I would also say he doesn't hate you
But is independent and a bit lazy! Our last Syrian, Charlie was like this. He would never, ever, voluntarily come out of his cage - and he would never ever take food from your hand -but he was as tame as anything and once out would go to sleep on the sofa under a blanket (or go to sleep on my knee) and he loved being stroked behind his ears.
Now it took 2 months of bathtub taming from being a young, feral, petshop hamster before we could even pick him up. My feeling is - he had just never been acclimatised to human beings, didn't trust or like peoples hands in his cage (in the petshop they cleaned the cages out every single day).
He was also a bit grumpy and would give you black looks if he didn't like something, and turn his back and show you his bum if he was really not pleased!
But he really was absolutely adorable and funny. Interestingly he didn't like men very much.
He has a lovely big cage and I am sure he likes his lovely big house. Our last Syrian, Charlie, once he had a nice big house, was even less inclined to come out.
Their personalities are all different, and yes past experiences can shape them to a degree.
However, I would say one thing all hamsters have in common (and some more than others) is they absolutely detest anyone messing with their cage, changing anything, removing anything or cleaning the cage.
I am not sure what your cleaning routine is but I would suggest changing it - assuming you change all the substrate when you clean out.
I am also aware you don't have a current photo of the cage - so just going by the ones above. It is a lovely tall cage, without fall risks due to solid sides - and you could easily have 6 to 8" depth of substrate in it. I would go for 6 to 7" depth and see how he reacts to it. That would be easy enough to do - just add it to what is currently in there,and mix it in with the old a bit.
Would he actually bite if your hand was in his cage? Or run at your hand? If not then, yes he may be bothered by your hand adding extra substrate, but more likely to follow your hand around anxiously checking what you are doing. If it's not possible to do it while he's in the cage, then have him out of the cage to do it.
First thign I will say about getting him out of the cage is - some hamsters just will not accept being picked up while they are in their cage. And are very territorial about their cage (most are territorial about their cage to a degree).
Referring back to our last Syrian, Charlie, the only way to get him out of the cage was via a tube. I would put the tube over the entrance to his house, with a tasty, smelly treat at the far end (away from the house entrance) and he would walk into the tube to get the treat. Then put your hands over the ends of the tube and lift it out (and put it down into something safe and secure next to the cage - eg a large cardboard box he can't escape from and you can transport him elsewhere, where you can let him out, in that).
An alternative, if you have a hamster ball is - after lifting the tube out of the cage, put one end in the hamster ball, keeping the other end covered (wear gloves the whole time if you feel nervous he may bite) and he will walk into the hamster ball. Then pop the lid on and you can then carry him, carefully, in the ball, to the place you can let him out, where he can't escape from (eg bathtub or playpen area).
Now Charlie soon sussed it was a trick! And would try and grab the treat and retreat quickly, backwards, back into the house before I could move the tube to get my hand over both ends! So then I'd have to give up that night. But mostly I managed to achieve this - providing the tube is long enough! Mine was about 10" long, 10cm diameter rat tube.
I didn't feel guilty about tricking him, because once actually out of the cage he was quite happy! And he could never resist the treat (usually cheese or cucumber).
This is the only way I could ever get him out of the cage, without a lot of stress for both! Because he wouldn't come out of his house, and messing with his house just made him even more upset and stressed. He LOVED his house!
I think your hammy is a) lazy b) a home bod c) loves his big cage and house and can't be bothered to play with humans lol.
He/they get even worse, after a cage clean - they then want to stay in the cage and guard it permanently because some invader has messed with it! Which is why I started doing spot cleaning and adding substrate while he was in the cage so he could see what I was doing.
The other thing he was completely OCD about was - anything moving in the cage - everything had to be exactly in the same place - if I moved something even 1cm he would give black looks and I'd get the bum treatment and he'd be stressed and hide away for a long time.
So when people say - change things about for variety - for many hamsters that it is the worst thing you can do. They need familiarity.
