Touching back and Wheel!

[Spot]

Hiyaaaa so im still under the whims of Spot he turns his nose up to fresh food apart from broccoli so far, but still going down the list.

The issue i have is he is happy to go into my hand and loves running round in his ball (he is crazy and hops by the door waiting for it ~i take him out every 10mins and put him back in cage incase he wants rest/food/drink~ )

But if i touch his back he throws himself away from me . he hasnt bitten me just sort of does a whole body wiggle, reading i got a soft toothbrush and have been trying to touch him but still prancing backwards, is this a wait and see and maybe in time he wont mind being touched? or maybe a huge nono?

He seems happy enough and from what i can see is eating/drinking.

The other question as always is he has a wheel in his cage and when he first came he used it.. but i havent seen him in it since. of course he could be a stealthy penguin and be using it while im sleeping, im just double checking if some hamsters dislike them?

Anyways im sure im rambling as always Thankyou for helping if you reply

[kyrilliondaemon]

My answer would be to stop touching his back, there's no need to be touching it anyway really. He might get used to it in time but I can't see a reason to worry about it at the moment.

How big is the wheel? The most common reason for hams not using one is it being a bit too small for them

[Spot]

ahhh i thought that trying to get them used to touch (on back) is normal taming part, well when i read, as you said ill stop

Diameter 28cm x 7cm

Small Pet Exercise Wheel | Free P&P on orders £29+ at zooplus!

I have a flying saucer wheel large one but not put iiit in cage yet (surprisingly i run out of room in the Alexander!

ive checked theres nothing blocking the wheel also and it spins! like i said it could be possible he is going when im asleep but i couldnt be 100%

Thanks for replying Kyril and hope your animals are keeping well (and yourself)

[kyrilliondaemon]

*shrugs* There're lots of different taming methods and not all call for touching their backs, I definetly don't think its essential. Our first hamster Scamp hated being touched on her back at first (if anything touched her back she leapt forward to get away from it) so we just avoided it, eventually we could do anything with her but we never had much need to touch her back even once she'd stopped minding it. Spot might get used to it but even if he doesn't it shouldn't matter really

Ah ok... Then its not wheel size which is good My next suggestion'd be to balance a bit of food on top of the wheel before you go to bed tonight, if its gone in the morning he's using it while you sleep.

Myself and my pets are all good thanks, I hope you and yours are fine too

[Spot]

Oooh good plan with food i shall try that! thanks for being a super sounding board!

Ooh and we ok trying to get in a pattern where im not a zombie while he runs round like a nutcase! xxx

[kyrilliondaemon]

No problem, we had the exact same situations with Scamp so its her fault I can answer so easily.
Scamp did actually have times she didn't use her wheel so if he doesn't I'd still not worry, in Scamp's case it was often linked to how big her store was - it seemed to be that if her store was "big enough" she stopped bothering with her wheel (we couldn't just give her less to store as she prioritised storing over eating, when we cut down on food so she'd store less she lost weight quite quickly). In the end we learnt to not worry about it

Good luck with your pattern then

[RubyDG]

I have the same wheel actually and I've never had issues with it. When I first got Spike I was also a little concerned as he didn't seem to be using his wheel either. He didn't have a wheel at the Pet Shop where I got him and it did take awhile for him to take to it - now he's on it all the time. I think some hamsters get it straight away but others just take a little longer. Instead of food you could also try a little substrate - that might be a better indication actually since he may just attempt to get to the food to eat it and not actually be using the wheel.

Good luck on the Zombie thing, I'm still working on it myself. I generally make myself a cappuccino before taking Spike out for playtime and drink it while he plays.

The back touching seems to set off most hamsters, in the beginning at least. Bearing in mind that this is just my opinion but logically since hamsters are prey animals and in the wild would be at risk of being snapped up by birds I think touching their backs sets off a natural defensive instinct. Spike pretty much let us do anything we wanted to him from the beginning but he flinched every time I touched his back and clearly disliked it so I just avoided it at first. Getting to the stage where they trust you completely so it doesn't bother them takes time and even then you're still going to get hams that just don't like having their backs touched no matter how much they trust you.

[Thin Lizzy]

My 2 love me stroking their backs! When they were babies, I would stroke their backs lightly as they ate their food.