Help Needed With Hamster

[Kizz]

To cut along story short my neighbours house went on fire on sunday morning and i've ended up with her kid's hamster as she can't keep it in the accomodation she is in . By the way the hamster is i think it has never been handled as she said ti kept biting the kids i'm also assuming her kid's have tormented it .

I've bought some gloves to handle him/her as i really don't want it biting me as it bit my mum twice yesterday when she was here .

is there anyway i can get it used to being handled ? i've bought it one of the wee balls for it to run around the house to get it used to human company

Any advice on them would be great as i've never kept them as i didn't like them ! lol like wee bars of soap !

Cheers

 

[Spannaz]

Hi, from expereince your going to have to win it's trust and that's gonna take time. Like any other animal its likely to be cautious of you but the more you handle him the better it'll get. Give him a bit of time am sure that he'll soon trust and learn to love you rather than hate you lol

 

[angelmouse]

feed it plenty of treats with your hands through the cage and always feed it when you handle it, food is their main love and it will soon get to know that you are going to give it treats so will be happy to be handled, sunflower seed and nuts out of their food suply are some of their favorites, try peices of carrot or apple too.
regards Angel

 

[Kizz]

Thanks for help

Managed to get it into it's ball earlier on without him biting me and he zoomed all about the house don't think he's ever been let out his cage poor wee guy

I was told by someone to rub his bedding on my gloves or hands as rather than smelling me he'll smell himself and be less scared ... Is this true ?

Don't wanna stress him out i think he's been through enough in the past few days !

 

[Truck]

what type of hamster is it? dwarfs dont stay tame for life unlike syrians, put your hand into a fist shape and hold it in the cage and let it crawl over it and get used to your sent, or place a treat on your fist whilst holding it in the cage, so they feel secure around you.

yes the bedding thing is true

 

[Kizz]

um... i have no idea what kind it is ! lol

I'll try get a pic lol

 

[Truck]

ok, how big is he?

 

[bordercollie05]

Just wanted to say that hamsters are kind of nippy by nature. It probably just hasn't been handled...kind of unlikely the kids tormented it, more likely they just don't give it enough attention for it to be friendly. The hamsters we had growing up always bit when they were startled, so talking to it before you pick it up helps. We also wore gloves when we handled them. Can't really tell you much other than hold it, talk nicely to it, and leave it alone when its sleeping.


Good luck!

 

[newfin]

We've had a couple of syrian hamsters over the past few years. To train them to handling (they were both very soppy with time, in fact Colin our first ever hamster used to sit on the back of the sofa in the evenings with a snack and curl up very content).

I used to open the cage (we had a plastic main unit), with food to tempt them, then as curiosity got to them we would let the put their front paws on the top of the open cage and reach up. When they did we would put a hand in and support under them. They got used to your hand and a treat in this way. Then gradually we would start to lift them out a bit at a time and progress to handling. This worked well with Madelaine, our second more timid Syrian.

Good luck, keep trying, you'll get there

Newfin

 

[BecciMac1987]

Dont leave it in its ball for more than around 15 mins a time as hamsters can get scared by them.
A Roborvsky dwarf hamster is the very smallest, think harvest mouse sized, and are very hard to tame, but also dont really bite and are kept best in groups.
Russian dwarfs usually have dark stripes down their backs and are about the size of a normal mouse. These type are, in my experience, very tame after a while but unless handled many times daily do have a tendancy to nip.
The most common hamster is the Syrian, which is fairly large, and come in all colours. Thats prob what you are looking after.
When cleaning its cage, make sure you keep a handful of its old bedding as a complete change of sawdust and bedding will make it insecure and more liable to be skittish and nippy.Keeping this small amount will keep its scent.
Other than that just follow angelmouses advice, and try to handle it as often as poss but without disturbing it constantly (remeber they are nocturnal), so best to handle them late at night. If it does bite, dont drop it or jump as instinct would tell you to as this will just spook it even more.
Good luck!