Taming Process Question!

[BarnardHamsters]

Hello! So on Monday we adopted a new Winter White Hamster from the petstore! His name is Zeus and he is enjoying his cage quite nicely! I was wondering when would be the best time to start putting in tissue with your scent on it, would it be better to start that day 4 or 5? Or wait a week before you start attempting to tame your hamster? Also if my sister and I are primarily going to be handling him should we both put tissue in with our different scents at the same time or get him acclimated to one of us at a time? Just curious what the best way to go about this is! Thanks!

[cypher]

I usually put the tissue in before the ham!
The sooner the better really, your ham has to adjust to lots of new things when you bring it home so best if your scent is there from the beginning so it quickly gets used to it.
I don't think the scent from two people would be too much so you could both do the tissue trick together.
Once you've done the tissue trick just talk to your ham quietly for a few days & don't interfere with the cage or try putting your hand in except to do food, water & any spot cleaning if need be, they only pee a tiny bit so you may not need to clean anything those first few days.
Every ham is different, some are keen to interact from day one while others take some time to settle in so let your ham set the pace.
Once he's settled & seems happy with you being around the cage then introduce your hand into the cage, don't force it on him though, just lay your hand flat & let him come to you, that may take a few attempts even with a nice treat on your hand so patience may be needed!

[BarnardHamsters]

Originally Posted by cypher

I usually put the tissue in before the ham!
The sooner the better really, your ham has to adjust to lots of new things when you bring it home so best if your scent is there from the beginning so it quickly gets used to it.
I don't think the scent from two people would be too much so you could both do the tissue trick together.
Once you've done the tissue trick just talk to your ham quietly for a few days & don't interfere with the cage or try putting your hand in except to do food, water & any spot cleaning if need be, they only pee a tiny bit so you may not need to clean anything those first few days.
Every ham is different, some are keen to interact from day one while others take some time to settle in so let your ham set the pace.
Once he's settled & seems happy with you being around the cage then introduce your hand into the cage, don't force it on him though, just lay your hand flat & let him come to you, that may take a few attempts even with a nice treat on your hand so patience may be needed!

Thanks! I have owned a winter white previous to this one, and we never did the tissue trick but our other one only bit once or twice! Decided to take a different approach to taming to see if this method works as well! I assume it does because that's what a lot of people do, but wanted to test it myself!

[cypher]

Good luck! Let us know how you get on or if you need any more help.