Change of personality

[anorak]

Hi, I have had little Noodles for 4 days now. To begin with she was super friendly and gave us kisses and everything. She liked to walk around on us without so much as a nip. Well, on Monday my boyfriend looked after her all day and he had a nip from her. I got in from work and she was fine and then she started to chew on my boyfriends hoodie strings. He panicked as they are plastic on the end so he shouted me over to try and remove Noodles. Well I did and BITE! Drew blood! Thing is I was close to the floor and with the shock I dropped her. I nearly cried and couldn't even eat afterwards. She was fine. She had a yoghurt drop and played on her wheel and cleaned herself etc....

Thing is all she is doing is sleeping (TBH she did a lot of that anyway!) She doesn't want to come out. She is eating and drinking, but she has just become really anti social with us. I was going to to the tub training today, but I don't want to get her out of her house!

Help! She is only 8 weeks old and I am worried that she hates us! :(

[fluffymunchkins]

First of all don't stress, 4 days isn't long and she'll settle and develop her personality and bond with you in time.
Hamsters like other animals can sense panic and tension in a person holding them,when your bf paniced it made her worried too and when you came over she just lashed out in fear really. Spur of the moment sort of thing.
Baby hamsters do tend to sleep quite a lot, she may also feel a bit sore from the fall.
Liek i said shes still developing her personality and character at themoment and you may find her sleeping habits change.
As long as she seems healthy, just take it slow, sometimes they need a little gentle budge to get them out of bed. As long as its not too often,maybe a specific time each day,she'll soon learn when playtime is and may even start getting up at that time.

Try to be very calm when handling her, if she nips its best not to flinch

[anorak]

Thank you very much for you advice! We have just enticed her out of her house with a yoghurt treat. She is as active as ever and is eating and drinking. I am going to get her out every night at 9.30pm. And tomorrow or Thursday will be the bath tub training session!

I can't wait to actually take a good photo of her so you can all see my silly little Noodle face!

Thank you again! This being a first time Mum is hard! :D

[Humphrey Furball]

Good luck with the training; I have found the bath tub invaluable in bonding with my hamster. Try a towel in the bottom for comfort (yours and hers!), and have a few treats handy. Mine is eager to get out of his travel-pod and explore; last night involved a lot of trotting around, up and down over my legs, and he eventually curled up for a nap, leaving me sitting on my own in the bath with no-one to play with! I hope that means he is completely comfortable with me, not that I'm boring ;)

[anorak]

Hehe that sounds brilliant! I can't wait till she is comfortable with us! I have found out that so far she is not that fussed about broccoli, has a little nibble on cucumber, but totally loves the tasty yoghurt treats! (Only once a day, not giving her any tomorrow though, too many treats = a tubby hammy!

[Fidgetthefirst]

You havent had her for long, she still needs to settle into a routine, and just get comfortable :) Hamsters chew on lots of things, yes its best to not let her chew that plastic, and dont worry im sure most of us have had a nip from our hamsters! I have! Hamster bites hurt, but i dont think they mean it, Milo bit me when i made him jump by accident! :/ So im sureit was just the shock of it being pulled while she was chewing. Im sure she doesnt hate you :)

[anorak]

Thank you! I hope not!

[LocoRocoPanda]

You shouldn't worry too much. She'll pick up on that. And I know how scary it is when a hamster bites. When Aizen bit me the other week what didn't help was me crying and when I screamed in shock. But put that memory out of your mind or it'll make you nervous when you handle her.
Bath tub taming is awesome and it's great you've found a treat she really loves.

[anorak]

Thank you! I still think of it now! Poor little Hammy, she must have wondered what the heck was going on. :(

Hopefully tonight will be the bath tub night!

[Gareth2010]

Fingers crossed for you.

My Nippy who is 6 months old had a change of personality when we brought home a new hamster the other week, Jerry's cage is about a foot away from Nippy's and for the first few days Nippy wasn't active at all, He stayed in his bed and I could tell he was in a mood lol, I tried to pick him out and he bit me! First time ever! So I left him for a day and he was back to his normal self, climbing, gnawing, running and is so soft with me he'll sit on me and while i'm eating a banana he'll happily sit on my chest and eat a bit too!

It was a strange few days, Maybe Nippy was jealous he wasn't alone anymore?