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Old 12-28-2021, 01:01 PM   #21
ShadowNinjaHamster
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Posts: 243
Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lilafernim View Post
Looking at just the videos I wouldn’t say he looks distressed or unhappy personally. Bar biting is a bad sign and they can seriously damage their teeth chewing on metal but what he is doing just looks like he’s being nosey to be honest. It actually looks like he has wide bar spacing I would’ve thought he could squeeze through them so the fact he stays in must mean he likes it 😂

Also hamsters chew to keep their teeth from overthrowing so he could just be chewing more recently if he feels his teeth are growing.

I am probably just as experienced as yourself in hamsters and I get a lot of help from people on this forum. I would always take other people’s advice over mine as they have had more experienced but I think it’s fair to say we all sometimes feel like things go wrong and we blame ourselves.

You saying about your cat we’ve had some stories with ours. She is such a timid little thing if there’s two people in the same room you’d think we abuse her from the way she acts! Get her on her own and she’s all over us. I’ve had cats all my life but never one as bizarre as ours now but it could just be differences in cats personalities. We also got our current cat on preloved and she was living in a house with 2/3 Great Dane dogs, whole litter of other kittens, she had a three or more young kids screaming around so I think her behaviour is a reflection of how she was raised.

I feel guilty for my previous hamsters death and it really weighs on me. She slept a lot all the time and the only sign of illness was she started sleeping more. I never questioned it as she always was sleeping her whole life. I actually nearly made a new thread because the past couple of nights Mitzi gets up at 9 goes back to bed by 10, and I don’t see her again. I had to laugh though because I was just about to post it and I looked over at her cage and her cheeky little face was just staring at me. It’s easy to overthink things but sometimes we just have to trust ourselves.

I think a new bottle may be a good idea, I’ve been thinking of using a bowl as well recently as I think the bottle has started to jam I have to keep shaking it. Like I’ve said if you have concerns over the biting I’d understand if you want to go vets, I do think (especially if it’s not an exotics vets) they may have no clue what to look for as they’d probably need to do tests and there’s no physical signs of illness. But if it puts your mind at ease and it ends up finding something then it’s worth it in the end.
The sad truth is that he can squeeze through the bars if he wants to. I once saw him squeezing himself out of the cage, but it happened months ago when he was still friendly. I put him back in his cage and now I just put less bedding near the bars, so he'd have to climb to squeeze himself out.
His ears are back, so I don't know if he's angry at me or what? The thing is he has started biting me and once he bites me he won't let it go. I keep telling him that it hurts, but he probably doesn't understand me, since I speak to him softly. When he bites me he won't let go though, I always have to pull my finger out of his mouth and there's always blood, so I do think he knows what he's doing. Even when I give him toilet paper or food from my hand he takes it and eats the food and then he 'attacks' me. I am no longer confident enough to take him out of his cage and just be with him, since his bites actually hurt. I don't know why he's biting me. He has never done that until few days ago. I am not good at reading hamster's body language but there's something definitely wrong. I am not confident enough to put my hand in the cage anymore, let alone carry him to a playpen. I am even scared to pet him and I used to do it every day.

He's asleep, so he hasn't come out yet to check out his brand new wheel or toys. His behaviour has definitely changed.

Cats are the only pets I've had and I've read books about them, so I kind of can understand them and for me it was a lot easier to maintain and develop a healthy relationship with my previous cat (I got him back in 2014 and he's still alive, but he doesn't live with me anymore since I moved abroad). The reason why I took a hamster was the fact my ex girlfriend hated cats and loved hamsters and kept telling me how much better and easier hamsters are, but I am starting to disagree with that. I cant understand my hamster. I can't understand if he's happy, sad, neutral or how he feels or what he's thinking. There aren't even any YouTube videos on how hamsters see the world and there aren't proper hamster channels out there to educate yourself. When you Google things you get bunch of misinformation, so your only chance is to rely on hamstercentral. As I said before, had I not discovered this forum my hamster would be rolling around the hamster ball and I'd think he loves it. Hamsters don't live very long and I want to give my hamster the happiest life that I can, but I don't know how he feels and most importantly, I don't understand why he's biting me, because he has never done this before. Of course it raises red flags and he still keeps biting me and behaving weirdly (either chewing on the air or bars when I am trying to talk to him). When I was watching him during the day he paid no attention to me, but before I recorded the video I actually said his name and whenever I talk to him now he comes right at the cage. Before he did so as well, but he was very friendly and he never bit me.

