Started off on the wrong note w baby hamster

[allabouteve]

Hi everyone! New poster here. I brought home a new syrian hamster last weekend. He is about 4-5 weeks old now. Absolutely handsome fella, but very skittish (which I assume is normal for his age).

Since bringing him home, I have left him in his cage to settle in. He sleeps most of the time and usually wakes up in the middle of the night (some time past 3 am) to drink water and grab food from his food dish. He is eating his food, and his poop looks normal. I have not tried to handle him yet, as he still seems very frightened. If I happen to walk by when he's out in his cage, he would pause and dash straight back into his hut. Since Tuesday I have started to offer him veggies with my hand.

So this evening, I added some new toys and tunnels to his cage. I also thought that maybe we could start interacting. So I lured him out of his hut into his favourite paper tunnel. When I lifted the paper tunnel (with him in it) to get a good look, he suddenly jumped out and landed outside his cage. After a brief episode of mutual panic, I managed to get him back into his cage. He has been in his hut ever since, and I plan to leave him alone for the rest of the night and tomorrow.

I have had several hamsters before and have done a bit of reading on taming new hamster babies, but I am not quite sure how to proceed with this situation. This is my first time bringing such a young hamster home. I feel like our relationship has taken a few steps back after this incident. My intuition is that I should leave my hamster alone for 2-3 days before I even try to give him a treat by hand? What sort of exercises would you guys suggest from this point forward?

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

[SarahJ]

Everything youve said about your ham is normal for a young ham, so dont worry about that.

I would start by sitting near his cage and talking to him in a quiet voice so he gets used to you being around. you could put a piece of old clothing in his cage so he gets used to your smell, put the bit of clothing in your pocket etc. for a day and then add this to his cage.

How offen are you giving him veg?

[Hope]

Firstly hi and welcome to the forum!

Young hams are pretty skitty, and all that you have described sounds perfectly normal for a baby hammy.

Try not to worry too much about dropping him (as long as it wasnt from a great height!) they tend to forget about little incidents like this pretty quickly, I am sure that we worry about it more than they do actually!

It sounds as if you are doing everything right, taking it slowly and giving him time to settle, which is great. Sarahs suggestion of putting an old peice of clothing in the cage is a good one (just be carful they dont nibble at it). I did this with my syrian, but with a tissue that I kept down my bra (lol) for a while (but you could stuff it up a sleeve or in a sock) and then ripped up and put in her cage.

If you are worried about dropping him again I would recommend taking him into a dry bath with you. Herd him into a box, or his ball and get into the bath with him, let him have a good climb about and explore, this will get him used to your smell and your voice. You can try stroking him gentley on his back, and when you feel confident try cupping your hands around him and scooping him up. The more often you do it the more he will get used to it. It is still early days yet and you are both learning about each other still.

Try not to give him veg too often - too much soft food can cause upset tummies (about 2-3 times a weeks is fine) other treats you can try are monkey nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds to name a few.

[Fidgetthefirst]

yeah it sounds as if your doing everything right
I can only echo what the others have said; good luck x

[allabouteve]

Thanks everyone for your input! I didn't really drop him from a great height (I was sitting on the floor when it happened).

I tried the old-cloth idea a few days ago, but hamster just ignored it and used the cage bedding for his nest. LOL. I fail.

[Hope]

Not at all, its in his cage and thats your scent in 'his' domain - its a good start!

[Humphrey Furball]

Hello, welcome to HC Try not to worry about your hammie, it takes a while for them to build up their confidence, not because you are doing anything "wrong", it's just hamster nature! The best thing to do is just keep going with regular daily interaction; it has taken me about 2 months to get my Syrian to be happy sitting in my hand - at first he would squeak when I tried to pick him up, and would jump right off my hand and scamper away, but tonight, I got quite a cuddle! Bribery with treats (tho as others said, only a tiny bit of veg a couple of times a week) is always popular, and just keep trying to persuade your hammie to do what you want him to; he might act like he doesn't like you at times, but he will probably surprise you Hope is right, they do seem to forgive/forget little incidents of frights quite quickly; if possible try to be confident and they pick up on that and get more confident with you. Good luck, keep us posted on your progress.

[Sammybingo]

All good advice . Hamsters forget things like that very fast.
Even now, after about 10 months I sit by my hamsters cage chatting away at him and letting him sniff my hand before I get him out - probably more relaxing for me than him. Chatting and hand sniffing are basically all the taming tricks I use - never really had a problem hamster. Well, Peaches took about two weeks. The odd bit of bribery with monkey nuts and yoghurt drops works wonders too.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes

[allabouteve]

Thank you so much for all your advice!

It has been 2 weeks since I introduced my hamster into my home. He's about 5-6 weeks old now, slightly smaller than an adult hamster. He is still too afraid to come out of his hut to play whenever I am nearby (he only comes out when I'm out or am asleep). Is this "normal"?

[brighthair]

hey - have a look at my thread here, might help

Taming help?