Help?

[loving_hammy]

Hi, so two weeks ago I got a hamster (my first hamster). She settled in amazing, I was waiting 2 days before I started trying to tame her, and I tamed her within 2 days. She is still fine, and I haven't had any problems till yesterday, I cleaned the cage for the first time, and when I put her back in she started to bite me! This never happened before, have I done something wrong? now when ever I go to put her food in her cage or go to get her out, she bites me. Is this normal?

[pumpkin123]

Maybe she is just getting a bit frightened and not used to being cleaned out yet also if you have food smell on your hand she could be tasting you

[racinghamster]

Hi. Full cage cleans can upset a hamster and can stress them. What you may have done is move things on a little too quickly and she hasn`t settled properly. It`s always better not to clean away all of their shavings or nesting materials because it retains some of the hamsters scent. It`s important to take things slow and your handling was going fine until the cage clean, so take a step back and only spot clean around her cage.

Hamsters are creatures of routine, so she will likely want to sleep most of the day and only come and go for a drink, a bite to eat and snuggle up again. So if you can give her that time to settle and get familiar with her new cage, new smells and a change in routine, things should settle. x

[Artisans_uk]

Just as RacingHamster has said, full cage clean outs can be very upsetting to hamsters, even after several week/months. Some hamsters never get totally used to them.

Most people spot clean the cage daily, removing visible poo, cleaning the wee corner, unless you have a litter try which your hamster uses, then it doesn't have to be changed daily, maybe once a week. With spot cleaning, a full cage clean should only be necessary every 3 - 4 weeks. Even then, keep some clean substrate back (wood shavings, carefresh etc) and put it back into the cage with the clean substrate. This makes sure that the hamster's smell is still in their cage and reduces stress.

As RacingHamster mentioned, keep toys and things in the same places, so it is familiar for them. If you do have to change something or introduce something new, then better not to do it on the same day as a cage clean out, so there is not too much for your hamster to get used to.

She may be showing some cage aggression because of the different smells and any changes. So best to go back a bit and go at her speed. Let her get used to the changes, let her settle into the cleaned cage. Keep talking to her and hopefully she will settle down again.