Help with mean little hamster!

[BiteyMcBite]

We got a two month old hamster three weeks ago and did lots of research beforehand, and we have done everything we’re supposed to do - large cage (100cm x 60cm), deep litter layer, lots of hidey-holes, toys, tubes, large wheel etc. We gave him three or four quiet days to settle in and then gradually started allowing a little household noise around him. We put items with our scent into the cage so he’d get used to our smells. Then we started putting our hands in slowly and not from above in case we scared him. Then we started putting treats in our hands and letting him approach to take them from us.

However, even with going so slowly and carefully, he’s still a bitey little sod and regularly bites down hard for seemingly no reason. For example, he’ll take the treat, but before I have a chance to slowly withdraw my hand, he’ll turn back and quickly bite a fingertip (and it’s painful - a deep bite that causes a lot of bleeding and a bruise). Are some hamsters just like this? Should we resign ourselves to never being able to handle him? I would have thought that, three weeks in, he would be a little bit more relaxed :-(

@Justchilling07I didn’t acknowledge your activity ball suggestion because rhe RSPCA and vet sites I looked at don’t recommend them - apparently they’re very stressful for hamsters, and they are the cause of lots of injuries. So as I mentioned, we’ll persevere with what we’re doing in getting him used to us in the hopes we can handle him eventually (we’ll try the bath idea) but ultimately if we spend months on it and he’s still biting, realistically we may have to give up trying to hold/stroke him. He’ll still be allowed out of his cage though.

Just to say, hamster balls are definitely not recommended these days, there is a risk of little toes and limbs getting trapped and broken. We are learning more all the time, what is best for our small furry friends, and I do applaud the OP for having done a lot of research.

I had loads of hamsters (all Syrian) as a teenager, and they were all docile and easy to handle. When my own daughter got a hamster, over thirty years later, it was nervous all its life and could not be handled at all.

I wondered a lot about the reasons for this. The only thing I could put it down to was that care guidelines had changed dramatically during those intervening years: while I had been urged to handle my new hamster as much as possible from the moment I got it, in order to get it used to humans and enjoy interaction with its owner, my daughter was absolutely convinced (because of what she had read and researched) that you should not handle a hamster at all to begin with, but put it into a very quiet environment and not disturb it at all at first, and then only very minimally and with great caution after that. It seems like a caring thing to do, but does it help with taming them in the long term? I'm not sure.

Too late for Op, but for anyone else reading and thinking of getting a small rodent, we decided on gerbils over a hamster as I'd read they were better at being handled, they were great, very fast, but very happy to be held, they really didn't smell much either with regular cleaning out.

Gloves when taming defo and slowly trying to pass treats whilst punching the treat if that makes sense and then removing hand. Slow strokes when in the cage too and it can take ages but keep persevering

@BiteyMcBite Ah ok, fair enough, regarding hamster activity ball, did not know this.Used the activity ball, for hamster, quite a few years ago when l was a child, as said, 1 hamster lived till 4 years old and other, 3 and a half, were both very tame, didn’t bite and seemed happy.
Surprised then the hamster balls are still available to buy in uk, but yes completely understand, last thing you want to do, is cause any stress.

Aww the Syrian hamsters, are so lovely, friendly.
Yes, so guidelines have changed then regarding, how you care for them, you shouldn’t handle them in the beginning? I just wonder how someone would clean their cage out, regularly, if too worried about making contact in this situation.But yes, different times, l guess things have since changed.

Totally agree. Hamsters are not the best pets. A golden hamster I had many years ago bit straight through my friends 3 years olds little finger. She wasnt a biter (the hamster not the child) but was startled and reacted the only way she knew how. I believe the little hamsters are meaner than the old fashioned golden hamsters 🐹
Rats however are fantastic and make brilliant companions for responsible children and adults.
They are clever, clean, friendly and Ive never been bitten by a rat. They love to snuffle you and can be taught to sit on your shoulder like a parrot while you go about your day.
The only reason I stopped keeping rats was that unfortunately they suffer from tumours and don't live very long. It's heartbreaking when there's nothing you can do and you loose them 💔

My advice is never pick them up by their tails, because their eye balls drop out. We were told this by a very reliable pet shop keeper.

