What to do / Taming

Spot · 02-24-2015, 02:24 AM

Hiya we brought spot back on saturday so have left him to settle in , and been reading about taming ect.

We have an Alexander cage which has the large door on top and two tiny doors on side.. so how do i get my hand in as such not to scare / or pick up... or do i try get spot to the door?

Help! I'm scared of Syrian Hamster bitting me:(

This thread was awesome to read so thanks , i think as i read so much i dont want to scare spot or do something wrong

Spot is happy running round and we have spoken to him daily and seems happy to be out when we in room/watching so think he happy. We held him in the shop, and he seems pretty confident.

so i think main question is how to do it? wait at door? shove hand in ? take the wire cage top off?

second question is we have the zooplus large house
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_...n_houses/36374

he loves it but so far food stores sleeps and poo's (in all the diff rooms) not found a corner he does wee's in . so how do i 'spot clean' is that take the whole cage off thing.

I think im more worried about stressing spot out so im scared to do anything, silly huh? hahah
Many thanks as always for the help!

Willow Wisp · 02-24-2015, 03:05 AM

Hi ya I'm so pleased Spot is settling in well

As you know I also recently collected Hazel so we are both in the same position

Personally I wouldn't use the roof door for taming, hamsters are prey animals and coming at them from above can spook them. What I have been doing is opening both front doors and just sitting talking to her, it took an hour or so but eventually she climbed out of the door and onto my hand

I like it this way because its Hazels decision to be held, it's not me forcing it upon her, if you see what I mean

When she is more settled and confident I will start to pick her up, but at the moment I think it's wonderful that she chooses to come and see me of her own free will

As for the peeing area, Hazel is ignoring her potty tray and peeing in her house and on her new wooden wheel, she's soooo naughty lol I am spot cleaning her house and putting it all in her loo but she just digs it back out and then pees somewhere else, maybe a closer look in Spots house may reveal more

Spot · 02-24-2015, 03:08 AM

Lol thanks Willow, yes i sit there in the evening rambling away, if i could speak hamster im sure spot is saying leave me alone woman! lol

but that sounds an awesome idea to see if he comes to me , so do you just hold then pop her back in?

Sounds like Hazel is doing awesome (minus the chewing in the other thread)

Willow Wisp · 02-24-2015, 03:19 AM

It's obviously your decision how you handle Spot

but what I am doing is letting Hazel climb out of a front cage door and onto my hand, I let her walk from hand to hand and up my arm, I don't let her get as far as my shoulder because then she would be out of sight and I would have to physically pick her up, which I'm trying to avoid doing at the moment . When she is on my hand I stroke her too, she's fine with that

and I let her wander as above but as soon as she starts picking up speed and getting fast I pop my hand in her cage and she climbs off. I leave her 15 minutes or so to calm down again and then repeat

Spot · 02-24-2015, 03:25 AM

ohhh that sounds awesome thankyou for sharing

Thatsjustdandy · 02-24-2015, 04:18 AM

My wife and I have just tamed our third Syrian, a beautiful black eyed cream girl called Hester. We used the same technique for her as for our previous two and she is completely tame. She is now ten weeks old and has been tame for about two and a half weeks.

We started off by letting her settle into her home for a couple of days. We put tissues in her bedding that we had previously tucked into our shirts for an hour or so to pick up our scents. For the next day or so we talked softly to her through the bars of the cage and when she was brave enough to come right up to the bars to check us out we passed her a milky drop (I think Rotastak make them) through the bars. She sat right behind the bars and munched her way through it straight away.

After a couple of days of this we took it in turns to sit next to the cage with the door open and our hands open for her to climb onto. After five or ten minutes she would climb out. The trick is not to flinch when they start sniffing your hand closely. (We never invade her sanctuary by putting a hand in to grab her, our view is that she needs to feel safe in her own home). Once on the hand we lowered her onto our laps and then cupped hands gently around her to lift her back into her cage. After a few repeats of this we kept her out longer and longer. She is now very confident, climbs the door and hangs there until we open it to let her out. She runs on the floor and comes back to us periodically to check us out and will let us pick her up without trying to escape. She always gets a milky drop once she's back in the cage.

Taming is such a fun part of keeping a hamster, watching it begin to trust.

Be patient and gentle and you'll get there too.

Spot · 02-24-2015, 01:24 PM

Thankyou Dandy appreciate you taking the time to post.

Ive just started doing the tissue thing, and we sat down next to the cage right now watching him run round, he has no interest to come to the door yet even with bribary! but he keeps watching us , so hopefully in few days!

If not ill be asking how to 'spot clean' when hamster isnt tame lol

Oh and does anyone know i bough a whimzee crocodile..how long can i keep one in Spot's cage... do i have to replace weekly?

Willow Wisp · 02-24-2015, 01:45 PM

I'm sure curiosity will soon get the better of him, just stay by the open door chatting and watching tv if you get too bored LOL

Your whimzee can just stay in there, it won't go off, unless he takes it to bed and pees on it or something

ours don't usually last longer than a couple of days though, my girls love them

Spot · 02-24-2015, 01:48 PM

lol Thanks for being my fountain of info! hope your girls and partridge are doing well

he had a nibble so far, he currently running away from me on his wheel yet each time he stops for a wash im still there so he runs harder haha! i love watching him x

Thin Lizzy · 02-25-2015, 03:11 AM

Those whimzee crocodiles can last a while. Archie's had his for almost 2 months, he's become quite attached to it, in fact he keeps it in his coconut hut.
So Spot's loving his wheel? They can be on them for hours, mine took to sleeping on theirs for a while. It's so sweet!
He seems to be settling in well.