Nervous New Owner Needs advice!

[Sally17]

Hi!

I am new to hamsters but not to rodents having had many guineapigs, rats and mice in the past... but this hamster is has got me confused! I got a little Syrian Hamster about 3 weeks ago called Bear. He started off bold as brass and thought he would be easy to tame, BUT we had an unfortunate incident on night two, he climbed into my hand and I foolishly lifted him out of the cage...of course he leapt out of my hand onto the floor and since then I have haven't tried anything like that again... he seems to be getting more and more scared of me.

He will take treats from my hand and through the bars when it suits him - so I tried to get him used to me out of the cage (in a safer way then night two) by taking the lid off his cage in the bathroom on the floor - but I am too afraid to touch him in case he bites me. My partner told me to stop being silly put his flat open hand out and the hamster made a bee line for his finger and drew blood.

I got the hamster back into the cage easily enough since he ran into a little box - but I haven't picked him up with my hands and now I am even more wary to try. I am unsure how to proceed next - this bathroom biting incident seems to have set him ( and me back) I am worried if I leave it too long he will grow up not being tame but if I am pushy he will get more annoyed/ afraid of humans. I am very disheartened. I have rats and they are so friendly and easy to tame.

Please help!

[Maker]

Just take your time, I don’t hand feed food at the beginning so they don’t get confused when they are still nervous - once your hammy gets a bit older they will take food from your fingers very gently but this is when they feel very safe and secure.

Pop some toilet tissue inside your top against your skin for a few hours and put this in the cage so it can get used to your natural smell.

At the moment He may be associating you hands with a horrible experience, just be gentle, start from the beginning again, sit talking, then sit with the door open talking, then slowly offer the back of your hand for a sniff. Its hard to bit the back of a hand.

Take weeks to do this and he will forget his bad experience, you just need to build trust.

Just how I would do it I prefer a soft approach, Others may have different ideas for you too

[asterixxx]

It is completely normal for your hamster to be nervious/afraid around you! I got mine like 2 weeks ago and he's still getting used to me. Since I usually feed him by hand from time to time, he now smells me and sometimes tries to gently bite me. I know when he'll do that because he starts moving his nose and smelling my fingers differently, so I carefully remove my hand when that happens. Although he bit me kinda hard last week it's normal since he may think we will attack them.

He'll get used to you, but it'll take some time and a lot of attempts from you. I had to give him a lot of treats and now he's being more comfortable with me each time. I thought he would never as he is really shy and nervious but we are getting there! So just be patient and go with his flow, he'll eventually trust you.

[Ria P]

My approach to taming is different but it works for me.

I don't offer my hand, not with food or without food.
I also start off with just talking and will then offer a sunflower seed or mealworm through the bars but never offer my hand in a hamster's cage that isn't tame yet.
I'll progress to light stroking with one finger when he's eating to get him familiar with touch but do taming out of the cage.

I arrange a safe area to sit in and let the hamster walk into a jug (with a treat in it if needed), hamsters are nosy so usually walk in.
Timing is important too and i always make sure that the hamster is wide awake and has had a wash and snack.
I put the hamster on my lap and let him sniff around without touching him but keep the sessions very short at the beginning. I increase the time gradually and then progress to brief stroking and again increase gradually.
Once the hamster is comfortable with stroking i move on to pick up exercises but only very briefly put my hand on his back then move on to cupping my hand round his belly. They are likely to wriggle and jump at first but will eventually get used to it. Once they're ok with that i lift briefly and put down. Most hamsters object and wriggle but i increase the reps over a number of days and the wriggling calms down.

It takes time and patience for a hamster to learn to trust a human. Most of the time hamsters are scared and nervous at first and have to build up their confidence slowly.
Some are more confident than others to start with.

I always let mine freeroam after a taming session with lots of floor toys to explore so they have something to look forward to when they come out of their cage.

I find that freedom is more effective than food.