[Fluffagrams]

Don't give up hope just yet.

Cookie is still young and he may just need a little more time to be sure of himself. Was he from a pet shop? I've noticed that some of my pet shop hamsters have taken a little bit longer to accept handling and unfortunately there's no saying how long this might take as all hamsters are different.

I know it can be disheartening particularly if you were hoping they'd be the kind of hamster that enjoys a cuddle but they seem to have their own personal agendas and regardless of what you do to encourage them, they won't deviate from this agenda. It took four months before one of my girls was happy to spend any time being held simply because she wanted to play and explore her world. I just tried to interact with her in the ways that she would allow in the hope that giving her that time would gain her trust.

As Cookie is happy to take food from you, this can be used to help get his trust. I used to put seeds on the palm of my hand when I was encouraging Jessie and I'd just let her nibble at them without trying to pick her up or stroke her. Sometimes she'd sit on my hand to eat her seeds, other times she wouldn't. Hopefully you'll find that after a couple of weeks doing this, he'll begin to accept more contact without getting stressed out. Just make sure you wash your hands beforehand using an unscented soap though because he might mistake your hands for food if they smell too yummy!