I am not edible!

[NaomiECRankin]

Hi,

I have a young male Syrian, he is good with being handled. We are careful to also do this on his terms and respect his territory. Often however, he will climb onto my hand and sniff me then tentatively nibble and or bite- this is fine apart from his teeth are incredibly sharp and I bleed! Suggestions?

I have used food to tame him.

[Nush]

Does he bite when he is in his cage or when you’re handling him outside of the cage? They are more territorial in the cage. If you’re still taming, you could get him out of the cage and then handle him.

Also the general advice when a hamster bites is not to remove your hand, but if it’s a painful bite that draws blood, it’s hard not to take your hand away. I’d suggest wearing gloves. Whenever he bites (inside or outside his cage), don’t react. Don’t put him back in the cage because he’ll learn to bite every time he wants.

There are other methods, like blowing on them when they bite and saying ‘No’ or giving them a soft tap them on their nose every time they bite. You can try these methods if you feel confident with them but as long as you’re consistent I’m sure you’ll get him to stop biting. Best of luck:)

[cactus]

My Syrian boys are quite well behaved but the one gave me a sharp nip last night. He seemed to think my hand was food, he buries all his food and as he wriggled on my lap he found a finger after burrowing under my other hand and nibbled as he thought he'd found one of his snacks. Other than the advice already given all I can suggest is that you wash your hands before handling him so he will be less likely to think you're food! From what you've said it sounds like a curiosity bite rather than an aggressive one. Check his body language if he does it again. If he's hunched down and looks a bit like he'll pounce if you put your hand near him then that might hint at aggression, if his body is stretched out or he's on his back legs then I'd think he was just playing and needs a bit more taming. This is how my two seem to behave anyway. Hope some of this helps.