Hamsters strange behaviour..

[bbbarker]

I got my first female Syrian Tibbles about a couple of weeks ago, prior to me re homing her she had been handled and was half tamed, so before today she had been doing so well, jumping on my hand and letting me stroke her. Well tonight like any other night she got in her ball (she loves her ball) and after an hour I put her in a large plastic container and was putting my hand in the cage flat like I always do for her to climb on my hand well tonight she came to my hand straight away and start viciously biting, luckily I was wearing thick gloves because I'm still a little nervous on her biting me. I'm so disheartened by this, and I know hamsters can take two steps forward and one step back with taming but she was really viciously biting. If anyone has any advice it would be appreciated:(

[velma]

I don't know, were there any loud noises or anything like that? Have you got anything on your glove that would have made it smelt like food? Or smelt of something she could have reacted to? (Not the same thing I know but one of my cats goes mental at the smell of deep heat). It may be worth keeping an eye on her in case she's coming down with something. Is she eating & drinking normally?
I'm sorry I'm not much use but I mainly wanted to say I understand how upset you must be. It's a hard confidence knock when you're progressing so well. I hope someone can give you some better answers & that Tibbles settles down soon.

[bbbarker]

Could it have been because I was handling my male Syrian prior to handling her with the same glove? Thinking about it that may have been why, she's behaving her normal self eating and drinking:/

[velma]

I don't have any experience with that but I think I've read posts on here before where one gender hamster has gone a bit peculiar due to another gender. Might be worth handling her with something other than "man hamster" gloves & see if she's back to normal when you do? :)

[Thin Lizzy]

It could be that.
The only suggestion would be to have a separate pair of gloves for your hammies.

[bbbarker]

I am going to have seperate gloves for the hamsters so will try again tonight, fingers crossed the biting stops. She was biting that hard I could feel it through the gloves haha

[Thin Lizzy]

Their teeth are sharp, when twinkle bit me about 4 months ago, I had 2 holes in my finger and blood dripping. I was convinced she was a vampire lol!
She's never bitten me since!

[bbbarker]

Well tonight I tried handling again with different gloves this time and the same thing happened, not as bad as yesterday but still biting. Funnily enough the same thing is happening with my other a Syrian Bruno. I've had Bruno for well over a month and still in the taming process (due to him having barely any human interaction before me because he was from a pet shop) he was doing so well climbing on my hand taking treats off me, and now he's started biting. I just don't know where I'm going wrong, I come home from a long day at college and every single night they come out of there cages for hours especially Tibbles she loves being out of her cage, to be honest I spend the rest of my night in my bedroom with them. I'm not complaining I love them to bits it's just disheartening when it when from good to terrible in the space of a day, I just can't think of anything that can be bothering them. Tibbles used to love her ball she'd jump straight into it and run around my room for hours but now she still jumps in her ball but just doesn't run around as much and she has been biting her ball (she is a chewer thought, she's terrible with her cage). I know there hamsters and there not purposely at it to upset me, it's just the fact this all went bad in a day, how does that even happen? I'm sorry for going on and being so negative but I needed to get it out, none of my family or friends understand my love for hamsters so I feel most comfortable on here:(

[Thin Lizzy]

Maybe, it's time to go back to the tissue trick and take it slowly from there.
I know you feeling disheartened but give it a go.

[cypher]

Don't get too disheartened, taming sometimes goes like this for no apparent reason, I'd agree with Lizzy that you may need to just go back to the beginning & start over, that's not as bad as it sounds as things usually go quicker when you do that.
Don't forget the colder weather can play a part too, sometimes when it's cold they're just less inclined to come out & play so it's not the best time for taming.