Biting Hamster

Question
I just got my chinese dwarf hamster today...she's about six weeks old. I let her smell my hand a lot while she was in the cage but as soon as i actually tried to pet her she bit me hard and a lot. Is this normal?


P.S. I have tried this a lot of times and the same thing happened.

Answer
Hi Michelle

Yes its totally and completely normal. Unless you are very very lucky, almost ALL new hamsters behave in this way. Its because she hasn't been tamed yet and sees you as a threat.

You will need to start spending a lot of time trying to tame her and heres how:

first things first - always wash your hands before handling her, if you smell like food, you will get bitten! also, wear gloves if you have to..

1. hamsters are naturally timid and its all about getting it to realize you mean it no harm.
2. this process may take a while so you have to be patient and don't give up!
3. first way to start this is to feed it treats through the bars with your hands.
4. once she does this without hassle, rest your hand, palm up in the cage with a treat in the middle, her curiosity and need for the food will overwhelm her and she'll soon climb on no problem.
5. now for the hard part, you'll notice that once she's on your hand, any movement or trying to hold her propperly will have her running. so you'll need a box, big enough that she can't climb out. get her in the box via her excersize ball (if you don't have one, get one cheap from your pet store, serious value for money) fill the bottom of the box with a thick layer of sawdust, she IS going to jump when you try to grab her. anyway, start trying to cup her from underneath with your hands. if she jumps, no worries, just rinse and repeat this process until you can hold her without her trying to jump away. hamsters will always try to escape your grasp, but it shouldn't come across as panicky once tamed.

* reminder - this could take up to a few weeks for her to be fully tamed.

Best of Luck and thank you for your question :)

Joanne x