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mzwiwy · 07-24-2018, 06:13 PM

My family adopted a winter white ham last week. His name is Gimli. I joined this site to be able to find answers to questions and get information from other ham families. Gimli is a bday gift for my 13 year old son. So far, so good. He is presh! We are trying to tame him. He appears to be content and he will take food from us. He is not climbing into our hands yet, but it has been less than a week. Is there a general time line for this?

dreamtree1234 · 07-30-2018, 07:27 AM

Hi and welcome to HC! Congrats on getting Gimli for your son's birthday. Happy belated birthday to him. I love the name; did he name him after the dwarf character from The Lord of the Rings? I hope that he has the greatest time with his little furry friend, and they make many precious memories together.

There is not time line for hammy's to climb into your hands per say. Each ham's comfort level in doing so is different so it just depends on your ham. A week is still early for some hams, but he is appears to enjoy interacting with you and your family. Just let him dictate his timeline for each step in taming and all should be fine. I wish you all the very best.

I look forward to seeing you around on the forum, getting to see updates on Gimli, and see precious pics of him whenever he settles in more. Have fun!

mzwiwy · 07-31-2018, 04:49 PM

Thanks Dreamtree, and yes, he is named after the LOTR dwarf.

The whole family is really enjoying him.

SKB_Hamsters · 08-01-2018, 06:31 AM

Hello and Welcome to HC. Congrats on getting Gimli!
The time taken for a hamster to willingly climb into your hand does depend upon each hamsters individual personality - give him time and patience and I'm sure before you know it he will be happy to climb into you hand!

mzwiwy · 08-02-2018, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SKB_Hamsters

Hello and Welcome to HC. Congrats on getting Gimli!
The time taken for a hamster to willingly climb into your hand does depend upon each hamsters individual personality - give him time and patience and I'm sure before you know it he will be happy to climb into you hand!

Thanks for the warm welcome! He is doing really well.

Pebbles82 · 08-02-2018, 04:16 PM

Hello and welcome

They all have their own little personalities - Gimli sounds fairly confident with people already. It can be time and patience before they are happy to be held (and even then hamsters generally don't like to sit still long!) - or it may happen quite quickly. I would continue with him feeding from your hand for now. A week isn't long and the first two weeks is settling in time in their cage. So it's usually advised not to do any cleaning out for the first couple of weeks. Pet shops usually suggest weekly but that's not necessary. Clean outs stress them as it removes all their careful scent marking around the cage (so they can find their way around and have familiar little habits) - so a good idea is to just have plenty of substrate in the cage and then just "spot clean" as and when necessary - you can go quite a long time without needing to do a full substrate change that way - I go a couple of months at least. And even then best not to clean everything at the same time - that way something always smells familiar - so I give the wheel a wipe if it needs it as and when, and any toys as and when and the substrate a different time again. They are generally quite clean little things and their main thing in life is their nest and their hoard and they get very upset if those are messed with! So best to leave those alone if you do any spot cleaning. Dried food hoarded is fine for quite some time - I leave it till it starts taking over - then remove some when doing the substrate. Sometimes if it's pee'd on it needs removing so then you need to put new food back in exactly the same place and replace the hoard. They are hard wired to feel prepared for a famine.

Don't worry about poops unless they start taking over - they are like little hard seeds and not dirty or smelly - and they will often hoard those as well or eat them sometimes - which is normal - they have two stomachs and can redigest vitamins etc from their poops - hence some are hoarded in case of food shortage!

So just take it slowly - try to let him settle into his cage and start enjoying it and having habits in it. As well as the hand feeding you can just talk to him so he gets familiar with your voice and presence. And also do the tissue trick - where you put some sheets of toilet paper up your sleeve for a couple of hours and then tear it into strips and put the pile of it somewhere in the cage. Gradually the pile will go down as they take some to build up their nest and then they'll get familiar with your scent from the paper and have it with him in the nest.

So - cleaning out too much sets back taming (you become the invader and the thief!) - so as long as you're aware of that then it should progress gradually. After a couple of weeks you could try having him out in a playpen area for taming as well.

If you can set up some kind of playpen/enclosed area with a few toys in - cardboard kitchen roll tube, tissue box hide etc - and you and/or son can sit in it - then they run all over you and get used to you that way too. You can use the dry bath tub if making a playpen area is difficult (you can buy a good playpen for about £25) that come apart and fold away. The thing to be careful of there is always have someone else around in case he runs up your arm and tries to jump out! I just used to keep well away from the edges.

Pebbles82 · 08-02-2018, 04:22 PM

One other thing to be aware of is diet with dwarf hamsters. Although Gimli is a winter white (to look at) he will almost certainly be a hybrid. All dwarf hamsters are unless they're from a breeder and have a pedigree. The two species of russian dwarf hamsters (Winter Whites and Campbells) have been interbred going back a long way and the hamsters in pet shops will be hybrids of the two species - they may look like a Winter White or Campbell but have genes from both species. They are still lovely hamsters and pets but can be prone to diabetes - so best to give a sugar free diet.

Burgess dwarf hamster is a good mix for them - it has no sugar and contains all the nutrients they need and plenty of variety. They also like a bit of fresh veg each day - but a tiny piece - thumbnail sized. Initally only every 3 days or so until they adjust to it or they can get diarrhoea with too much all at once. Then after a week every other day then a week later every day. Broccoli, carrot, cucumber are all fine - I have been known to buy extra veg for the hamster! (Spinach leaves, cauliflower etc). Lettuce and cabbage arent that good for them though.

Pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds can be treats or taming treats but not too many sunflower seeds or they get a bit plump

Pumpkin seeds are usually very popular!

Thin Lizzy · 08-06-2018, 06:15 AM

Hi and welcome to HC. Congratulations on adopting Gimli.

mzwiwy · 08-06-2018, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

One other thing to be aware of is diet with dwarf hamsters. Although Gimli is a winter white (to look at) he will almost certainly be a hybrid. All dwarf hamsters are unless they're from a breeder and have a pedigree. The two species of russian dwarf hamsters (Winter Whites and Campbells) have been interbred going back a long way and the hamsters in pet shops will be hybrids of the two species - they may look like a Winter White or Campbell but have genes from both species. They are still lovely hamsters and pets but can be prone to diabetes - so best to give a sugar free diet.

Burgess dwarf hamster is a good mix for them - it has no sugar and contains all the nutrients they need and plenty of variety. They also like a bit of fresh veg each day - but a tiny piece - thumbnail sized. Initally only every 3 days or so until they adjust to it or they can get diarrhoea with too much all at once. Then after a week every other day then a week later every day. Broccoli, carrot, cucumber are all fine - I have been known to buy extra veg for the hamster! (Spinach leaves, cauliflower etc). Lettuce and cabbage arent that good for them though.

Pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds can be treats or taming treats but not too many sunflower seeds or they get a bit plump

Pumpkin seeds are usually very popular!

Thanks so much for all the info in both posts! It is appreciated and helpful. I will cut back on the cleaning some. I had read to clean the cage out every week. We are lucky it hasn't seemed to set him back. It really seemed silly since it still seemed very clean. I will let him build up his scent more the next month or so and do more spot cleaning.

So far, I'm giving him his hamster food and meal worms. He has had 2 bites of fruit so far and did not seem impressed. So I have decided to stick to veggies. I will start that today and then in a few days give him another piece.

Any thoughts on how many meal worms he should have? He loves them!
Thanks again!