Taming a Syrian

[jhxamy]

I’ve had my new Syrian hamster (Theodore) for just over a week and I’ve slowly started trying to tame him. I’ve had a few Syrians before so I’m (fairly) familiar with how it works but any help/advice would be really appreciated.

I’ve been speaking to him when he wakes up and when he’s active around his cage so he gets used to me and I’ve just moved on to offering him little treats to take from me. Today I put a treat in my hand and had my hand rested in his cage to take from me but he bit me, any advice for successful taming? I’d prefer to avoid being bit again aha

[LunaTheHamster1]

If you hadn't washed your hands first, you may want to do that next time. Then you could try getting a piece of food that is big enough to hold in your finger tips and see how that goes, working up to having food on your hand. You could even start off by just holding the food up at the bars of the cage (presuming it is that type of cage) for him to take off you.
He was probably just investigating and not really knowing what your hand was.
I always keep my eye on the hamster the first few times, they will normally sniff you hand and finger and try to have a nibble at some point, just trying to work it all out. But I just quickly remove my hand. You can normally tell when they are going in for the kill (hee hee)

[Flossypet]

If hamsters are just curious or if they think you are food you can often avoid their nips as they are hesitant and gentle. Only if they are being aggressive will they suddenly bite you and often draw blood.

[Engel]

Hamsters sight is terrible! They use their nose, whiskers and mouth to help them navigate. He's probably seeing if a) you're food or b) a threat. Also as you smell of food that may have him thinking you're something tasty.

My general rule is if he bit you and you bled, maybe it's too soon and he needs more time to settle. If he nibbled and you didn't bleed and it didn't really hurt he's curious and nothing to worry about! (Niko has never drawn blood but when he used to nibble it actually kinda tickled? Maybe I was just lucky)