My hamster sleeps a lot too. He has always slept a lot, but then again sometimes he wakes me up by messing around in the cage and sometimes he has been screaming.
And sometimes he's awake and running on a wheel, but I can't hear it, because the wheel is super quiet. So I actually don't know how much my hamster sleeps. I hope he's not ill.

I think I gotta find a real exotic vet from somewhere? I've been to different vets, but they don't know what to say about my concerns and they've all said that everything is fine.

My hamster used to have bugs and when I took him to the vet he got rid of them, so at least that's good, but the other visits have been kind of "pointless" ( a vet visit is never pointless, but when they say everything's fine then it's fine). I asked my friend to come to the vet with me and she said that the vet would probably say: "That's what hamsters do" or something and it's cold outside, so I'm worried that visiting the vet will do more harm than good.
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Old 12-28-2021, 02:01 PM   #22
Lilafernim
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

I too am super thankful for this page, I know for a fact if I type in now on google what is the accepted minimum cage size or wheel for a hamster it will say something ridiculous. My previous Syrian before I found this forum, her cage was tall rather than long. I had her out for hours on end though and we’d sleep in bed together some nights (obviously I’d put her back before I fell asleep!) but I can honestly say she had a happy life. But getting my new hamster Mitzi this cage I feel so dumb because I look at the new long cage she has now recommended from this page and think…this could go bigger! As you say the support from pet shops and google is disgusting when you see what is actually good for them. I couldn’t ever image having a hamster in any less of what I have now.

I have had cats all my life and the cat we have now I consider my partners cat. But I have to admit with how busy my life is and how often our plans change, for my lifestyle I think a hamster is best for me. Maybe that’s what your ex-girlfriend meant was it suited her lifestyle more. I have university in the day and am dealing with a lot life-wise, the only rest I get is at night and that’s perfect for Mitzi to get up and make me smile after a rough day. The cat’s normally asleep by then lol. Also not to sound cruel but cats are long life commitment and say I finish uni and travel to get a job, hamsters have shorter lives so I won’t necessarily have to stress her out with a big move. Also, yes hamsters cost more in some way but I don’t have to do flea treatment for a hamster every month and vet visits tend to cost less. I love both just right now hamsters are perfect for me.

Behaviour wise I’d say all are different, you saying about ears down they normally do this when they’ve just woken up. Almost to say “do not disturb me”. If you see them rubbing their sides against anything their scent marking so are feeling territorial. You might see him doing that tonight when he sees his new gifts! I personally prefer Syrians as I believe they have the ability to be more cuddly, smaller breeds tend to be more scatty so it could make it hard to tell how they’re feeling. But after a while I think you just know.

Yes I remember those bugs! Normally only fleas, ticks, and mites need a host animal so for a normal vet diagnosing this should be easy as this is standard across all animals and would need the same treatment. I just mean the biting doesn’t show any physical signs of illness. A standard vet might know but I’d have my doubts they would and could end up prescribing something that could make your hammie ill. I honestly don’t know what to think of the biting. I’d just leave him be for tonight especially with the new toys as it’s a big change, I guess just see if he continues doing it.
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Old 01-02-2022, 11:50 PM   #23
ShadowNinjaHamster
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

Happy New Year!
I just wanted to inform that my hamster does not bite nor attack me anymore.

So why did he attack me? I have no idea
Why did he stop attacking me? I have no idea.
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Old 01-03-2022, 01:20 PM   #24
Ria P
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowNinjaHamster View Post
Happy New Year!
I just wanted to inform that my hamster does not bite nor attack me anymore.

So why did he attack me? I have no idea
Why did he stop attacking me? I have no idea.
Happy New Year to you too!

That's good news!
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Old 01-03-2022, 08:52 PM   #25
Pebbles82
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

I’ve just caught up with this. Glad he’s not biting any more. As Zedrobber says, don’t take it personally. It sounds to me like something had stressed him. Could it be changed in the environment over Christmas? More noises, Christmas tree in the room etc? Keep an eye on him. You maybe have been invading his space a bit - don’t spot clean too often. Although maybe you need to if you’ve kept the substrate low so he can’t get through the bars. Really the cage needs meshing so he can’t get out through the bars - and more substrate adding which will make him happier.

The fact he started bar chewing as well as biting sounds like stress. Can you think of anything that could suddenly have stressed him?

