Questions about my new Syrian hamster!

[Kreeture]

Hi! I just bought a short haired male Syrian hamster about 8 days ago. For the first four days he just dug under ground all day, then came up at night at got food and water and went back down. After that he started to use his wheel and explore more. Since he started doing that, I wake up to him making so much noise by him biting, pulling, ect. his water bottle. He literally puts the entire nozzle in his cheek that you can see his cheek poke out (will try to post a picture). He eats fine, he runs on his wheel, he takes treats out of my hand and follows my hand around, his butt seems dry so I don't think wet tail is happening, he's playful, ect. So my questions are, why does he drink so much water and why does he put the whole nozzle in his mouth and try to pull the bottle off the bin? I only had a dwarf robo I rescued years ago, so I am new to syrians. Thanks in advance! (also third question, how do I get him to stop thinking my hand is food all the time, lol)

[Natasha95]

Check to make sure water is coming out. I bought my hamster a new water bottle a couple weeks ago, and I noticed him practically attacking it. I had to return it because it wasn't working. Some water bottles won't work for some reason, and that can frustrate your hamster, which might be why he's biting and pulling on it.

[cypher]

He looks like a cute little guy!
It could be that the bottle isn't working properly, it's always worth checking each day when you change the water by gently running a clean finger over the end to make sure water comes out, some bottles don't work if they are completely full so always leave a bit of space in the bottle.
Don't know where you are but when I used bottles I found the classic bottles to be the best, never had a problem with those.
Some hams do just get into the habit of chewing the water bottle even when it works, if that happens they can take in too much water & you would need to switch to using a small shallow bowl.

[Kreeture]

Originally Posted by cypher

He looks like a cute little guy!
It could be that the bottle isn't working properly, it's always worth checking each day when you change the water by gently running a clean finger over the end to make sure water comes out, some bottles don't work if they are completely full so always leave a bit of space in the bottle.
Don't know where you are but when I used bottles I found the classic bottles to be the best, never had a problem with those.
Some hams do just get into the habit of chewing the water bottle even when it works, if that happens they can take in too much water & you would need to switch to using a small shallow bowl.

I've done the finger thing, water does come out on my finger! So it works! I'll switch to a bowl then, because I believe his soft stool is due to too much water intake. Any answer as to how to stop him from always biting my fingers when I try to handle him? I wash my hands so they don't smell like any food, plain soap, I did gloves, everything lol. He let's me hand feed him so he's not scared of me, he just likes to bite me :/ first Syrian hamster, so not sure what im doing wrong lol. Thank you!

[cypher]

Are you doing out of cage taming yet? Some hams will tend to bite hands in the cage but don't do it when they're out of the cage.
Are they bites or nibbles? It's still very early days & most hams will tend to nibble things in an exploratory way to begin with but they do generally grow out of that soon enough.

[Kreeture]

Originally Posted by cypher

Are you doing out of cage taming yet? Some hams will tend to bite hands in the cage but don't do it when they're out of the cage.
Are they bites or nibbles? It's still very early days & most hams will tend to nibble things in an exploratory way to begin with but they do generally grow out of that soon enough.

I'm actually scared to do out of cage because he's not tamed to my hands yet they started as nibbles, like he thought my hand was food, but now I think they're bites. He doesn't act aggressive or lunge or anything but he'll get my finger and when I go to pull my hand back, he's locked on tight enough to come up with my hand, dangling in the air but not hard enough to make me bleed. He nibbled my mom, then immediately bit her and made her bleed on her fingertip. So now shes kinda mad about me having him, thinking he's going to just be a "look at and feed" pet instead of one she can bond with. :/

[cypher]

It might seem a bit scary to have him out of the cage but it's probably the best thing to do.
Find something he will climb into but can't just jump out of, a tube you can put your hands over the ends, a small cardboard box you can cover the entrance with your hand (the flat of your hand, he can't bite that really!) or a hamster ball, anything you can safely transport him in.
You can use either a secure playpen he can't escape from (not the metal ones as he could climb out), a large plastic storage box or the bath with a towel in the bottom & the plug blocked.
With any of these you can give him toys to explore, a wheel to run in if he gets stressed & in a playpen or box you can add some substrate from the cage to give it a familiar scent.
Just let him run around & explore a bit then just begin to introduce your hand slowly or if you can get in the bath or playpen with him let him climb on you if he wants to.
It will take time but biting in the cage can become a habit that's hard to break, taming outside the cage should help.

[Kreeture]

Originally Posted by cypher

It might seem a bit scary to have him out of the cage but it's probably the best thing to do.
Find something he will climb into but can't just jump out of, a tube you can put your hands over the ends, a small cardboard box you can cover the entrance with your hand (the flat of your hand, he can't bite that really!) or a hamster ball, anything you can safely transport him in.
You can use either a secure playpen he can't escape from (not the metal ones as he could climb out), a large plastic storage box or the bath with a towel in the bottom & the plug blocked.
With any of these you can give him toys to explore, a wheel to run in if he gets stressed & in a playpen or box you can add some substrate from the cage to give it a familiar scent.
Just let him run around & explore a bit then just begin to introduce your hand slowly or if you can get in the bath or playpen with him let him climb on you if he wants to.
It will take time but biting in the cage can become a habit that's hard to break, taming outside the cage should help.

Okay! Thank you! I'll try the bathtub thing since we have sliding doors so if he climbs on me quickly he won't be able to jump out of the tub! I'm waiting on one of the OVO trail tubes to arrive in mail so I can connect my second bin to the one he's already in now, so he has more room to explore and different things so he doesn't become bored as easily, either. So I'm hoping that helps too. Thank you for your advice! Balls are okay for syrians though? I read somewhere else that they don't really like the balls so I skipped on getting him one

[HamsterOfficial]

Too much cuteness!

Try adding some more toys, u can look for hamster safe items around your house to add to his cage that he could use to play on or chew.

U can even look in the bird/rabbit/guinea pig section at the petstore for more toys.

U can put him to play in a playpen or dry bathtub every evening with can also help with taming if u sit in the playpen too.

[Kreeture]

Originally Posted by HamsterOfficial

Too much cuteness!

Try adding some more toys, u can look for hamster safe items around your house to add to his cage that he could use to play on or chew.

U can even look in the bird/rabbit/guinea pig section at the petstore for more toys.

U can put him to play in a playpen or dry bathtub every evening with can also help with taming if u sit in the playpen too.

Thank you! And are those coconut houses with the ladder for birds safe for hamsters? I think he'd like it, but haven't found an answer if theyre safe! Thanks for the advice!! <3