Hamster Central - View Single Post

Pebbles82 · 07-19-2019, 04:17 PM

It's always a good idea to wash your hands in between handling hamsters anyway - it avoids one catching something from the other (which can happen) but yes she would have smelled the other hamster's scent. That might be part of it but I think it's more to do with her not being settled yet or tamed, and having a hand in the cage. They can get quite territorial and feel threatened. Also use very plain soap when washing your hands - no honey scented or flowery soaps or they can bite thinking you're food.

What cage is she in? Our first syrian was like this at first and hated a hand in his cage. It was actually cage rage. He was in an awful badly ventilated rotostak thing with top opening. Once I upgraded him to a single larger, barred cage he was like a different hamster.

For now I would put the food out when she's asleep and avoid putting your hand in the cage at any other time, until she has fully acclimatised to the cage (it can take a good two weeks without moving or changing anything or cleaning anything).

So it sounds like a combination of - smelling the other hamster in her territory, especially when she's still quite new to the cage - a hand in the cage and possibly the cage itself not being right? But that depends what cage you have. And possibly the soap?

07-19-2019, 04:17 PM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Running Around Biting Everything? It's always a good idea to wash your hands in between handling hamsters anyway - it avoids one catching something from the other (which can happen) but yes she would have smelled the other hamster's scent. That might be part of it but I think it's more to do with her not being settled yet or tamed, and having a hand in the cage. They can get quite territorial and feel threatened. Also use very plain soap when washing your hands - no honey scented or flowery soaps or they can bite thinking you're food. What cage is she in? Our first syrian was like this at first and hated a hand in his cage. It was actually cage rage. He was in an awful badly ventilated rotostak thing with top opening. Once I upgraded him to a single larger, barred cage he was like a different hamster. For now I would put the food out when she's asleep and avoid putting your hand in the cage at any other time, until she has fully acclimatised to the cage (it can take a good two weeks without moving or changing anything or cleaning anything). So it sounds like a combination of - smelling the other hamster in her territory, especially when she's still quite new to the cage - a hand in the cage and possibly the cage itself not being right? But that depends what cage you have. And possibly the soap?