Taming Lil diary

[BethandLil]

I've ordered some Vonhaus storage units to make a DIY playpen.
Thanks for the heads up CMB

[AprilPearl]

Can't wait to see what you make! Bet it will look awesome wish I was a bit more handy, then I might make more hamster DIY items myself.

[BethandLil]

Latest installment of taming hurdles -

I was just sitting at Lil's front door and letting her freely climb out and onto my hands. She manage to jump off my hand and onto the ground (don't worry, I was sat cross legged on the floor with my hands low so it wasn't a big distance)

I tried to cup my hands around her but she managed to wriggle by so I tried to pick her up which i haven't really done yet ( I have picked her up when she has been climbing the sides of her taming box, but not from the ground)

It didn't go very well. She frantically squirmed which made me let go. Perhaps she picked up on my nervous energy..
Thankfully I managed to coax her into her ball to get her back in her cage.

How should I proceed? She's clearly comfortable when she is calling the shots,i.e crawling onto my open hand, but not when I'm in control..

[AprilPearl]

Sorry that you and Lil had a fright! Brilliant that she will climb up onto your hands, though remember that you have come so far!

Others may disagree, but I have found that the only way to get a hamster comfortable with being picked up is to practise doing just that in the taming box. Just gently scooping them up - or, if they won’t let you get that far at first, cupping your hands around them and gradually building up to scooping. Yes, at first they jump and/or run. Let them go. Let them see that you aren’t going to trap them. Repeating this scooping will lead to the hamster getting used to being picked up. It won’t freak them out and make them scared of you so do not worry about that. In all honesty, if you never try to scoop them up then they will never have the chance to learn that it is not a scary thing. Lil is comfortable with climbing onto your hands. Why? Because she has learned from experience that this leads to no harm. At first, she would never have done that! In the same way, once she has a memory bank of experience of being picked up and nothing bad happening, she will be much happier to let you do it.

Also, bear in mind that when she is older she will also be slower and thus less likely to run so fast. She will still need to get used to pick ups though or however old she is she will still fight them. And it can be important to be able to pick her up for occasions such as the vet and health checks.

One more thing: when she got all skittish, she was on the floor - an unfamiliar place, open and feeling exposed to attack from above by predators when you swooped down from above and also feelin disoriented from her fall. So, her getting scared like that is not necessarily indicative of how she will react when in her cage, the taming box or a playpen. In those situations, her flight instincts will not already have been activated to that extent.

[BethandLil]

Thanks AP. You are so right!

I realised the taming box was the place to try it and have already managed to pick her up from the bottom of the box without her putting up a fight,so your comments about the unfamiliarity of the real floor is spot on.

Would you mind defining what you mean by a scoop?
I think of a scoop as a cupped hand (thumb touching index finger) gently cupping under her tummy? If this is what you mean, she is quite happy for me to do this but it wasn't firm enough to prevent her from escape.

I went for the unsophisticated grab,which sounds rougher than I mean it to. That is thumb extended away from index finger and from behind, picking her up.

Thanks for your help AP, it is really appreciated

[BethandLil]

Also, on a totally unrelated point, Lil seems to use her sand bath as a litter tray like an absolute pro.
Earlier today I even spotted her wake up, come out to use it (instead of her hideaway which has been a common toilet until now) and go back to bed. I'm so proud!

[AprilPearl]

No worries. Great that you are able to pick her up more easily on familiar ground. That shows her skittishness was not a true reflection of how she feels about you.

Hard to describe what I mean over the internet! When I say a scoop I guess I mean cupping both hands around her and sort of sliding them under her body so that she is sitting in your hands with your hands making a sort of bowl shape around her. If that makes sense?

You can also practise picking her up by wrapping one hand around her from the top so that your fingers go around her body and under her tummy. However, I have found that new hamsters in particular seem to find this more scary than the method I outlined above.

[BethandLil]

I see.

In that case, lil is familiar with the one hand and two hand scoop

The second method you described is what I attempted when she had her near escape. I'm not surprised she didn't enjoy it and I would only really want to do that in an emergency.

[AprilPearl]

In that case, you may have found she would have let you scoop her up off the floor after her fall without having to resort to the second method! If you do want her to get used to the second method, then the principle is the same: practise doing it, and she should learn that there is nothing to fear and be happy eventually to be picked up in this way. But, if you only plan on scooping her up on a regular basis, you can stick with that. It is a perfectly secure way of picking her up, even in an emergency and as she is more used to it, should actually be more likely to ensure that you retrieve her safely in situations such as that. The only thing you might find that second hold useful for is health checks, because you can turn your hand over so that the hamster is lying on its back, to inspect their stomach. This can be useful, but it really is your choice whether you want to get Lil accustomed to this. If you don’t, you could always put her in a see through container to view her underside.

[BethandLil]

Good points AP. I'll give the second method more practice in the taming box.

Got the storage units for building a DIY playpen in the post today. I foolishly got the half size version it wouldn't be any taller than the pets at home one I have.. Hopefully third time's a charm!