They are very precious about their cage environment and particularly their nest and hoard and like to move substrate around etc. So be careful not to spot clean too much or disturb his nest and hoard - or yes he will start to feel invaded and stressed.

Can you do something about his cage? Either mesh it or use a different cage? It’s very risky having large bar spacing and he could like substrate up to get out.
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Old 01-07-2022, 06:10 AM   #26
ShadowNinjaHamster
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

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Originally Posted by Serendipity7000 View Post
I’ve just caught up with this. Glad he’s not biting any more. As Zedrobber says, don’t take it personally. It sounds to me like something had stressed him. Could it be changed in the environment over Christmas? More noises, Christmas tree in the room etc? Keep an eye on him. You maybe have been invading his space a bit - don’t spot clean too often. Although maybe you need to if you’ve kept the substrate low so he can’t get through the bars. Really the cage needs meshing so he can’t get out through the bars - and more substrate adding which will make him happier.

The fact he started bar chewing as well as biting sounds like stress. Can you think of anything that could suddenly have stressed him?

They are very precious about their cage environment and particularly their nest and hoard and like to move substrate around etc. So be careful not to spot clean too much or disturb his nest and hoard - or yes he will start to feel invaded and stressed.

Can you do something about his cage? Either mesh it or use a different cage? It’s very risky having large bar spacing and he could like substrate up to get out.
I didn't have Christmas tree, nor candles or anything. Everything stayed the same. I don't know what got into him. He's back to normal again. I don't know what was wrong. Maybe he had a bad mood and wanted to be left alone? Maybe he needed to think about his life? I don't know.

The thing is, he barely even wants to come out and he's not too excited about his play pen or being anywhere else. I don't know if I'm a bad owner or it's just the way it is, but when I put him in playpen he's there for like 10 minutes and then he wants to leave. I can put new toys and new things there but he's not even looking at them.

I don't think I can do anything about the cage and other cages are smaller. Everything has been just fine so far, I don't think he'll escape. He doesn't really want to leave his cage either and when I bring him on hand back to his cage he starts running towards it while he's on my hand.

He doesn't chew bars anymore. The only thing that worries me is that he barely uses his wheel, but another thing is I cant even hear the wheel, so I don't know what he's doing at nights.
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Old 01-08-2022, 03:12 PM   #27
Kikya
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowNinjaHamster View Post
I didn't have Christmas tree, nor candles or anything. Everything stayed the same. I don't know what got into him. He's back to normal again. I don't know what was wrong. Maybe he had a bad mood and wanted to be left alone? Maybe he needed to think about his life? I don't know.

The thing is, he barely even wants to come out and he's not too excited about his play pen or being anywhere else. I don't know if I'm a bad owner or it's just the way it is, but when I put him in playpen he's there for like 10 minutes and then he wants to leave. I can put new toys and new things there but he's not even looking at them.

I don't think I can do anything about the cage and other cages are smaller. Everything has been just fine so far, I don't think he'll escape. He doesn't really want to leave his cage either and when I bring him on hand back to his cage he starts running towards it while he's on my hand.

He doesn't chew bars anymore. The only thing that worries me is that he barely uses his wheel, but another thing is I cant even hear the wheel, so I don't know what he's doing at nights.
He could be sick, if he's in pain, that could explain his aggression.
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Old 01-09-2022, 06:46 AM   #28
ShadowNinjaHamster
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

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Originally Posted by Kikya View Post
He could be sick, if he's in pain, that could explain his aggression.
But now he's back to his normal?
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Old 01-09-2022, 03:45 PM   #29
Lilafernim
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

I personally don’t think he’s sick. I’m not a vet but he bit a couple of times it could just be a mood he was in, maybe was being territorial. I don’t think this means he was sick.

If a hamster starts doing an irregular behaviour all the time that would be cause for concern but as it’s stopped I wouldn’t worry.
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Old 01-20-2022, 11:08 PM   #30
Mayaidi
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Default Re: My hamster just attacked me for the first time ever

It is said that hamsters that haven't been handled much aren't normally*tamed, and they frequently bite if you try to pick them up. Also, it may be a crazy idea, but I've heard some hamsters could have fleas if you'd allow them to go out. This is what I usually have for my cat 10 Best Flea Traps Reviewed in Detail (Jan. 2022) But, as Lilafernim said he may not be sick and it could be just a mood.
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