Cage aggression just started

[BrainGirl]

Roxanne used to be such a friendly little girl, she would leap into my hands as soon as she saw them and would sit there happily eating a treat or being petted. Now though she's frantic to get her teeth into me! She's just frantic in general Roxy will run when she sees me coming and literally fling herself through the air to try to get her teeth on me! It's quite scary. I've tried giving her hard-shelled nuts and that's equally scary. It's like she's starving to death (she's not) and struggling to get enough food. That kind of frantic.

I'm beginning to think that Veronica, the other dwarfie I brought in is actually a boy. Could it be that Roxanne is responding to his scent in the room? I didn't feel the need to be absolutely sure that the sexing was correct because I have no breeding plans and they'll never be together. I'm not sure that finding out that Veronica is actually a boy would do any good anyway although I intend to move Roxy into the 90 gallon tank in the living room, as far from Veronica as possible. That may help but if this is the case, why isn't Veronica acting any different?

[Colby and the Dwarfs]

Hmm. A good half of my dwarfs will attack you if you put your hand in their cage, it's just cause they're scared or defensive. But once you get them out they're fine.

Even if no male is in the room they do it. Wait, I just realised none of my males do it.... Wow, I never thought of that before....

[DrKMcK]

I honestly don't know if it is a male/female thing for your little hams, but I really think it's just a dwarf hammy characteristic. Both of my boys are cage aggressive; Almond, more so than Toffee. In fact, Toffee has been letting me pick him up without gloves!!! I wouldn't dare try that with Almond .

[Esmy]

Penny (Syrian) latched onto my finger last night when trying to pick her up. :/ She did NOT want to get out of the playpen! Luckily she didn't draw blood. I'd be scared though if a hamster was lunging to bite me though.

[Hekomi]

I must be the only one with two non-cage aggressive dwarfs. Both will run onto my hand and play with me in the cage.

Can you get pictures of the new ham from underneath? It could be the new smells, but for now try using some thick gloves when handling her.

[ChocolateCream81]

One of my dwarfies are cage aggresive, the other two are fine! I think you should look into Veronica, maybe if possible, take her (or him, who knows ) out of the room for a while to see if you notice a difference in roxy's behaviour?

[Hekomi]

It must depend on the hamster, lol, my boys have never bit me. We shall see how the new one is tonight.

But yeah definitely look into Veronica. Have you changed anything else about her cage? Is her cage maybe too small?

[HammieandMerlin]

Our little girl developed cage aggression out of the blue. One day she just started lunging at us if we put our hand in the tank. For her, it was the beginning of a huge neurological issue, so I don't know what's got into your girl - I hope it's something simple. We moved Aisling into an exo terra tank with front doors, so she could scamper into our hands on her own, and that helped a lot

[BrainGirl]

Originally Posted by Hekomi

I must be the only one with two non-cage aggressive dwarfs. Both will run onto my hand and play with me in the cage.

Can you get pictures of the new ham from underneath? It could be the new smells, but for now try using some thick gloves when handling her.

I have some spectacularly thick gloves that I have been using but I'm developing a bit of a fear of her. The behaviour is beyond just biting, it's like she's on drugs! Ever see that movie "There's Something About Mary" and the scene with the speed that gets thrown through the window? The old lady who tans a lot and her dog both ingest it accidentally. Can't remember much more than that, it's been a long time since I saw it, but the behaviour is very similar

Originally Posted by Hekomi

It must depend on the hamster, lol, my boys have never bit me. We shall see how the new one is tonight.

But yeah definitely look into Veronica. Have you changed anything else about her cage? Is her cage maybe too small?

That could well be a contributing factor. She figured out how to escape from her terrarium and in desperation I put her into a tall tank with a slightly smaller footprint. I gave her extra substrate though and lots of toys so hoped that would make up for it. Maybe it didn't. I am working on a 90 gallon tank for her though so hopefully if that's what's brought this on it will help!

Originally Posted by HammieandMerlin

Our little girl developed cage aggression out of the blue. One day she just started lunging at us if we put our hand in the tank. For her, it was the beginning of a huge neurological issue, so I don't know what's got into your girl - I hope it's something simple. We moved Aisling into an exo terra tank with front doors, so she could scamper into our hands on her own, and that helped a lot

I'm worried that this is the first symptom of neurological issues. I'm not expert but her behaviour just doesn't seem normal

Originally Posted by ChocolateCream81

One of my dwarfies are cage aggresive, the other two are fine! I think you should look into Veronica, maybe if possible, take her (or him, who knows ) out of the room for a while to see if you notice a difference in roxy's behaviour?

That's a thought. I was going to leave everything until the new ginormous tank is set up and then Roxy will be away from Veronica anyway. I'd just rather move them as little as possible for stress reasons.

[HammieandMerlin]

Two out of our three dwarfs had neurological problems, which we kind of expected due to them being hybrids. It only affected Aisling seriously - she would spin, lose her balance, and just had a total personality change. With Hiccup, he still lived to be nearly two, and he just had shifty balance, so we kept him on one level with nothing to climb once we figured everything out. It's one of those things that's tricky to figure out