend most of my day, it does not bother them one bit, even the more scared hamsters when they first arrive.

I think it is worth noting that not all hamsters are tamable with in a week or two. It can take a couple of months sometimes. From what you are saying It does sound like you need to continue going very slowly with your hamster to keep building up that trust.

The fact that the hissing has stopped is a good sign and that she is slowly learning to trust you.

I would maybe leave the gloves/hands things at least for another week or so and see how she is doing with you then.

Alternatively, you could try picking her up in a jug/mug etc and take her to a safe place for a run around, somewhere that she has access to you too and see if she gets used to you away from her cage. Have you tried anything like that yet?

[Maker]

One week isn’t very long I would just preserve slowly and not use the gloves