Help me! :(

[Boofle]

As some of you know I brought my Syrian home yesterday and yesterday she was friendly, curious etc. Today's been a different story - opened the cage and she jumped at my face! She bares her teeth aggressively and jumps a mile at every little thing you do (even just walking past the cage) and embarrassed though I am to admit it I'm too scared to pick her up now. I don't want to go the next two years or so like this. On top of that my cage is too small and she's nearly the size of a large rat! I wouldn't be able to get a new one until next month when it's my birthday. My experience is with dwarfs and I don't think I'll be able to handle this one... should I take her back? I don't take these things lightly at all but I think she might need a more experienced owner as she was older than the other hamsters and had been isolated for a month.

[kyrilliondaemon]

I'd just be patient for now. We've faced bigger challenges than were possibly smart (ok definetly not smart for us to take on actually...) and patience and care tends to win out in most situations in the end.

I'd also not try and handle her yet. You're scared, she's aggressive and its best for both of you if you learn to trust each other first.

I'd just minimise direct contact for a bit, and spend time near the cage, talking to the ham, watching her out of the cage and maybe talking occasionally then too. Wait until she lets you near the cage without being afraid. Sooner or later she'll start to realise you're ok (if she's jumping at everything I'm guessing fear is involved somewhere - it was for our non-aggressive jumpy hams), and then you can work slowly towards taming.

One thought though, I know it'll be a nightmare but can you go observe her as much as possible while she's in her cage? The sudden change is making me wonder if she's unwell so that needs to be ruled out before you make any decisions.

[Boofle]

Thanks for the reply! Out of interest, what sort of challenges have you faced with hamsters? I don't think she's unwell, I've been watching her for most of today, but will keep an eye on her.

[kyrilliondaemon]

The main ones have been our rescues, who turned out to be way more of a handful than we expected, and the less relevant challenge (and still a daily one) is keeping track of our russian group and making sure they stay friends. A lot of the time we've had to alter things and learn quickly so thats been a bit of an insane challenge too. Thats been partially patience, listening to the hams and a healthy amount of luck lol

But yeah, we got Skip and Whizz from the P@H adoption centre, and Skip would move around his cage if we were perfectly still. If we moved he was hiding.
Whizz on the other hand... If we moved on the opposite side of the room she dived into a hiding place.
We've had the challenge of working with those two and getting them over their pasts. Skip is now completely over it and interested in people, loves to know what our hands are doing in his cage/run, loves coming out, and behaves pretty normally.
Whizz... We've had her eight months and we've got her usually out in under 15 minutes, 30 at most (down from us setting aside an hour for coaxing her into her ball to come out - loves the ball, was just scared because we were near it), she'll play in her cage with us nearby, she's interested in us and sometimes brave enough to sniff our hands or take a treat from us.
The main thing though - both are relaxed living with us and confident and happy now

Took ages and taking on the challenge of helping both past horrible backgrounds was a bit of a big one, but its been worth it.
(They had problems on top of the fears too. Skip had also broken a leg and his tail before we got him, plus is permanently abnormally small and was underweight. Whizz was massively underweight and thought the appropriate idea for sleeping was curling up in a ball without bedding or under the substrate because she'd never had bedding or a substrate deep enough to sleep under.)

With Skip and Whizz patience was the major thing.

[fluffymunchkins]

I'd always advise people to stick at it and not give up on a hamster without a fight
If you gave her up, then shes only going to have the same problems with someone else.

She sounds potentially cage agressive, so may react differently when taken out the cage. You could try this by getting abox for her to climb into (wearing gloves if you wish) and then letting her climb into the bathtub,playtub or playpen
Syrians are so full of character and sometimes they just need to learn to trust, I assure you rewards with a nervous hamster are so wonderful x

[Jennajayjay]

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

The main ones have been our rescues, who turned out to be way more of a handful than we expected, and the less relevant challenge (and still a daily one) is keeping track of our russian group and making sure they stay friends. A lot of the time we've had to alter things and learn quickly so thats been a bit of an insane challenge too. Thats been partially patience, listening to the hams and a healthy amount of luck lol

But yeah, we got Skip and Whizz from the P@H adoption centre, and Skip would move around his cage if we were perfectly still. If we moved he was hiding.
Whizz on the other hand... If we moved on the opposite side of the room she dived into a hiding place.
We've had the challenge of working with those two and getting them over their pasts. Skip is now completely over it and interested in people, loves to know what our hands are doing in his cage/run, loves coming out, and behaves pretty normally.
Whizz... We've had her eight months and we've got her usually out in under 15 minutes, 30 at most (down from us setting aside an hour for coaxing her into her ball to come out - loves the ball, was just scared because we were near it), she'll play in her cage with us nearby, she's interested in us and sometimes brave enough to sniff our hands or take a treat from us.
The main thing though - both are relaxed living with us and confident and happy now

Took ages and taking on the challenge of helping both past horrible backgrounds was a bit of a big one, but its been worth it.
(They had problems on top of the fears too. Skip had also broken a leg and his tail before we got him, plus is permanently abnormally small and was underweight. Whizz was massively underweight and thought the appropriate idea for sleeping was curling up in a ball without bedding or under the substrate because she'd never had bedding or a substrate deep enough to sleep under.)

