Hello! (Pretty long post, sorry!;;)
I am a first time hamster owner and I got my very first hamster, Mango, 9 weeks and 5 days ago. She was kind of brave from the beginning, sticking her nose out of the box she was in when I got her. I got her from pet smart, though, I wasn’t planning on getting
her or a syrian at all, I wanted a dwarf but they had none :((, and I saw another grey and black hamster in the cage that looked like a tiny raccoon, but I think the lady got confused when my sister pointed out Mango instead and before I could even say anything, she was already in the box, so I just let it go.
I thought they were going to have tanks I could buy instead of a wire cage, but they didn’t unfortunately, so the lady told me I should buy a tiny tales home, but she told be it was only temporarily. I did research a lot before getting one, watching a girl named Victoria Rachel on youtube, and looking through forums. And the lady did a pretty good job guiding me on what I should and not do. She did tell me let her sit for 4-5 days and they can bite (this was almost the dealbreaker, I know all hamster breeds can bite, but Syrians are bigger thats why I wanted a dwarf), but then she said they would warm up to me eventually through taming. She also said there’s a 14 day return policy. Don’t get me wrong, I was still as excited getting her. Mango was 4 weeks old the time, and she was smaller than her other two littermates.
So I took her home, and built that stupid tiny tales home with blood sweat and tears. I was pretty distracted by the cage because the walls weren’t staying together, so I just pushed it in the best I could and put her carefresh bedding and wooden toys in there, and connected the water bottle.
Well, the only experience i’ve had with hamsters were when my best friend had a winter white dwarf named speedy. He was the sweetest hamster, even when we did stuff like wake him up to take him out. He used to even sleep in my hand.
So with this being my mental image of hamsters, I showed her my knuckle before I scopped her out from the back out of the box. She didn’t flinch or anything, and let me carry her into the cage. She stood on my hand, sniffing around, and then bit hard drawing blood. This was fully my mistake as I knew I shouldn’t had picked her the first day, but I just thought to include this in case this resulted and how she is now.
I sighed but wasn’t really affected by it and stopped the bleeding by rising it with peroxide and wrapping it in a band aid. So she’s exploring her cage now and even ran on the wheel while I was fiddling with the water bottle. Then she started climbing on the bars to where my fingers were and one of them was poking through the wires and Im pretty sure she was trying to nibble because it didnt hurt as much as the first one, but her teeth were very sharp at this time and it drew blood again.
I ignored it and took care of it. I then sprinkled in some food and left her alone. During the 5 days of settling in she wasn’t scared of people going up to the cage to look at her, and she used to carry on grooming herself or looking around sniffing. She used to get up at 7:30 pm and run on her wheel or climb the bars. At day 7 I started to give her treats through the cage and give her tissues with my scent. She used to take the treats no problem. I also started using a cup to get her out of her cage when I cleaned it so i’m sure this got her used to the feeling if being lifted up. She then started to bite on the wires of the cage a the next day and this when I concluded it was time to upgrade.
At the time I only have a 26 gallon bin. I introduced it to her slowly like a play pen, and she quickly called it her home the first day. Digging a nest and sleeping there. So I gave back the tiny tales cage with my money back and now she is still currently in the bin until I can find a 50 gallon bin. I let her roam around daily and talked to her so she got used to my presence during these times.
Fast foward to the present. She has a big hide that she sleeps and stores her food in, a 9 inch silent spinner, some cardboard tubes, and a water bowl, and 3 wooden chews. I know this bin isn’t big enough for her, so I let her explore my bed. She always try and get down to the floor because that’s where I normally let her roam, but she started to chew the carpet and thus I settle for my bed. When she tried to escape, I picked her up with my hands and placed her back on the bed. I was getting her used to being touched because before she used to flinch and turn. Now she didnt flinch at all although sometimes she’d turn around but then she started to mind it less.
I always make sure to wash my hands so there’s no scent on them. (using antibacterial dish soap) so I wouldn’t be bitten. Though, it didn’t stop her what so ever. In the beginning she didn’t mind the hand in her cage fixing thing and moving her bedding around, but now she was getting cage territorial, so I lift her out the bin with a cup. When she was outside her bin, she didn’t try to bite at all. She’d nibble, but I didn’t mind because it wasn’t hard or hurting, and I figured she was just test say nibbling.
She climbs all over me and even goes up to sniff my face. When I go up to the bin she is quick to run out her house when she hears me and go up to the bin, looking up and surfing the wall anticipating i’d get her out. And when I hand fed her, she’d put her hands on my finger instead of reaching out her head to get it. It seemed like she was well getting used to me, but today, it felt like we just got back to square one.
I went up to the bin this morning when she was awake, and she walked over and looked up at me do her little wall dance. I put the cup in there, and I’m sure by now she knows the cup takes her out if she goes in it and or back home. So I always leave it out when she feels like she’s ready to go back in her home when I let her roam. She got inside the cup and I let her sniff my knuckle, and then I placed her down on my bed and she climbed out the cup and onto my hand then on the bed.
I am usually laying in the bed with her and she’d come over and sniff and climb on me. One of my hands were resting in front of her and she walked over towards it and bit VERY hard, like the hardest she ever bitten. It made two little marks on my knuckles and started to bleed alot. I exasperatedly scooped her up in the cup and put her back home.
I don’t understand why she did that? I thought things were going fine. When I put her back she started looking around seemingly looking confused as to why I put her back. When she saw I wasn’t taking her out again, she ran on her wheel for awhile, used the bathroom, drunk her water and went to bed.
Maybe she was tired, because she was a little wind down than usual, but when I put the cup towards her she didn’t want to get in at all. So i let her be. I’m really sick of getting bit. There are a few bite marks on my finger tips and knuckles. I don’t know how to get her to stop. I read that once hamsters start biting they never really stop doing it. I really dont wanna have bleeding hands for the next two years. Hopefully upgrading her cage will stop her territorial and seemingly aggressive behavior. She never used to bite me outside her cage at all! Now after this i’m sure she’s going to do it again.
If you guys have an advice please, please help me! I’m going to leave her alone for this entire day.
Pictures of Mango:
mango - Album on Imgur
Please Help! Female Syrian Hamster, Mango
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