Giving treats ends up in being bitten, what to do now?

[BlobHammy]

Hello all! (long post, please bear with me, I'm trying to explain to the best of my ability so there won't be too many question marks about other stuff)

A couple of days ago, Pip (little Russian winter white) bit me probably because my hands smelled like coconut and because I was giving him a treat he probably thought there was more than just that little sunflower seed and chomped down hard (stupid me forgot to wash my hands properly) and drew blood too, also this treat was given from the palm of my hand, which I've done so many times before with him to try and bond a little bit (make him less afraid of my hand) and he's never bit before, it's since the coconut thing where he's started to do it every single time I've tried to reward him with a small treat.

I've left him alone as I've been told to do and take it slow with the taming process, and I've not tried to "tame" him as such, I just try and give him his food in his bowl and do some cage maintenance (removing poop etc) He comes out of his little house to see what's going on (I don't wake him up, he just comes out on his own accord), he will brush against my hand and run in his wheel and hoard some of his food and take it to his house (I do not disturb this process as I know you shouldn't)

I sit by his cage when he is properly awake and talk to him in a soft voice and he comes up to the cage bars and starts climbing them, to what I think, my voice, not sure how to interpret this?
I opened the cage yesterday and he willingly climbed out into my hands and ran over my arms before wanting to go back down into the cage, where I put him and because this is the second interaction I've had with him, I thought well that was good behaviour so I spoke to him in an encouraging voice and wanted to give him a sunflower seed from between my two finger nails and then just leave him alone to play in his wheel, he takes the seed puts it in his cheeks and then I try to very slowly move my hand away, because I know I'm a bit weary and being too quick might startle him, but he managed to catch up and just bite me hard instantly, not even a nibble and note that I've been using unscented soap. I know that you're not supposed to flinch,yell or for that matter not do anything at all to teach him it's not a food and to show him that biting doesn't do anything and keep him on your hand, but the problem is Pip doesn't just bite once, he does it to multiple fingers and I don't want to sit there with him drawing blood on all my finger tips.

Today I do his cage maintenance he comes out as usual and walks around me and starts to hoard his food, he comes out of his house and manages to get between my fingers and seemed to brush through them, so I let him and he was being generally playful, so I offer him my hand to sit on, which he does and walks up my arms and down again as he seems to do. This time I think well I will just put the treat near him, not even offer it between my fingers, so I put the seed down and he rushes over to it takes it and rushes over to my finger (super fast little hammy) and because I don't want to scare him I try and pull my hand away gently, and again he bites me, but hangs onto me! I blew in his face and he let go while trying to not flinch out of pain (it is painful).

I had the advice to use gloves, but as I was sure he didn't do it out of aggression I thought I'd try and handle him without the gloves, since he seemed playful and I'm out of luck since I get bitten again as I try and reward his good behaviour, just seems like I cannot give my hamster a treat without getting bitten and I'm not sure as to why he's doing it? I try and "wash" my hands in his cage bedding/wood shavings so I smell more like him and I make sure not to handle food before I even handle him.

He doesn't bite me otherwise, but when he did today I blew on his face and didn't want to let go and drew blood again, on both my thumb and one of my other fingers on the same hand. I'm getting incredibly discouraged to even try and tame him in the future, I'm not looking forward to it.

Can anyone help me at all? maybe give some good advice as to how to go from here with him? I will be using gloves from now on, I simply don't trust him not to chomp me at all.
I'm not being pushy with him or treat him bad and I'm not trying to rush him into being tamed, I want to take it at the hamsters pace, but being bitten to the point where he's drawn blood so many times I'm a bit desperate to get some advice from experienced people, maybe a good guide? I've read the taming guide for timid hamsters/owners, but I cannot even get past the treat part because he will just bite me..

Also I'm building him a bin cage, nice large, clear, 80 L bin with lots of space at the bottom, that I'm going to hook up to his main cage when it's finished through a tube so he has a lot more space to roam, I've bought him some toys and made some myself too! I know he will need more space and I'm making sure he is getting that so nothing to worry about in terms of room for the hamster, he seems perfectly fine in his current cage as he enjoys running through the tubes and onto his wheel and I know he enjoys his hamster ball, but after he bit me today I was too afraid to put him into the ball since I know I will have to reward him afterwards and I don't wanna get bit anymore.

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to the forum.

It's sounds as though taming is coming along fine other than the biting problem which is something they do sometimes do when they begin to gain in confidence & are getting used to being hand fed, it usually just means "I want more, where is it!"
You're doing well with your response, I know how painful those bites can be & how hard it is not to jump or yell sometimes but if you can just gently lift him off the hand he's biting & put him back in the cage when he does this, they do usually get the idea & stop after a while if you're consistent & don't reward biting with more treats or responding to the bite.
Gloves can help sometimes but at some point you will want to go back to handling him without gloves & he may start doing it again but it could be worth a try.
The other option is to not hand feed for a while, just let him come out & run around on you then reward him with treats when he goes back into the cage.
Personally I don't like hamster balls for dwarf hams, they can get hurt too easily & many hams actually don't like them although they will still run in them as they don't have a lot of choice if they want to get out!
A play pen, play bin or any safe area is much better & you can make it a lot more interesting with toys & things to explore.

[Penguin]

Ugh I really want to give my input but I'm at work. I will reply in a few hours

[BlobHammy]

Originally Posted by cypher

Hi & welcome to the forum.

