My finger is not a chew...

kroolGato · 10-02-2014, 03:33 PM

I have been trying to tame my Syrian girl for some time now, the progress is good, she is not scared of my hand as much, lets me touch and stroke her but no matter what I do she seems to want to eat my finger. And I know, she doesn't do it out of fear, she just wants to nibble on it. I tried taming method with placing treats on my palm and she just ignores the food and goes straight for my fingers. Washing my hands and using hand gel doesn't makes a difference and gloves just generally freak her out. What can I do to stop her? I don't think taming will work in that rate because i wont ever get to try and handle her if she will keep trying to eat me!

Shannonmcn · 10-02-2014, 04:06 PM

My syrian does this too, she genuinely thinks fingers are food. I just keep moving my fingers out of the way until she notices the treat. They can smell the tasty thing and your finger tips still probably smell of it and are the closest thing to her nose. Do you have your hands near her or stroke her when you're not giving her a treat to get her used to the concept of fingers without food being involved at all?

Baby Grrr · 10-02-2014, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kroolGato

I have been trying to tame my Syrian girl for some time now, the progress is good, she is not scared of my hand as much, lets me touch and stroke her but no matter what I do she seems to want to eat my finger. And I know, she doesn't do it out of fear, she just wants to nibble on it. I tried taming method with placing treats on my palm and she just ignores the food and goes straight for my fingers. Washing my hands and using hand gel doesn't makes a difference and gloves just generally freak her out. What can I do to stop her? I don't think taming will work in that rate because i wont ever get to try and handle her if she will keep trying to eat me!

do you ever put like sented lotion that smells like food?

cypher · 10-03-2014, 12:34 AM

What hand gel are you using? I would just use unscented soap & nothing else.
Will she take treats from your fingers, is she does that it may help her to realise that hands aren't food before you try putting it on your palm.

kroolGato · 10-03-2014, 01:37 AM

Interesting thing is that she will bite me only if my fingers are in close reach to her mouth, I can still stroke her without food being there but if I have no food and put my fingers infront of her she will still go for a bite. She takes food from me if I give it to her directly but that's because it comes first. Everything I use on my hands before taming is unscented...

cypher · 10-03-2014, 01:48 AM

Hopefully she'll get over it with time & some patience on your part! I've been having a similar problem with my baby hybrid & she will sometimes still bite if I put my hand in her cage with food on it but if I let her climb out of the cage onto my hand she's fine, no biting at all & once she's in my hand she doesn't bite.
I'm not sure what else to suggest, sometimes I think we just have to try & work with them to see what works for each ham.
Do try (hard though it can be!) not to react to her biting though as that is like a kind of reward for what they're doing.