First time owner needing advice for Robo

[Gigi_Apples]

Originally Posted by HamsterDadof3

It took a while to get my 3 little charmers tame enough to handle. Don't give up no matter what methods you try and take things slow day by day. I personally used the box trick which made it a bit slower to get to the end goal but now I have actually walked around with my first one, Dedenne, in my shirt pocket at the pet store. It brings smiles to everyone's face to see him poke his head out. God luck

-Dedenne, Togedemaru, Caspian, and dad

AW so cute!! what size box did you use? is Dedenne a Robo? thanks for commenting!

[Pebbles82]

That is amazing progress! A little bit at a time sounds like the way to go. There is some good advice here from a breeder on taming etc as well. Something I mean to try.

The Roborovski's Dwarf Hamster

[cypher]

That is good progress
I don't have any experience with robos but a couple of my female Chineseys used to love using my arm as an escape route out of the plastic box so you may be right to be concerned, you could set up a playpen or something to contain him if he does escape that's large enough for you to sit in with the box then if he did get out he'd still be safe. That's what I did with mine although they tended to mostly run up my arm & sit on my shoulder rather than try to escape!
It would be nice if you did have a set up that allowed you the confidence to put your hand in as I still don't think the brush is going to help at all.

[HamsterKoala]

Make sure you have completed all taming steps prior to taming. Also you should always wash your hands before handling him. He may just be a timid hamster and maybe try leaving him for a while and just softly talk to him and maybe try leaving a treat in front of your hand and if he nibbles pull your hand away immediatly. I don't know if this helps but hope it does

[Gigi_Apples]

Thank you everyone for commenting and for the advice! <3 I've made some amazing progress this week, I've starting a new taming routine which we are doing every day. I've actually only just named him, he's called Baby! he wakes up around three every day, so I offer him the ball and let him run for 15-30 minutes (he seems to really love it). Towards the end, I move his whole cage into the bath and remove most of his toys except the wheel, food and one shelter. I put it in the bath because i can get the lid off without being scared he'll escape. Then I put him in there and offer him treats, before just laying my hand down flat, I do that for about 5-10 minutes and then start gently scooping him up, letting him run off my hand and back into the box. I've done that for four days now, progressing to letting him run between my hands yesterday, and today as soon as i put my hand down, he ran straight onto it and began running between my hands absolutely fine, with no encouragement! I think he's figured out that I'm an escape route from the cage because he's run up my arm a few times and nearly escaped! but i think this is really good progress if he'll walk straight onto my open hand with no problem I think the scent tissue trick really worked because ever since I did that, he's not tried to bite or nibble me at all. He dragged the tissue into his bed and has been sleeping in it. He's a very confident little boi

[Pebbles82]

That is excellent progress

[CMB]

He seems to be getting more confident being handled. Keep going with taming. He may never be one for sitting still, but you never know until you try.

[Razor]

Hi! My experience with my dwarf was a bit, let's say, unconventional? But I guess it worked out pretty well for us. Gaby was quite the nibbler during the first week of taming, but rather confident too. Apart from the tissue trick and running my hands through the substrate before trying to tame her, I usually just let her take a nibble at me. She never bit me, just a bunch series of nibbles. If she bit me too hard, I used to blow very gently at her face (they hate it!). She learnt rather quickly that my hand isn't exactly nibble material and that biting too hard would get an annoying blow of air at her face (her reaction to this was quite hilarious). She stopped nibbling at me within just 3-4 days and preferred sniffing instead, before reaching for the treats on my palm. And of course, until she was confident with my scent and hand, my movements were really slow and always from the ground level. Never approached her from the top since it scares her (gives the feel of a predator).

Now she doesn't bite/nibble at me even if my hand has a scent on it, say after cutting a grape for her or handling a treat or even using a scented hand wash.

[Gigi_Apples]

That's really good to know! Yeah I think eventually it was more about me being brave enough to let him sniff and nibble without taking my hand away, because now he's absolutely fine with my hands and hasn't bitten at all! I try to handle him everyday, I'm very busy so finding time to do the proper taming is quite hard :/ At the moment I let him run in the ball for 15-30 mins and then open the ball and offer him my hand, which he will usually run right onto. Then I let him run between my hands for a while and then I will put him back. I know i should be doing the proper taming methods, but he really doesn't like being put into a box and moving his whole cage to the bath has become a problem with my housemates :/ he'll take treats from me when offered, but wont currently take one off my hand... I think i might buy a playpen to tame him in my room, does anyone have any suggestions for one i could buy or a diy project?

[cypher]

You can make a playpen out of storage cubes, video here but it does have holes in the corners that you would have to block off securely for a robo, a better bet might be the wooden one from Zooplus. That would probably be the safest option for a tiny robo.
I think I might have mentioned it before, sorry if I did, but ball really aren't a safe option for dwarf hams of any species probably least of all a robo.