It's sounds as though taming is coming along fine other than the biting problem which is something they do sometimes do when they begin to gain in confidence & are getting used to being hand fed, it usually just means "I want more, where is it!"
You're doing well with your response, I know how painful those bites can be & how hard it is not to jump or yell sometimes but if you can just gently lift him off the hand he's biting & put him back in the cage when he does this, they do usually get the idea & stop after a while if you're consistent & don't reward biting with more treats or responding to the bite.
Gloves can help sometimes but at some point you will want to go back to handling him without gloves & he may start doing it again but it could be worth a try.
The other option is to not hand feed for a while, just let him come out & run around on you then reward him with treats when he goes back into the cage.
Personally I don't like hamster balls for dwarf hams, they can get hurt too easily & many hams actually don't like them although they will still run in them as they don't have a lot of choice if they want to get out!
A play pen, play bin or any safe area is much better & you can make it a lot more interesting with toys & things to explore.

Thank you! this forum seems great!

The hamster ball was only a temporary thing anyway while I'm building his play pen and his bin cage, I've been doing some more research on the internet and because there are SO many contradictions on the hamster ball I've decided that I only use the ball now to transport him from his play pen to his cage and vice versa with an open top, I'd much rather try and get him out of his cage and let him roam around freely in a hamster safe area with toys I've created (lollipop fort!) which I'm working on as well!
Thank you for your reply, I feel a bit better now, I never yell or shout, I just blow softly until he disengages and then gently put him back into his cage anyway, and I will just take it slow with Pip for a while, until I feel a bit safer/confident handling him, because I read that if I'm afraid Pip will certainly emulate that feeling and feel scared too, so I think it's more worthwhile when my confidence gets back up with him.
I will still talk to him and do his cage maintenance and if he wants on my hands he can, but I won't really play with him as such.
I've also tried to do the tissue technique, and will try and put another tissue in his cage later on maybe eventually he will realise that I'm not some nommy treat haha.
Patience I imagine then? and a lot more patience haha.
He's a friendly little hammy about 15 weeks old now so he's essentially still really young, so hopefully I can train him out of the I want more treats let me eat your fingers habit he seems to have developed.

[Penguin]

Alright, i'm off

To me it sounds like you have done really well and I really like the patience and understanding you have for the little guy. A lot of people would have misunderstood him by now.

Pip is still young and it doesn't sound like he has had a lot of human interaction before coming to your place. It is not at all uncommon for young hamsters to bite (as cypher said) when you introduce them to hand feeding. One of the reasons is probably that he associated your scent with food and has to learn what can be eaten and what cannot!
You mentioned that you had already tried the tissue trick. If I were you, I would keep doing it and give him some fresh tissue daily. That way, he should start linking your scent to something that isnt necessarily associated with food, but just something pleasant and homely (:

Whenever I get a new ham, this biting always makes me nervous, but so far all of them stopped biting within a reasonable short time from when I got them. That is, aside from one who was extremely fascinated by fingertips! Took him a little while to understand that fingertips werent meant to be nommed
First time it even caught me by surprise so I flinched and I sent him flying a good 15 cm into the air. Luckily he landed on his bedding and didnt get hurt.

I would love to see your project when you are done! Pip is a lucky ham, he is going to love the surprise!
Keep up the good work, I know it can be discouraging but you are doing great! And everything didn't go wrong, sounds like you managed to get him pretty confident around you already

[BlobHammy]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Alright, i'm off

To me it sounds like you have done really well and I really like the patience and understanding you have for the little guy. A lot of people would have misunderstood him by now.

Pip is still young and it doesn't sound like he has had a lot of human interaction before coming to your place. It is not at all uncommon for young hamsters to bite (as cypher said) when you introduce them to hand feeding. One of the reasons is probably that he associated your scent with food and has to learn what can be eaten and what cannot!
You mentioned that you had already tried the tissue trick. If I were you, I would keep doing it and give him some fresh tissue daily. That way, he should start linking your scent to something that isnt necessarily associated with food, but just something pleasant and homely (:

Whenever I get a new ham, this biting always makes me nervous, but so far all of them stopped biting within a reasonable short time from when I got them. That is, aside from one who was extremely fascinated by fingertips! Took him a little while to understand that fingertips werent meant to be nommed
First time it even caught me by surprise so I flinched and I sent him flying a good 15 cm into the air. Luckily he landed on his bedding and didnt get hurt.

I would love to see your project when you are done! Pip is a lucky ham, he is going to love the surprise!
Keep up the good work, I know it can be discouraging but you are doing great! And everything didn't go wrong, sounds like you managed to get him pretty confident around you already

Thank you so much for your reply! your encouraging words are immensely appreciated!
The biting is indeed a thing that can make you a bit jumpy haha, but I'm alright in terms of pain tolerance, but it still hurts and sometimes it's a bit sudden haha!

Will definitely try and do the tissue technique daily so he can feel comfortable and homely!
And of course going into getting a hamham, I knew that hamsters sometimes bite and that patience is needed A LOT of love,care, patience and understanding and every hamham is different, they have different personalities. I was going to love Pip even if he was a "look don't touch hamster" but he isn't, he's very sociable and playful and I'd love to give him a great home for the rest of his hammy life.

Thank god that the hamster landed safely onto the bedding! I bet the hammy forgave you for that though, hammies don't hate and are very forgiving pets and above all super cute and just plain hilarious! (this is something I've read while doing research)

Thank you so much for your input and care! I will upload a picture when everything is finished for Pip!