You will probably never be able to pick him up when he's in his cage. But if you get him out regularly - maybe every 2 or 3 days - into a playpen area with a few toys - eg tunnels, a wheel, a couple of hidey places, and occasionally stroke him on the back when he's in there (use one finger and only do it once or twice each time he's out), he will get used to you and get into better habits.
So cleaning - with 6 to 7" of substrate (and it will take a lot of substrate but it will last ages) you won't need to do a full substrate change more than about every 2 to 3 months - and even then it is best to replace some of the old substrate (keep some old clean and spread it out on top of the new). You can just "spot clean" and use a litter tray.
With a litter tray (and if he doesn't use that I will eat my hat!) you can jsut empty it out every few days and the rest of the cage should stay clean and dry for a very long time. Don't worry about poops unless they really start taking over in a big way - then you can spot clean a bit (ie take out the odd handful and replace it with a new handful of substrate and mix it in a bit).
Don't clean everything at the same time - which is our human instinct - it is much better to clean wheel a different time, toys a different time again - and basically leave the house and nest alone until substrate change time - and even then I leave them alone, other than to prune the bottom part of an overly large hoard (but always add some new food to the top of the hoard if you remove any). Don't remove his nest unless it is pee'd in and even then try and leave a little bit of old nest behind and add new nesting material elsewhere in the cage.
A picky hamster will hate you messing with his house, more than anything. Torn up strips of plain white toilet paper are best for nesting - a big pile left somewhere in the cage,maybe near the house. They take pieces to refurbish their nest, and make it cosy. Charlie actually used to carefully weave the strips into a lovely big ball! It looked like a beehive with an entrance hole. So lazy, antisocial hamsters, may have extra skills pertaining to their personality disorder lol! A bit like dyslexic humans have extra spacial awareness and often to make good architects and photographers.
I got to the point where I never cleaned Charlie's nest inside his house. And he would chuck bits of it/a pile of it out of the house door when he felt it needed refurbishing and would drag new paper in and rebuild it. So if not pee'd in, just leave it. Of course if the hoard is pee'd on it needs removing, but again try and leave some old hoard behind and add some new food.
The one thing that creates distrust is if you mess with their nest and hoard. And can lead to them constantly peeing on the hoard to deter invaders from stealing it - which becomes a catch 22.
So if you don't have a litter tray with Chinchilla sand in, would recommend adding that. You put it in his chosen pee place - often a corner of the cage, although if it is a large house they often move their pee corner inside the house - so put the litter tray in there. Our hamsters have always liked having an ensuite toilet in their house! If the house isn't big enough for the litter tray - get a bigger house and put the litter tray inside.
So to add enrichment:
More substrate - he may start building mountains with it and messing about with it more.
Add some large tunnels - like a cork log - they make big dark tunnels and also an interesting texture to climb over - it could lead from the floor of the cage to the roof of his house (propped at an angle) if the house has a flat roof.
This gives more overhead cover as well - more tunnels and hidey places.
A platform on legs at one end means he has something to sit under and climb onto and it's a place to put additional toys and a food bowl.
With Charlie I used to put different treats in different parts of the cage to make him get out and do things more and get some exercise!
So food bowl on shelf, but his bit of daily veg would be elsewhere in a plastic hide, so he knew where to go and find it each day, plus an extra daily treat somewhere else in the cage - same place each day. Either half a walnut or brazil nut or pecan nut, or a tiny piece of cheese, or a blueberry. Varied it each time.
Also scattering a little bit of his food each day - not too much in case he doesn't take it all - so put the food in the bowl as usual but scatter a pinch or two of it.
This will get him more interested in his cage at feeding time.
If you can rig up a playpen area for out of cage time, or a safe fenced off area of a room, with the odd toy in, you'll probably find he's a different hamster!
Time of day makes a big difference sometimes. With Charlie - between 7pm and 8pm he was dozey, lazy and would happily sit on my arm for a stroke or just curl up and go to sleep. From 8pm onwards he was highly active and running all over the place.
Some hamsters just won't sit to be held or stroked for more than a minute or two but that doesn't mean they don't like you.
How to enrich the cage of a hamster who hates my guts..?
Re: How to enrich the cage of a hamster who hates my guts..?
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