Any Hamster Whisperers out there??

[lydialemon]

OK, I did a very silly thing and got DS2 a hamster for his birthday. I don't have any problems handling small rodents, but this one is evil and has shed far too much of my blood. I know she's only doing it because she's scared, so how do I calm her down, how do you docile a hamster?

I let her sniff my fingers, and hand feed her, but if I get too close she get very agitated and bites (very very hard). The kids are dying to stroke her, but I want her to be a lot calmer first. I don't want them to get bitten, and then be too scared to go near her again. Frankly, I'm getting nervous about putting my hand in the cage!

Help, please!!! Methods and timescales would be good, she's about 8 weeks old, called Peekaboo and we've had her a week.

petwebsite.com
minxlinx
hamperhams
Can't help myself, ll, but hope these might. I've never been v good with hamsters. DD2 was always fine with them but is not here to ask atm.

I had the hamster of Satan about 4 years ago and I tried everywhich way of being nice to him. Nothing worked. He was the size of a guinea pig and also liked to drop himself on his head from the third level of his cage (about 2 feet up). It got to the point that the only way to get him out of his cage was to put on leather bike gloves on pray he didn't go through them. We called him Fat-Boy (later found out he was a she ). The only thing that slowed down his reign of terror was the dog. He died fairly soon after we got her. I still think of those little fangs dripped in my blood and the tetanus jabs with fondness.
Did make me smile when people came to the house saying 'oh, he won't bite me, animals love me' and then having to prise him from their finger!

We have had two, one was older than we thought when we got him and we never got her friendly, the other was obviously a baby and was never a problem - personally, I would never have another one as they didn't wake up until the kids were in bed. We now have guinea pigs and even though they are bigger they don't bite. (also have rabbits too).
Set up a hamster fun park - we used a large plastic under bed box and lots of little boxes, loo roll and kitchen roll inners etc and let it run around, stroke it rather than pick it up, try and hand feed it, just try and gain its confidence, when it seems to settle try lifting it whilst wearing gardening gloves and take it slowly.

We reintroduced our blood sucking rabbit to the wild after months of every calming method known to man (and women) None worked and he bit anyone he came into contact with.

We see him regularly in the area and he seems to be coping very well with his new life (ie shagging every wild rabbit in sight!) Our neighbours, who dont know about his former life, want to catch him and give him a nice home, ha ha!

We now have a 'normal' rabbit and the kids dont look like they have been playing with glass...

Well, I do hope I don't have to resort to her escaping 'accidently' Thanks for the links and advice. I suspected I wasn't being patient enough, so I'll keep perservering. I'll definitely try holding her with gloves, at least DS2 will get a little stroke then!

I knew I should have stuck with the fish

Try gerbils next time - they are not nocturnal and the ones we've had seem much tamer than hamsters. They look a bit ratty, and are not pretty colours, but nice.