Taming my new winter white rescue

[Catja]

I am new to Dwarf hamster owning and now have a rescue male winter white who is about 4 months old.

I have a couple of books on dwarf hamsters but could anyone tell me, how tame can they get in relation to Syrians and what is the best way to go about it.

I find I can get him out of his cage by offering his hamster exercise ball which he happily hops into and I have made a play box which he goes into to explore, but I've been trying to pick him up cup handed (like it says in the book) but he is too fast.

The previous owner just used to grab him and ignore the squeaking but I don't want him to be frightened.

Any tips on winter whites would be most welcome as I want him to be a happy chappy.

He has not really been coming out at night which was worrying me but I have been off ill today and it is apparent that he actually comes out alot in the daytime instead.

[Holly]

I find the same with our ww's - they often don't get up until quite late nowadays (they are almost one) but they always get up and potter about for a while mid to late afternoon. I find that's a good time to get them out if they've woken up of their own accord.

As for taming there's no doubt that they can be quicker than Syrians when you are trying to tame them. For the first couple of months we used to handle ours in a dry bath; I'd let them climb into their ball and then take them to the bath and get in with them, opening the ball and letting them climb onto my lap. In my experience that works well and I can now walk round the house with our ww's - they are as tame as our Syrians (they were from a breeder though - but still not as handleable as a breeder Syrian tends to be when we first got them).

Good luck - sounds like you've really got the hamster bug

[Catja]

Well - the rescue WW was on freeads and in my old home village where my parents still live so I figured he had my name on him.

When I walked in to my mum's with the cage, her reaction was "oh not more, that's 4 hamsters, you've gone mad, whats got into you, why another.......(at that point little Mishka came out to say hello).....Mum said.."oh look its come out, oh isn't it gorgeous, look its saying hello, oh its so beautiful, has it got water, have you given it food, I'll look after it until you go home"

[souffle]

They do become very tame but when they are out they are always on the go toddling around. Pophammy is very good about taking them out every night and we take them on the bed (unfortunatly dwarfies don't think twice about pooing non stop when out) Keep a tissue handy. They sort of trundle around aimlessly like 'oh I've never been there before how exciting' when you have just picked them up from there. We just scratch the sawdust and they usually run out and we pick them up but some can be cage territorial so it may be better to take them out in a tube or ball. I am sure he will be tame soon. We have a taming article called taming tips in the articles section which applies to dwarfs as well as syrians.

[souffle]

They do become very tame but when they are out they are always on the go toddling around. Pophammy is very good about taking them out every night and we take them on the bed (unfortunatly dwarfies don't think twice about pooing non stop when out) Keep a tissue handy. They sort of trundle around aimlessly like 'oh I've never been there before how exciting' when you have just picked them up from there. We just scratch the sawdust and they usually run out and we pick them up but some can be cage territorial so it may be better to take them out in a tube or ball. I am sure he will be tame soon. We have a taming article called taming tips in the articles section which applies to dwarfs as well as syrians.