hammy suddenly seems petrified

[xmhairix]

Hi, just looking for a bit of help. We got a new hammy about a month ago he was a baby and had been handled from a young age and was very friendly. We gave him 2 days to settle in then started getting him used to us, handling etc and he was brilliant, coming up for playtime etc. Unfortunately this last week this all changed, he seems petrified. I've had to wake him a few times to make sure he is still with us when he does come out he just sits and shakes and even the tiniest movement next to his cage sends him flying skittishly actoss the cage. I don't know what has caused this change. We have another hammy who has a cage in the same room, its another male and they've never had contact and we hae 2 gerbils who are kept in another room nowhere near the hams. I do have two young kids 3 and 4 years old who never go near the cages but could the noise from the kifs during the day be causing hammy some stress? I don't know what to do as I don't want to freak him out any more. Please help me.

[Sandti]

Have you recently got any other pets like a dog or a cat? My hamster got petrified and was like frozen and moving really slowly when we were looking after my boyfriends Mum's dog.

[xmhairix]

No other pets apart from those mentioned. Oh and I should also mention that he is in an alaska cage :-)

[strawberrysmom]

I have a 3 year old who is SUPER loud and a 3 month old who of course cries a lot and I have ALL my critters in the living room where we spend most of our time. A Syrian, two Robos, a Dwarf, 2 Gerbils. My Syrian was surprisingly tame when we brought him home but month later became weird like you have described. I too thought maybe the loudness of the children was getting to him. And the smells of the other hamsters. So I put him in another room. But even then he was skittish. So I put him back in the living room as before where all the action and smells are.

I just started over at square one taming him. Doing all the tips I got from reading posts here on the subject. The bathtub method and always taking him out with a treat he loves as a reward and letting him free range so that he always associated me with positive things. It worked. He's tame again just as he was before.

Not sure what caused the regression but my best guess was something traumatic. I had him in a huge high cage and I saw one of the hammocks corner hooks had been undone (like he chewed it maybe) and he probably fell. Because it was sometime around that point in time that I noticed the change.

He's fine now though. Took some patience and extra effort but all is good. Never seems stressed at all or afraid of us.