She needs some calm now. She probably screamed out of fear. Stressful for all! Those cardboard boxes are terrible and not escape proof. She won’t be tame or used to you and until they are tamed they are almost impossible to hold without them wriggling free or “pinging” (leaping two feet in the air as they wriggle free.
The important thing now is to let her settle into her cage s as bf ensure she has a good environment in her cage. They actually need two weeks to settle in the cage with no cleanouts or changing anything during that time. She will need to build a nest, scent mark her cage and make a routine.
She will need to be left alone for the first two or three days to settle and avoid stress. This means not taking her out to handle her but you could talk to her gently through the bars so she gets familiar with the presence and voice of an owner. You could also feed the odd treat through the bars - eg pumpkin seeds.
If the hamster is a Christmas present for children they will have to have this explained to them, and be patient. Too much stress can cause serious illness so she does need time to settle. Clean outs are particularly stressful for them. I’ll add some tips below.
Try not to worry - she will get over it and forget about it. But important that things are hamster appropriate ftom now on.
Is the cage big enough and set up safely? If it’s too small it may be why she is trying to get out - they can bar chew and damage their teeth (plus it’s a horrible noise).
But changing cages is also something that needs to be done carefully and not suddenly.
The cage should be at least 80cm long by 50cm deep and not too tall - max height about 45cm. Because they can fall and injure themselves (they climb to the top and can monkey bar across the roof at night).
For now the best thing you can do is ensure
a). There is plenty of substrate in the cage (litter for the floor of the cage). This needs to be at least 4” deep- 6” is better.
b). That there is a good sized house she can retreat to, to be in the dark, and build her nest in. Or at least a good sized shelf (they will sometimes build their nest under a shelf if a house isn’t big enough or suitable).
c). Plenty of nesting material. Plain white toilet paper is best and safest- tear sheets of it into strips and put a big pile in the cage. She will take it to build her nest. Don’t disturb the nest. Sometimes they pouch nesting material to take to the nest. This is why it needs to be safe material in case swallowed or it can cause blockages. So don’t use anything like fluffy bedding - it’s dangerous stuff.
Those are the basics she needs, along with a wheel, food, water and ideally the odd toy like a cardboard tunnel or tube. And extra hide my places. This adds enrichment and variety to her environment.
The wheel needs to be at least 8” in diameter for a Syrian hamster - ideally 11” diameter.
Check the water bottle every day (that it’s letting water out and hasn’t emptied itself) and change the water every day. Put fresh hamster mix out each day in the bowl - they don’t eat all of it - they hoard most of it under the nest and snack in bed from their hoards
. But once the food in the bowl is a day old they don’t seem to eat it so Chuck any remaining food in the bowl and put a new tablespoonful out each day. It seems wasteful but it’s a small amount and the food is quite cheap.
You can’t leave the cage in the garage though as if it gets too cold she will die. They need a room temperature of 20 degrees. Which is average warmth when you have central heating on. So she needs to be in the house as it can get very cold at night.
Ideally have the cage in a room where it can stay for some time as moving the cage from place to place can also stress them out and cause bar chewing. Basically they need stability and familiarity abd then they will bond with you as they get used to your presence.
If the hamster is going to another home then you need to get a secure pet carrier - it’s too dangerous to move them in the cage in a car, things can fall and crush them if you brake or they can be thrown across the cage.
One thing the kids can do while waiting a few days - is make some toys for the hamster cage- I’ve linked a video on hamster toys to make out of toilet roll tubes. If these are used for a tunnel though, slit them down the side so they expand or the hamster can get stuck. Same with kitchen roll tubes.
Cleaning- if you have enough substrate in you can just spot clean the pee area. They are very clean little things who groom themselves and wash themselves, and the only smelly thing is their pee - they have good toilet habits and tend to choose a corner of the cage as a toilet to pee in. So spot cleaning the toilet area is just taking a handful or two of substrate out from the toilet corner and replacing it with new. They will also use a corner litter tray if you put it in the chosen corner (put chinchilla bathing sand in it - must be sand, not “dusty” - and then you just need to empty the litter tray once or twice a week and the rest of the cage stays clean and dry).
I wouldn’t even spit clean the pee for the first week as it’s important to avoid stressing her while she’s settling in. Don’t worry about poops either - they aren’t dirty or smelly - they are like little hard seeds - and sometimes they eat some or hoard some - which is normal - they have two stomachs and can redigest nutrients from their poops.
If the poops start taking over a bit after a while you can just pick them out. But the important thing is to never do a full cage clean in one go. Partial cleans are better for the hamster (saves time and money too).
So mainly you can just spot clean the pee area/empty the litter tray once a week. Everything else should stay clean for quite some time. You can wipe out the wheel occasionally - they sometimes pee in their wheel. And just change the odd handful of substrate if it needs a bit of refreshing. I usually find it flattens down after a while so I just add a bit extra - and mix it in so it smells familiar. You can do this while the hamster is in the cage, so they get used to it and feel less threatened by a hand in their territory. You can easily go two or three months just spot cleaning before needing to change out all the substrate - and even then I keep back some of the old clean substrate and spread it on top of the new (so it smells familiar). But don’t clean anything else at the same time. You can wipe it clean any other items at a different time - as and when needed - so something always smells familiar.
So if anything needs tweaking in the cage - do it now then leave her alone to settle for two or three days. After that I still wouldn’t get her out of the cage unless she shows signs of wanting to come out by coming to the door etc. Then you need to have a safe area for some taming sessions until she is happy to be handled - this can happen quickly or may take a while. Depends. A safe area is either a playpen area on the floor, or many people use the dry bath tub as a taming area. With the plug in amd the odd toy or tunnel in their. The idea being she can run around and you can occasionally stroke her on the back while she’s in there so she gets used to touch and begins to trust. And can’t escape. This can actually be quite a fun thing for kids although frustrating as well when all they want to do is pick the hamster up?
Kids should be supervised at all times with the hamster and taught not to try and hold on but let her go - if they squeeze too tight they can cause injuries (and their eyeballs can come out of the sockets and that’s a medical emergency).
So time and patience at first.
Food. You need a good hamster mix. Harry Hamster contains everything that’s needed. And they also need a bit of fresh veg daily. Only every 3 days for the first couple of weeks so their digestion learns to handle it - too much can cause diarrhoea. After the first couple of weeks it should be daily. But just a tiny piece no bigger than 1cm cubed size. They tend to eat fresh veg straight away do it doesn’t go off.
If you put the food snd veg out about 5 or 6pm each day the hamster will get in the habit of waking earlier for the food abd you can have some interaction then. Normally they don’t get up till after 10pm.
Please let us know how you get on!
HELP!!!!!! *URGENT*Scared I traumatized a hamster
Re: HELP!!!!!! *URGENT*Scared I traumatized a hamster
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