With Skip and Whizz patience was the major thing.

Gosh that's so sad.. I don't understand how anyone could mistreat anything with so much spunk, personality and love to give People can be bad humans to animals!


When it comes to taming, I find for particularly bitey hams, reeeaaallly thick thermal winter gloves are a big help! I've had Thor, the russian Dwarf for about 6 months now and only in the last week has he tamed enough to walk off the glove and onto my bare hand without biting me. It took forever, and my other half and I were very very tempted to take him to P@H adoption.. (only because we got him with his brother Loki, and he kept attacking Loki and we wasn't sure if we had enough space to keep the both of them in seperate cages) but then I realised that if I took him back then chances are he would end up being taken in by someone that would just leave him in his cage his entire life and not even try to help him.. and he would probably be left in a cage 10 times too small for him!

Thor really started coming round when we moved him from the Mini Duna we got for him, and into a 80cm long tank (the ferplast ratatout 80) He absolutely loves it and whizzes around like a king!

It took an awful lot of patience to get him to come around, but I wouldn't change him for the world. Even if he was still only able to be handled by glove, (and he still has to come out with glove) he's still a bit of a dude!

[Boofle]

Thanks for all the really helpful replies! Kyrilliondaemon you've inspired me to give it a go... if you can tame those hamsters I'm sure poor Luna's not a lost cause. As the cage I currently have is far too small I've just ordered a Hamster Heaven 80 on Zooplus! It cost me £55.16 using a 15% off for new customers code (PET15). I was watching one on eBay but it went for £62 so I'm glad I found this bargain!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Cool, and er... I wouldn't say we tamed them as such lol. More got Skip there in the end and got Whizz to a stage where she's a happy, confident (most of the time) and lovely little pet, rather than the "quiet thing in the cage that we only know is there because we can hear it when its dark and it thinks we're asleep" lol

Good luck with Luna, and please do keep us updated on how it all goes. I'm sure as long as you're patient with her you'll get there in the end, and when you get a big sign of improvement I'm sure you'll realise its all been worth it. I still haven't forgotten how thrilled I was the night Whizz didn't run off when we dropped mealworms into her cage and instead sat out in the open eating them. She even let me get photos and I was absurdly proud of our little girl for about a week afterwards lol
Might seem small but was a massive step forward with her and we'd worked towards the moment for months so it was absolutely fantastic for us
(Now she's better again, but that was where the huge breakthrough was and yeah, to be honest I think I'll always be proud of her because of how far she's come with us. Am pleased with Skip, but he always had the curiosity and was just nervous, whereas Whizz was nothing but scared of us.)

[p_anda]

I'd say just be patient for now, it will take her some times before she trusts you [and you trust her not to bite you], I never had a hamster that was tame from day one, Princess took an astonishing 3 months to tame, but now she's more trusting and friendly than any other hamster I ever had.

I would stop attempting to touch her altogether for now, just put her cage somewhere where it's close to you doing normal daily activities. When she's happy to walk around and play in her cage when you're about, that's when I would take the next step and try and hand feed her, etc. Once she's fine doing that, try just putting your hand in the cage without food and see how she reacts. If she's interested, try scooping her up and once you can do that, you're almost there.

Don't give up just yet, hamsters are sensitive and gentle creatures by nature, but they need time to get accustomed to their large and noisy humans, whom in their eyes, could be predators.

I hope all goes well for you.

[racinghamster]

I don`t have much to add to all the great advice already given. But just wanted to say that if you stick with it and take things slowly and patiently, I`m sure you will end up with a lovely companion. I`ve had my male syrian Boris since last June (he was seven months old when I rehomed him from my nephew) and even now, I havn`t actually picked him up bodily! I let Boris amble about, stroke him, give him kisses on his back as he walks about! and basically let him do the talking. My suspicions are that my lad is just a big scardy cat and still a wee bit aloof in nature, but otherwise he`s biddable. I`m actually going to spend more time with him now that my little chinese hamster has passed on. The touble has been that he sleeps all day and wakes up around 10:30pm when i`m in bed 45 minutes later! So we sort of meet in the middle unless I`m spot cleaning during the afternoon and he wakes up and comes out of his nest to see what`s going on!

I would love to be a lot closer to my syrian and hopefully, that will happen soon if I can get him into a routine that suits us both. He`s a gorgeous big golden lad with a face that would melt even the toughest!

My moto is, if a hamster or other small animal is returned to a shop due to being bitey or not proving to be what the new owner thought it would be, is taking him or her back to an uncertain fate really. It could end up never being homed because anyone without the patience of a saint won`t challenge the behaviour. That`s where we step in! Even if it means using an oven glove!!!

Good luck with your task and you will get plenty of help on here every step of the way. x