Taming my new buddy

[JahJah]

Hi everyone, I introduced myself briefly a few days ago, and since then I have been attempting to bond with my new Syrian Hamster "Little Dude".

I put my hand in his cage and he will sniff me and take carrot from my hand, but if I try to touch him, he flinches away and sometimes flattens his ears- at which point I shut the cage and walk away so as not to frighten him.

I started doing some research about bonding with hamsters and found the majority of websites to say the same thing- Feed them treats, let them smell you, don't grab them, etc.

Then I found this one website which basically suggests that you continually pick up your hamster until it calms down; Taming handling hamsters
The video on here about taming actually made me a bit sad because the hamster is trying so hard to get away. Is this really a good way to tame your hamster?? What should I be doing? I'm really worried he'll never get used to me and let me touch him and it will be like having a goldfish I can only watch from afar!

I know I'm impatient but I just worry about him! Will the fact that he has flinched away and flattened his ears mean that he won't ever trust me now??

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

[Frobisher]

I have had my Syrian, Susan, for about three weeks now. For the first week she was very timid, and wouldn't let me touch her inside the cage, she even bit me once and drew blood!

Then what I started to do was use a cardboard tube and let her crawl inside it, and I used this to gently introduce her to her play ball. Once she was comfortable with this (let Little Dude go into the ball of his own accord, they like to sniff it out first to make sure it's safe) I picked up the ball and let her crawl out onto me so that she could gain my trust. She is really tame now, I still use the cardboard tube as her 'transport' out of the cage, but when I introduce it she rushes towards it, and seems to know that this means she is going to be let out to play.

Hope that helps!

Truth is, I think that they are all different, and just do what you think he is comfortable with.

[JahJah]

Hi Frobisher, thank you for your reply.
I tried getting him out whilst he was inside a cardboard tube, and popping him in his ball. He seemed to love it, and I eventually held the ball and let him take his time to walk onto me. We had a nice little bonding moment (I thought!) and I felt so pleased that he let me stroke him and didn't run away from me holding him.

Fast forward to now and he's quite happy to come out and play every evening. He still isn't a fan of me stroking him whilst he is in his cage, but he's fine once he's out, and he loves running around in his ball and bashing into things!

Thanks again for your help! x