Can anyone give me some advice about our hamster?

[HamsterHelp]

Bought a Syrian hamster a couple of weeks ago. Huge cage, lots of toys, he seems happy enough burrowing around and running in his wheel.

The leaflet said to give him a few days before we try to handle him. Talk in low voices around him. Give him food from your hands etc. We have been doing all this. He’s never seems particularly frightened or worried.

However, he simply will not be picked up. He runs away and hides in a tube. He’s small and without really grabbing him (which I obviously don’t want to do) I can’t get hold of him.

Leaflet says they need to get used to being handled and that this is a gradual thing. Which is fine. But how will he get used to it if he won’t allow it at all? How am I supposed to give his cage a good clean if I can’t remove him from the cage?

I suspect there is a technique here. I’m not experienced. Can anyone advise?

I used the two hand scooping motion - a hand either side and scoop them up. Can you remove tubes from the cage first or are they attached?

When I cleaned the cage, I would get one of those balls which they run round in ..take the lid off the ball, hold the ball in the cage, hamster goes in. Lid back on...runs round the kitchen floor in it whilst I cleaned the cage...hth

We used to start picking them up from inside toilet roll tubes when I was a kid - then let them come out and explore onto your hand. They’d then eventually skip the toilet roll tube stage and just come onto your hand.

Put your hands in and let him come to you. Let him have a good sniff of you. Let him run over your fingers.
Pick him up in the cage for seconds only and gradually extend this before you take him out of the cage.
Hand feed him treats so he knows that the hand of a human is gentle and kind.
Go at his pace. Don't try to grab him and pass him round the family like a toy until he's happy with one person.

It's fine to scoop him up - hand either side of the hamster and gently close them around/under him so you're sort of cupping him then lift him up.

A good way to get him used to you is to sit in the (empty) bath and let him climb all over you.

The cage won't need a full clean out as often as you'd think, a regular spot clean where you remove obviously soiled areas and put down a little bit of fresh substrate here and there is usually enough with a full clean out and wash roughly every 3-4 weeks.

We found this video really helpful m.youtube.com/watch?v=_qwxJLw7l24
Good luck!

If you do use a ball (they're really not recommended) then make sure it's big enough for him - a Syrian needs one that's 7-8 inches - and that it's somewhere safe with no areas he could fall down or could get stuck.

Ps we used the (big!)box the cage came in as a playpen, filled with toys and let hamster run around (supervised). He went in there with a dc spotting he didn’t gnaw his way out whilst I cleaned.

Another thing is find something he can be carried in/shuffled into safely and securely - we used a shoebox with a lid.
One option is then sit in an empty bath with him, he can scurry around and he can’t escape but he will get used to your smell and getting little strokes. Only needs to be a short amount of time.
Another option is to put them on your bed (you might need someone to help) and then let him have a run round on the bed, so another way to get used to smells etc.
Thirdly they get slower and less bouncey the bigger they get.
We’ve just adopted a little Syrian and good lord he’s a bouncey bugger!
I’ve also found I need to enclose him completely in my hands, any gap and he’s off, jumping out my hands. He really does seem to live in a world of we are the worst things ever, but we bring food, so he’s gonna have to work out how to get used to us!! 🐹🐹🐹

In the olden days I used to make a hamster pen on the floor using vhs video cases 😅 and let them run about in it

We used a mug for a while to lift our hammie out of the cage when she was new & not used to us handling her.

He really does seem to live in a world of we are the worst things ever, but we bring food, so he’s gonna have to work out how to get used to us!

😂 he does seem to treat us with utter contempt!