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

Our last female hamster would climb anything and everything. We never tracked down a hole in the wall, she used, to climb into the ceiling. She'd pop her head out and we would hold up a bowl for her to climb down into. First time we had to tempt her out with strawberries. She was happier when we gave her things to climb. We did dig/forage boxes etc in plastic storage boxes and playpen set ups.That's were the different personalities come into play.

She never bit, as long as the handling was done on her terms. I agree that if you look after them properly, they aren't easy, or cheap pets.

They are very territorial, they're also often woken when asleep, by grabby children who want to play with them when its their 'nighttime'.

They have very sharp teeth and are capable of deep bites and also biting and not letting go.

I don't think they make great pets because to give them a cage that will actually meet their needs in terms of territory area and distance covered finding food each night, you'd need one the size of a large room, and they are nocturnal, so really don't want to be interacted with during our waking hours.

Obviously some will be easier going than others, but thats a gamble, none of these commercially bred rodents are bred for temperament, they're typically bred for the frozen pet food market and the nicely coloured ones selected for pet sales. So the selective breeding criteria is colour based not temperament based.

Unless you find a home breeder who is selecting for temperament, (and most are selecting for colour/coat type first as they tend to show them or specialise in a particular colour/coat type). They aren't very common though!