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Old 12-28-2020, 08:30 PM   #1
AllanK
Newborn Pup
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
Posts: 2
Default Syrian hamster bites without being frightened

Hi all,

My syrian hamster, Pelliodas, is 6 months old and I got him from a pet shop. Me and my girlfriend were doing some nice progress on taming him to the point where he would let us pet him and he'd come and onto our palm... he was never willing to be lifted tho as he would immediately jump out of the palm.

But for a while already, maybe 2 months, he started biting us really bad for no apparent reason. He doesn't feel frightened, as his behaviour is the same. In the beginning, he would smell the hand and mind his own business or climb up if there's any food. Now all he does is bite... and he bites really hard. I guess there's no need to mention the blood, but for example he got stuck with his teeth in my finger... and today he got the sleeve of my hoodie while i was changing his water and he wouldn't let go of it to the point where I felt like trying to take the bone out of a dog's mouth.

I thought this is maybe because the smell on my hands, but he genuinely bites everything, even my clothes or the comb I use to brush his long fur. The ONLY time he's not biting is he's eating. When he eats I can pet him, even between his ears and he doesn't care, also he still eats the food I give him from my hand, although I only dare give him bits at once with my finger as I don't trust him to climb in my palm again without taking a bite out of it.

No matter where he is in his cage, or what he's doing, he will always come to inspect and ultimately bite anything that's getting into his cage. Strange enough, when my friend got his hand there, the hamster was running away from him.

We didn't take him out of his cage yet, because the cage is quite big (6000cm²) and we currently can't have a play pen in our room. Might he get territorial? Or what could be the reason?

Any suggestions help as we're getting really sad as he might hate us and we don't even know why, especially because he doesn't do any noises and we're trying as much as possible to never corner him or anything like that, as I've said, he's straight up coming to my hand and it's getting difficult even to change his water or clean his sand bath... stuff he's never done before.

Thank you very much and I am extremely sorry fot the long essay and if this kind of question was already answered.
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Old 12-29-2020, 01:18 PM   #2
cypher
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Default Re: Syrian hamster bites without being frightened

It’s hard to know for sure as you haven’t had him out of the cage but I would guess it is likely he’s being territorial, some really don’t like hands in the cage while others will tolerate it but it’s generally best to keep interaction & handling out of the cage.
I would try to find a way to set up some kind of safe play area, let him run around & explore a bit & gradually introduce him to your hands. let him run on & off if he will rather than trying to pick him up or hold him to begin with.
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Old 12-29-2020, 01:30 PM   #3
Ria P
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Default Re: Syrian hamster bites without being frightened

How much do you feed him? Could he be hungry? Does he get enough food to eat and to keep a hoard?
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Old 12-29-2020, 02:08 PM   #4
AllanK
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ria P View Post
How much do you feed him? Could he be hungry? Does he get enough food to eat and to keep a hoard?
I feed him every second day and I give him around two table spoons of his food, some worms, treats every now and then, fruits and vegetables once a week.

He's hoarding all the food immediately, very rarely eats outside of his burrow.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cypher View Post
It’s hard to know for sure as you haven’t had him out of the cage but I would guess it is likely he’s being territorial, some really don’t like hands in the cage while others will tolerate it but it’s generally best to keep interaction & handling out of the cage.
I would try to find a way to set up some kind of safe play area, let him run around & explore a bit & gradually introduce him to your hands. let him run on & off if he will rather than trying to pick him up or hold him to begin with.
Thanks for the answer. I will try to find a way of letting him out of his cage sometimes and see how he will react to that.

Last edited by Fluffagrams; 12-30-2020 at 04:27 AM.
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Old 12-30-2020, 12:37 PM   #5
Maker
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Default Re: Syrian hamster bites without being frightened

Feed him 1 heaped tablespoon EVERY day. Hording is normal he will eat it in bed. So feed even if there is still some left from the day before - this will build trust and routine for him. He can have non sweet veggies every day too, just a very small cube of cucumber and a little tiny bit of broccoli, not so often sweet veg like corn or carrot. All of this will build trust and he will see you hands as being him nice things.
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