Do Syrian hamsters bite?

[FcukBreastCancer]

Used to love mine. I'm trying to persuade dh. Kids miss their guinea pigs (now in heaven).
Mine never bit, but I've heard stories of them being savage.

Yabu - they are bitey little f*ckers
Yanbu - they are placid and lovely and wouldn't harm a finger

We have two lovely ones that didn’t bite .

Our Syrian was lovely. RIP Mr Pickles.

I personally wouldn’t get guinea pigs again.

Actually, do yourself and your family a favour and just go straight to a dog 🤣 They truly are the best.

I had hamsters growing up - bit by every single one. I had a gerbil - bit by that. Had rats and haven't been bitten once - they do stink though.

Some do, some don't, depending on their characters and how much they're handled from an early age. Thing is if they do it's a tiny nip and doesn't hurt much. Xxx

Because of my kids ages basically. I know i lost interest when I was mid teens compared to.my younger years. I don't want another huge commitment

Some do, some don't. We've had 4 or 5 and only had the odd nip. Handle them every day so they get used to being handled and don't stick fingers through the bars or pick them up when they're sleepy/just woken up. Ours were very sweet, although one was a real escape artist!

Ours does but he loves being petted with an old toothbrush so we do that instead! He also screams when he is scared which kit all hamsters do. Was a huge shock when he first did it. We love the feisty little shit!

😆 I’ve heard they can be vicious if they get mugged by a gang of field mice!

Spoiler alert... bitey little fuckers is currently pretty conclusive

Mine didn't bite, but they were bloody little Houdinis!

We have a Syrian although he’s not too well at the moment but it’s also his age. He’s always been super friendly and loves to be handled and picked up.

We had one who was gorgeous, used to greet the children when they came home from school and squeak to come out to play. The other two were bastards. The best were the Guinea piggies.

I had four at different times growing up, three were lovely and friendly and didn’t mind been handled (one was very cute and snuggly) but I did have one that was very grumpy, and that would bite anyone and everyone.

I have had a good few Syrian hamsters since childhood and maybe only 1 out of 12 ish didn't like being held/was a little nippy if we tried.

Generally if your fingers don't smell of food, and the hamster trusts you and isn't scared it won't bite.

I didn't like the Russian hamsters as they seemed more bitey and also ran way too fast for my liking.

I am thinking of getting another Syrian one when my kids are a little older.

Ours was Mr Fluffles Lord Of The Dark Underworld - he wasn’t bitey - sadly the cat that managed to get into his egg cage was!

Gerbils are cute until they eat one another (following a fight in a giant, purpose built environment), apparently.

I wouldn't know, all rodents were banned at ours - even the cats couldn't enjoy their free range snacks in the garden without being shrieked at and chased with a broom.

The Syrian Hamster I did acquire (thanks to the current cat finding an escapee in the garden) definitely had an attitude, though. Spent the last eight months of its life glaring at the world from its tank enclosure in abject comfort instead of hiding in gardens.

Hamsters are the probably the small animal most likely to bite (dwarf hamsters are the worst culprits, but Syrians are relatively prone to it too).

Of small furries, I'd go (from most to least bitey):

1. Hamsters
2. Gerbils
3. Mice
4. Degus
5. Rats

If we're counting guinea pigs, they're less bitey still.

I had 8 Syrians when I was growing up, and two of them were bitey little psychos. Four of them only bit a little when I first got them, then chilled out. And two of them were totally mellow and never ever bit anyone.

Dsis had a syrian hamster when we were kids. He was a vicious bugger. He would actually growl. I know he did it to be intimidating but it was really cute.

I loved our Syrian hamster. Bought a boy that turned out to be a girl. She came to us having bitten my daughter (who was adamant she still wanted him/her!) and departed this world having bitten me on the thumb. She was a right wee character.

Things have moved on in terms of hamster care. Now the absolute recommended minimum cage or tank size is 100 x 50cm, ideally much bigger. No levels, they are dangerous and hamsters aren’t natural climbers. Plenty of enrichment in the form of deep substrate, natural chews, scatter feeding and a wheel at least 12 inches big. If you’re pushed for space a hamster isn’t a good idea. Please join some knowledgeable FB groups and do some research.

I know much smaller cages are available, but that doesn’t mean they’re ok. You can buy all sorts of cruel shit for animals, but availability doesn’t mean it’s fine to use.

But to answer your question, no in my experience Syrians aren’t bitey, if they are handled gently and when they are naturally awake and keen for interaction.

I look after my pets well. I have a space suitable for a hamster in the lounge. A guinea pig needs a bigger cage and wouldn't fit.

My Syrian as a kid never bit me and was very friendly. I was trying to ascertain if I was lucky 😀

We had 2 Russians. The first one was bitey as hell but possibly because we adopted it from the shelter and it hadn't been handled when a baby so it just didnt want to be. It did have a lot of personality though. You could stroke it if you gave it a sunflower seed but that was about it. Second one less bitey but still couldn't really be handled as just too fast and skittish. He was an amazing tunnel builder. I'd always feel bad cleaning him out and wrecking them.

My gerbils were extremely savage and couldn't really be handled at all. But if you keep them correctly, in a massive glass tank with at least 8 inches of substrate, they're really interesting little beasts and dig lots of tunnels which you can often see through the glass.

The flipside is that, because they're a largely underground creature, you don't necessarily see them as much as you might see, eg, mice. But it's obviously better to have happy independent gerbils than miserable visible ones.

All hammys bite. I was in charge of 'taming' hamsters as a child - we always had them, lovely little things and so much character.