Hamster, calm down!

Torrential · 03-12-2012, 05:06 AM

You may or may not have seen my post about how shy Ghost is, and how she can be a little skittish. That is especially so when it comes to hands. She will not climb onto our hands, no matter what tasty treats we offer. She does not like hands in her cage, she sniffs and backs off. She does NOT like being picked up!!!

On Saturday morning, Ghost was having a play so my OH decided to say hello. He enticed her out of the cage, onto his arms (as this is the only part of us that she will play on) and he went to scoop her up after a few minutes to put her to bed. At this, she jumped onto the top of the cage. What to do now? She would have to be picked up, in order to usher her home. NO.
My OH innocently scooped her up to rescue her, she jumped... JUMPED... out of his hands, and behind the radiator!! Luckily it was hardly on, luke warm, but I ran to turn it off completely and gather boxes to put beneath it whilst my OH tried to coax her out. She was truly stuck. My mind was racing, would we call a plumber, the RSPCA?? What do we do?? Then my OH pulled out a pair of socks, which had made themselves at home behind our heating device. Apparently, Ghost had landed on them... once he pulled them out, she plopped out onto his hands, so he quickly put Ghost in her cage.

I kept my eye on her, she was wandering around her cage and running in her wheel as though nothing had happened. She doesn't have a limp, and no obvious cuts. It is hard to check her over properly as she won't be picked up for any amount of treats and bribes. Like I said, this was on Saturday morning, so I think if she was injured we would have noticed at this point. She has had ball time every evening since the event, and seems to be her normal, cheeky self (she sometimes stops running and has a nibble on the ball).

I really feel like we have taken a MASSIVE step backwards. My OH got her into her ball for a run around last night and then suggested we get her out for some taming time... I just wouldn't let him. I am so worried that if she gets spooked again she will jump again, and get stuck without retrieval, or run away and get lost, or do herself a terrible injury. She is absolutely terrified of hands and being picked up. Before the incident, she was getting more used to us and less skittish when running around our arms. My OH would play the hand-tube game with her, and she seemed ok-ish with that, but never as comfortable as other hamsters.
I am especially worried now because it looks like she has some hair loss on her back legs. When she climbs up her cage, with her belly showing, there seems to be less fur on the front of her "thighs". I don't know if it is perhaps a bit of stress (for I, myself, lose hair when stressed! Damn alopicia!), because she has been through quite the ordeal. But she isn't behaving any differently...

If I can't get her used to hands, how will I take her to a vet if she needs treatment? Or if I need to ask someone to hamster-sit her and she does the same to them? We have had her since around February 25th, as mentioned previously. I don't mind her being a little shy, not wanting a terrible amount of attention, or even not wanting to play with me the way Chaucer used to; but I NEED her to not be scared of hands!!!

Lynternette · 03-12-2012, 05:42 AM

I can sympathise with you Torrential. Dusty hates being touched although food has always been a good distraction. He's not greedy as he stores it away. Its taken over a year but he's 100% better now. He'll come when I call him but always stays at the back of his cage just in case. I think the same as you if he had to go to the vet's. My DIL has had hamsters forever so I have her to rely on. She always says that if you're not confident with your hamster then it rubs off on them and they get unsure.

Torrential · 03-12-2012, 05:50 AM

I have seen your posts, Dusty sounds quite like Ghost in that he isn't bothered with contact. However, Ghost will come to her cage door to say hello, and does seem to want to come out.. but when we offer a hand she seems to change her mind. She sits and sniffs, runs around a little, comes back, sniffs... she just doesn't have the courage to come and say hello. My OH is more confident with her than I am, despite being confident with Chaucer and her taming very, very quickly for me.
Like I said, I know she is going to be different to Chaucer, and may just be shy or antisocial! I just worry about her not liking hands in case she needs to be picked up or checked over. Silly little things, aren't they?

Lynternette · 03-12-2012, 06:40 AM

They do have their silly little ways but that's what makes us love them

TraceyH · 03-12-2012, 08:47 AM

Ohh, the middle two out of my six syrians hate being handled too and I've had them jump out of my hands onto the floor.

What I've been doing since they were six months (2 months ago) is I place their playballs into their cages. Then they hop in straightaway and run around the floor for 15 minutes. Then I put one back in his cage, still in his ball so he can't jump out. The other ham goes on my bed with the toys for half an hour and I try and stroke him and handle him a bit then but only for a few seconds each time. Then I either lift him back into his cage very quickly with my hands or transport him with a small plastic see through carry case I have. Then I get other ham out by putting a small case in his cage and he plays on the bed. The cages are ruffy2 with big opening at the top. If I put my hand in and grab them they hate that though and have a pink fit. They're both getting a lot calmer though, don't fall off ther bed and always wanting to come out their cages. Maybe its because they're getting older and more placid and maybe you ham will be calmer when he's 8 months old. My oldest two hams 23 months and 16 months love being lifted out the top of their cages with hands and love been handled.

Kissa · 03-12-2012, 10:22 AM

I'm having trouble taming my Robo too

And we had a bit of a step back yesterday, all my fault because I decided that the best thing to do was to try and grab her out of her ball for a quick cuddle before putting her away, rather than just putting the ball in her cage and letting her out

It's heartbreaking now when she scuttles around the cage looking frightened when I put my hand in, rather than being totally not bothered/fairly intrigued like she used to be. And I don't trust myself to play with her on the bed, either --she's such a fast little bugger, I don't trust myself to keep her away from mischief. I'm scared she'll fall/jump off it, and as soon as she's on the floor she can get under the door and out into the rest of the house (the doors in this house have a ridiculously large gap under them).

Torrential · 03-13-2012, 08:37 AM

I guess it's just hard 'cause Chaucer was so easy! I feel like she doesn't like me :'(

**kyrilliondaemon** · 03-13-2012, 09:41 AM

Yeah, I'd go for not taking her out or moving her by hand yet.

Can you use the bath or a large box and let her play in there? If you used somewhere with sides and kept her low to the floor chances are she wouldn't be able to get out even if she did panic. We never let a hamster run around outside of a box or playpen unless we trust it to be 100% tame and still know there's nowhere it can go to get lost.

We use the hamsters balls or a jar to move the dwarves, and our syrian was always pretty good so from the start I could move her very short distances by hand if I was careful, but we always kept the distances short and something like a pringle tube would work fantastically for moving a skittish one.

fluffymunchkins · 03-13-2012, 01:41 PM

Some just take time and patience

Young hamsters don't usually understand how to trust and gain that with age.
Both syrians I've had have leaped out of my hands when they've had a fright x

Torrential · 03-14-2012, 04:14 AM

Ghost climbed onto my hand twice last night!
I was sat next to her cage, talking to her. I opened the gate and put my hand out, she sniffed at me and ran around her cage a few times. I put a small treat on my hand, which she sneakily snaffled up... I thought she wasn't going to get on after stealing the treat... but then she decided to climb on! I was incredibly nervous, especially when she was sniffing my fingertips, but she then climbed up my arm and had a play! I was soooo happy! I didn't try scooping her up, because I don't want to scare her again. I let her climb from my arms into the ball, she had some play time and I put her back (we put the ball up to the cage door, rather than picking her up, still). Then, later I went to say hello again because she was very active and she climbed on again. It was a fleeting visit, because she had a sniff and then went back into her cage. But what progress! I was so happy, it's silly.
P.S I'm worried about my fingertips because when I was much younger my hamster dug his teeth into one of them, it hurt so much and he sunk them in so hard I had to prise him off! Ouch...