My Robo hamster has recently started to bite/nip my hand... why?!

[happythehamster]

Hello everyone,

I've had two Robo hamsters, Happy (inspiration for my username) and Lucky for about a year and 9 months now. Initially I was told they were both girls, but my vet later confirmed that Lucky was a boy. They lived together for the first three weeks, but I quickly put them into separate cages when Happy started to bite Lucky and have very noisy fights (despite their small bodies!).

For many months Happy was indeed very happy in her cage, running up and down the tubes and the wooden ladder, sleeping by day and running in her wheel by night, like any other hamster. Until recently. About six to eight weeks ago, she suddenly started to nip and bite at my hand each time I reached inside her cage to feed her (I feed both hamsters from the palm of my hand.)

Happy also began to bite my index finger when I tried to stroke her back. I see this as her trying to protect herself from being attacked by my finger, so now I try not to stroke her if she looks like she's 'on alert'

I am perplexed at why she was fine for such a long time and suddenly started to bite recently? Sometimes they are gentle 'nips' and other times they are quite painful 'I'm-telling-you-who's-boss' bites. Does my hand smell different after I got a new hand wash? Is she 'in season', as a member of my family suggests?

Any insight would be welcome!

[cypher]

Has her behaviour changed in any other way? My first thought if a ham suddenly starts biting when nothing has changed that you can think of that might have caused it is that the ham is unwell or in pain, they are quite good at hiding signs of illness but can get nippy as they feel more vulnerable, threatened or if something is hurting them.
If she's other wise the same as ever, active, eating & drinking ok, ears up & looking bright it may be something else entirely though, can you think of anything that might be disturbing her, other animals, unusual noises or anything like that?
ETA I missed the bit about new hand wash, sorry! It could be that, although I would imagine she would get used to it in time & it's not that likely to make her bite, it's always best to use an unscented hand wash or soap, if the timing's right then just switch back to the old one & see if that helps.

[velma]

Like Cypher said, changes of behaviour can indicate they're unwell or in pain. But just to add, Hector my robo is about that sort of age and as he's aged he tends to lunge at me a bit more than before. He's always got a bit over excited & launched himself at the treat I'm holding, with very occasionally my fingers getting in the way. Not often but sometimes these days it's more of a "go away" lunge. Hector may not be the best example as he is a little "unique" he's never liked me touching him though so I can't help you there. But it may just be age. Be sure to discount injury and llness though by observing their behaviour and making sure they are not favouring one leg more than the other.

[happythehamster]

Hello cypher,
Thank you for your information, I can't think of any other changes to her behaviour, her eyes are bright, she's eating, drinking, active as before and looking bright as ever. She is actually quite hyper active compared to her brother Lucky, who is more laid back and friendly (and doesn't bite.) About the hand wash, I will switch back to the old one (it had a slight lemon scent) and see if it makes any difference.

[happythehamster]

Hello velma,
Thank you for your information, it's interesting about your Hector is doing things slightly differently than before, maybe that is what's happening to Happy too. I didn't know about favouring one leg more than the other, I'll take a quick look and check when Happy wakes up this evening

[velma]

If they've fallen off something & hurt their leg they could have a slight limp and put all their weight on their other legs

[happythehamster]

After a few weeks, and trying different types of soap, it seems that Happy likes the smell of Pears transparent soap and does not bite me ferociously any more, she just gives me a playful nip occasionally. Thank you for all your suggestions.

[flowerfairy]

Glad things have improved now that you have found Happy's preferred hand wash!

How lovely that you can feed them from your hand. Fairy runs off at the sight of me and Flower runs off if I try to open her cage...