Taming my baby robo

[heatherflower]

Hi all

I got my hamster on saturday, my first for many years... i am guessing he is a robo, as he looks like all the pictures i've seen of them!

Anyway, he has been mostly sleeping since i got him, although he has been out and about at night casue he has eaten food and used his sand bath. I decided to start waking him up, as suggested in other posts, but he was a bit peeved, and scared at this! is this normal?

I managed to get him out and let him crawl over me for a bit, but he was super fast, and a bit panicked i think... any tips on calming him down?

i guess the trick is perseverence, but i don't want to upset him too much! any help would be greatly appreciated...

thanks!

[souffle]

Hello and welcome Heatherflower. I think you are our first Jersey member
You little one is still very new and he is likely hiding away till all is quiet in the night then he comes out. It will take time for him to settle and with patience and kindness he will tame. Robos can be very speedy as you may have noticed from our robo section but there are also many success stories there of happy owners with now tame robos. I am sure Tammy will come on and offer some advice soon.
Keep us posted on your progress.

[heatherflower]

thanks for the reply! I have started a regime of waking Boris up every evening at the same time and stroking him and letting him crawl over my hand whilst being in a washing up bowl, and he seems to be calming a bit... hopefully a little every day will get him used to us, i will keep you updated!

[Tammy22]

Hi HeatherFlower,

nice to have a new Robo owner on here

You guessed it, patience and perseverance is what you need lots of when trying to tame Roborovskis, well, any hamster really, lol!

Roborovskis are naturally speedy, so you must always be ready to catch them if they escape. Once you get used to their speed you will be able to guess what they will do next, so you will be able to get used to handling them.

Also the more you handle your nes Robo the more he will get used to being handled, you will probably do very well too, because he is living on his own, so he is more likely to bond with you as he has no cage mates.

Hope you enjoy you new pet, just let me know if you need any info.

Kind Regards,

Tammy x

[ad36]

Could I add to this by asking, as they are so skittish when trying to tame with handling, is it best just to scoop them up and hold them for a few seconds in your closed hands or keep trying with the holding your hand flat and waiting for them to come to it? Just wondered which would be the recommended approach that does not frighten them?

[Tammy22]

Until you have actually tamed them or part tamed them you will probably have to scoop them up as they will very rarely climb on to your hand if they are not tame.

Once they are on your hand i would recommend trying not to enclose them as, in my oppinion, this stresses them out and causes them to want to escape. I believe that the best thing to do is to keep your hand flat and apply as little pressure as possible when trying to stroke them, at least until they are tame or part tame.

I know some people disagree and have their own methods, such as enclosing them, but my method works perfectly well for me, as you can see from my recent post in the 'Breeding Section'.

Tammy x