If you offer a treat, your fingers will smell of treat, and so they can bite thinking your fingers are food. Try gentle stroking while he's eating a treat. Some take longer than others to trust.
I don't think hamsters are great pets for kids, I only had them as an adult, they don't wake up til 10pm and they are too small and fast for kids to handle.
They are lovely pets for adults though. I no longer have hamsters but whenever I get those little cucumbers sticks with crispy duck, I always put one aside for the hamster without thinking.

They’re all grumpy and bitey in my experience - I don’t think hamsters actually make very good pets. Rabbits don’t either really. Guinea pigs are much better: they require a lot of effort and time/work, but they’re probably the most child-friendly and human-friendly of the small pets options.

Do you say litter in his cage?
I hope not cat litter.
We had one and I put hamster soft type of litter don't recall it being called litter more like hamster hay.
Cleaned and refresh cage as she did use potty on in never cleaned anything with harsh chemicals
Did use parts of a vacuum to clean out after dumping hay.
Mine bit a few times but was super sweet.

Sorry don’t have time to read whole thread so might have already been discussed but rats don’t have to smell if you manage their bedding and cage well. However it is tricky because if you keep it too clean then they scent mark more to make up for it. It’s a balancing act but once you have it right they don’t smell really at all. We have lost all 3 of ours over this year and it has broken us. Rats are essentially like little dogs 🐶

Wtf?

I don't think hamsters make good pets. They are nocturnal and they bite. I can remember the sound of mine crunching into my finger when I was a kid. I think we should stop keeping them as pets altogether. Sorry, that doesn't help you OP. Its a shame. For you and the hamster.

We've had two hamsters and after the last one died I banned having any again. They're not the cutesy little things we all think. Our second one was feral, literally hated everyone and everything and did nothing but bite.
And their teeth are sharp. I used to dread the weekly cge clean, I started putting the entire cage in the bath and letting the beggar jump out and roam around the bath and would then pick her up with oven gloves on. She would still attack my hand throughout.

I’m no hamster expert, but wondering if he had any handling from much earlier than 2 months old, before you got him? If not, handling at 2 months is quite a late start possibly.

They can be like that especially if they weren't handled from being tiny babies.

They are really more of a hobby than a cuddly family pet.

Second this. Rats are very underrated as kids pets.

Right. We have purchased “anti bite” gloves. We’re going to keep trying to handle him, to see if we can get him used to it.

Wish us luck

I had a small pet litter tray for mine and they'd go in that. Rats are extremely clean and they sometimes like to wash us too.

I miss having rats and would never with the cat I have. I did have them with a previous cat and one day when my rat Pipkin was having a run out of his cage I absentmindedly let my cat in. I then thought shit! and ran into the living room. Pipkin had gone back in to his cage and the cat had gone upstairs to sleep. I think the cat had a bad experience when he once got his nose too close to the gerbil cage. Either that or I'd drummed it into him "we are nice to small furries in this house". 😂

I was gonna say the same thing,rats can make fantastic pets .One of my kids rats was the most gentle thing ,he use to sit on your lap while watching tv then take himself back to bed in his cage.

OP I have always had Russian dwarf or the Campbell hamsters since I was a teen and none have ever bitten me, the one time I had a Syrian it bit all the time. Rats have bitten me so I wouldn’t have them and guinea pigs were far too much work and the noise went right through me

Rats are gorgeous. I wish more people realised how amazing they are. Far better pets for kids than hamsters, but so many people are put off because they are rats and have tails.

Rats are special little souls 😍

We had exactly the same thing happen to us, our first hamster bit over and over again, deep bites and lots of blood pouring down my poor kid’s hand’s 😭. About six months in, he escaped from the cage by tunnelling through the plastic! I couldn’t believe it! I found him, but at my wits end at this point (as nobody would touch him), I took the cage and hamster back to Pets at Home, explained what had happened and they took him into their adoption centre. We’ve had two since which were both lovely, but my kids are still jumpy around them after their first experience. Unfortunately it’s luck of the draw! If you bought from pets at home enquire about the adoption centre, they really do try to help. Good Luck!