New hamster! Please help

[bethanycand23]

Hi I am new to hamster central this morning seeking help with my Syrian hamster!
I’ve had her 2 weeks now. Baring in mind im 23 and haven’t had a hamster since I was about 12 but have had quite a few over the years with my brothers and sister! However me and my sister are just getting used to owning one again.

My hamster Cardi is extremely skittish! When we first got her she would really HISS and bare her teeth very angrily! This was literally if someone walked past the cage not even going up to her! Which was a bit worrying to us! We thought we had brought a devil hamster haha this lasted until we upgraded her cage to one with sliding glass doors so we weren’t coming in from over the top of her to get into her cage as she was always so scared which ofcourse is understandable! the idea worked straight away of us going to the cage from the front she will come up to us and take food out of hands etc but she doesn’t particularly like being stroked and defo not being held. I’ve been doing a lot of research on how to tame hamsters and handle them etc but none of the tricks seem to work! She will do anything to fling her self out of our hands and is so extremely quick! Never have we owned a hamster quite like it! We keep trying with her every night. Tonight I will be trying the ‘play tub’ handling session moving her into a large tub with some toys and treats and introducing my hands slowly etc fingers crossed this will work!

All suggestions are welcome!! PLEASE!

She could just be a hamster who doesn’t like to be handled at all..

[Velle]

Hi, welcome to HC!

To be honest with you, she's probably still very scared and still settling into her surroundings. Give her some space and some time to warm up to you guys before moving onto slowly picking her up. It's great that she's taking treats from you guys! That's a good sign that she's starting to trust you and know you're not a big scary human.

When she's comfortable coming up to the glass and and taking treats from you, you can start putting your hand flat with the treat on the tip of your fingers to get them used to seeing and smelling your whole hand. Eventually you can move the treats further to the palm of your hand so she's actually taking treats whilst on you. After she's fully comfortable with this you can start lifting your hands a few cm, and then slowly work from there until you're pretty comfortably holding her.

You're looking to be doing this over a few weeks, maybe even a few months. It's not a quick step process and it varies from hamster to hamster. Give her some time, and try not to rush it. I probably wouldn't try the play tub as it's still all new to her and you don't want to shake her up too much. You and your sister may very well be the first people to really interact with her x

[bethanycand23]

Okay thank you very much! I will let you know how i get on over the next few weeks! Thanks for your help and advice. xx