My adopted hamster was 6 months old when I got him, general advice details in thread

[Arnold Syrian Ham]

I recently bought a hamster 6 months of age his name is Arnold and hes a real sweetie. He was bought from a pet store but was moved around 3 other stores in the county before ending up at this particular one due to it being a new store and them needing stock. He's already had such a hard time, Ive had him for a month now hasn't squealed or hissed since the day I brought him home. I have a play pen for him and a ball and between both he has an hour of exercise every night without fail.

First issue, the wheel appropriate for his size does not fit in his cage (he has access in the playpen every night) and I really want to build a bigger cage for him, bigger is always better but when hes already been through so much change and been shoved in to the unknown I don't know if this might be what stresses him out to the point it will make him ill. I want to do whats best.

Second issue, I understand he has had no positive interactions with humans for 6 months of his life he has been moved around and largely ignored and screamed at by little children. He bites, if I put my hand flat with a treat he will ignore the treat and bite me yet if I hold a treat between my fingers he will take it and if he is occupied with a treat or chewing on something I can pet his back for a substantially long time sometimes, as soon as he is not distracted he will try to bite, I thought I was making progress with him but really I don't know what to do. Im not overly bothered if his personality stops him from wanting to be handled, I'd just like to know what I can do because he continues to bite my hands even with treats its a constant back and forth and I don't want to confuse or upset him by petting him if he really doesn't like it.

[cypher]

It can be stressful for them to move cages & I can understand your concern as Arnold has had such an unsettled time before coming home with you but it is important that he has his wheel in the cage, he will mostly be using it at night when you sleep so playpen time isn't enough really.
You can make cage changes minimally stressful by keeping everything, layout etc as familiar as possible, using all the substrate from the old cage, not doing any cleaning except spot cleaning for a couple of weeks before the move so everything has his scent on it & not for at least a few weeks after the move.
It sounds as though he's taken the move to his new home pretty well so he may not be overly stressed by a new cage, it can take any ham a couple of weeks to settle after a change.
What size cage do you have now?

Does he bite out of the cage or just in the cage? If it's just in the cage then he may be a bit territorial which would be understandable given his history, now he has his own space he may not like it being invaded too much!
Try to get him more used to hands during out of cage time, go slow, just begin with letting him come to your hands & explore them, he will probably climb onto your hands soon enough, once he's been doing that for a while you can begin to try handling him a little more, take time over each step forward & don't be tempted to move on too soon & he should gain confidence & be more comfortable with handling.

[Arnold Syrian Ham]

Any contact I make with him is in the pen, ill rub his bedding on my hands hold a treat out for him but as soon as he's had the treat he bits my hand. Or sometimes will completely ignore the treat. He wont have my hand in the pen just on its own he still bites. He cant just explore my hand he really keeps biting, am I at a dead end with the taming?

The cage is too small I know that much I'm afraid I'm having trouble over the convincing part of him needing a bigger cage some people really don't think hamsters need a lot of space

[cypher]

I don't usually favour the use of gloves but if he's biting your hand whenever he comes near it out of the cage as well as in then it might be worth trying that for a while, something sturdy like gardening gloves, he's less likely to bite those & if he does one you won't get hurt & two he probably won't like it too much!
If you try that he may get used to handling then you can try again without the gloves when you think he might be ready.

[Arnold Syrian Ham]

Im not in favor of gloves either, do you think he would bite or react if he didn't like me petting him whilst he was distracted? it seems I can pet him no other way its very contradicting and confusing.

I have made progress on the convincing of a bigger cage, my plan is to make one W 20" x L 40" H 20" It amounts to 800square inches and my current cage is less than half the minimum requirement and was the biggest cage in pets at home...rather disgusting. However would this be too much of a shock for him or could I put half his bedding from a clean out and things with his scent as you've suggested and introduce him to it for ten minutes a day for a few days? I wouldn't like to overwhelm him and dump him straight into it, I'd like to make the transition as smooth as possible I know he will be unsettled for a short time but whether its too much for him after all hes been through is entirely different

[cypher]

I think when you get hams that bite like this it can be a bit of trial & error figuring out the best way to interact with them as they are all different, not sure what else to suggest tbh.

You could try putting him in the new cage for short periods, some people do that, I never have personally I've always just swapped right over when I've upgraded cages always keeping as much from the old cage that's familiar as possible, obviously you need a lot more substrate in a bigger cage but you can just spread the old substrate over the top.

[MaryRobinson]

Well, well done Arnold’s new family! I can completely understand your frustration as we had a similar thing when we adopted Dora. She’s luckily not as bitey as Arnold but she was about the same age and similar background and all I can tell you is she’s much happier now and rarely nips... (only to say, ‘oy!’ Rather than meaning, ‘Grr, go AWAY!’ Apparently she regularly drew blood in her old home but only nipped me twice. She took to her bigger cage brilliantly and will even be held and stroked now... up to a point. Keep going. It’s taken us four months of many hours with Dora but what a happy little personality she is now. It’s worth it.

[Rads]

When I first got Ghost from P@H he used to chatter his teeth at me when I tried to handle him, he would also do his best to hide so I gave him a week to settle in and just spoke to him and fed him treats in a separate bowl to his normal food and after a few weeks he came round, he still isn't keen at times of being picked up but he puts up with it as he seems to know now that he gets out of cage time..
He still can be very skitterish, sometimes I go to stroke him and he jumps like he has stepped on a spring..!
Ghost lives in an Alaska cage which is nice and large and can be purchased quite cheaply from zooplus Ghost's 28cm Trixie wheel fits in it easily....

[Arnold Syrian Ham]

Loving all the comments and advice guys!

Arnold will now step out on to my hand but only as a platform from ball to playpen. I'm still pretty impressed he did this three times now before when I held my hand out he would bite and that would be that..he wouldn't get out of his ball or he would launch himself over my hand. He's not attempted to bite last three times doing this just apprehension due to nervousness. I'm not trying to put my hand near him right now tho in the pen I dont want to push it. Just worried he will try to start biting again. Not sure if this is the best way to go about trust but he really wouldn't have my hand any where near any other way maybe I can work up from this he does seem to be a very different from a lot of hams

[cypher]

It may be a small step but that still sounds like progress
They are all different so you just have to follow your instincts, I'm sure if you keep taking it slow as you are he will continue to get more comfortable with your hands & make more progress.