Skirt badly tangled Long haired syrian

[Reduce Reuse Hamcycle]

Hey there everyone! Taming with Boscoe was going pretty well till Saturday when I had him in the open environment of a HUGE playpen for the first time. He was doing well then my sister scared him stiff. He's terrified of me and, to make matters worse, over the past few days (including 2 days before the playpen incident when he was doing just fine with taming, although progressing slowly) he's tangled his skirt badly.

I wanted to push taming along so that i could hold him then scruff him by encouraging him to see my presence in the playpen as non threatening. I was just sitting really still making almost no sound then my sister came in after making a racket and scared him by accident. Unfortunately since he was scared so badly he's freezing up when he sees me.

What should I do? Should I take him to the vet or try to scruff him while a family member cuts off the tangles? I'm afraid of stressing him too much but its 2 trails of bedding dragging along after him and it must be freaking him out.

[souffle]

Try putting him in a sieve. They are quite large and not transparent. As he sits they get someone to smooth him while you gently cut off the skirt. Put something like a chunk of brocolli near his nose to keep him busy and even half cover the front of the sieve with card to see if that calms him.

[Nancy's Hamsters]

After following Souffles advise I would follow up with a change of bedding to prevent more tangles from developing. I use Yesterdays News unscented cat litter with my LH Hamsters. I also offer a good handful of Kay Tee Crinkle paper so they can build a soft nest to sleep on since the pellets are a bit hard.

Since switching to these two products I now have no more tangled mats on any of my LH Males bums, and the coat length on all has improved a lot.

[Reduce Reuse Hamcycle]

Thank you Souffle for the instructions and Nancy's Hamsters for the brand recommendation. I was trying to decide what to use and this takes the indecision off.

Souffle I have a question. When you say that I should have someone "smooth" him is that the same as scruffing him? Is it petting? Since he's taken so many steps back in taming he doesn't want to be touched (he never got that far in the first place really).

How am I going to keep him from escaping the sieve?

Thank you for all your help! I'm hoping that once I get this issue solved he'll be less stressed in general.

[Reduce Reuse Hamcycle]

So an update:

When I got home tonight his skirt wasn't as badly tangled. From where I had tried to cut off one or the tangles last night while he was turned around eating he must have decided to chew or tear it the rest of the way off. That or I was more successful than I thought.

Either way the tangles that are still there are small. I'm gonna give him 3 days of peace where I just add aspen to his cage and don't bother him.

This whole issue started when I made his cage mostly KayTee clean and cozy. Before when it was mostly aspen there wasn't an issue. I'm hoping it'll help until I can get the cat liter.

I got some broccoli tonight and I've started putting it in his cage. I'm hoping he'll run to it on sight in a little bit.