Squealing Syrian

[arikata]

A friend of mine has a Syrian which screams when you try to get her (the syrian, not my friend ) out of her cage no matter how gentle you are. I was at her house a few nights ago and I put my hand into her cage and just let her come up and sniff me. She kept a fair distance so I offered her a hamster marble which really intrigued her. She came over, snifferd my hand a little then grabbed the marble and hid.

A short time after she was trying to pull herself out of the perfecto(?) tank when I had the lid off. I was just chatting gently away with her and put my hand out which she crawled onto when she got out of the cage. She was fine when she was just sitting there but as soon as I moved my hand closer to me she paniced and jumped back into her cage. Although she paniced, she didn't squeal which is a step up.

The thing is, I've offered to have the hamster for a week to see if I can tame her (I'm already over run with hamsters but I have a soft heart and love a challenge!) but I just don't know where to start. She is so scared of people it's unbelievable. I know it's nothing that my friend has done intentially, she was very nervous when she got her. However my friend has a habbit of 'grabbing' her as she is so difficult to get hold of which certainly doesn't help. As I say, she does it because she is so difficult to get hold of.

I've gone through the wiki article but more advice would be so very much apprietiated!!

Kat x

[leafpool14]

Hi Kat

Its not you that has frightened the hamster, Its your friend. Your friend must have missed her chance of training the hamster at a crutial stage in its life, or has had a bad experience. Its like puting a baby in the middle of nowhere with no-one around, then bringing it back to your house when the baby has grown into a teenager and telling it to say one word in enlgish. Once this has happened, it would take a long time for that teenager to learn human ways and speaking english

The hamster should have been trained earlier and handled not so rough. Hamsters know that they wouldnt stand a fight against you(considering us humans are much bigger) and their instinct is to run, escape from your deadly grasp!

You have to get the hamster to trust you. Once the hamster has learned to trust you, it wouldnt think of you being a deadly threat at wouldnt perform ear piercing screams.

The hamster screams in an effort to scare you(like a detterant, ex. Slug repellent)
Here is a way to gain your hamster's trust

• 1. Allow your hamster to sit in its cage for a few hours when you first bring it home. Then place a treat in your hand. Keep doing this until your hamster comes up and accepts it. When they accept it several times they will eventually climb on to eat it. Slowly and while they are completely focused on the food, lift them in to the air and lay them on your lap with a good hold still on them and stroke their fur. Then place them gently in the cage. This creates a trust bond.
  
  2. After you and your hamster have mastered this, place a treat over their head and make them come and get it. Every time say "stand" and eventually your hamster will stand when you say stand and there is no treat. Remember to give them a reward afterwards. You can do this with other tricks like "paw" only putting the treat in front of them so that they have to reach out and get it. You can do it with "come" or "stay" and basically any trick. This teaches them about you and you about them also creating a stronger trust between you as well as learning some new tricks.
  
  3. Use body language as an indicator of your hamster's state of health and happiness. Body language will tell you a lot about your hamster and what he or she is thinking. The following steps will help you to find out what you're trying to know.

Hope this helps! If it doesnt, PM me

Leafpool