Syrian hamster such a headache!

Question
Hi there, i have a female syrian hamster and have had her for about 2 weeks, she is about 5-6 weeks old. She seems to come out on to my hand but i have to wear gloves because she once bit me. The problem is that i have to wash her tubes out every day as she wees and poos a lot in them. It takes up all my evening and i never get a break, and recently she or the cage has been starting to smell quite bad. I have even bought her a toilet but she does not seem to use it. She spends most of her time in the tubes, she also whenever i give her some food, stores it all up in her mouth and take it up to her house, moves all her bedding to her tube and sleeps there sometimes and sometimes sleeps in the house. Please help me potty train her. I am starting to get fed up.
thanks a lot.

Answer
Hi

sorry to hear you're getting fed up with your hamster's behavior.

There are a few things you can do.  Firstly, if you want her to use a hamster toilet - get some of her soiled bedding and put that in there.  Then give her cage a good clean out - replace any bedding, wood chippings, food etc.  Once you've put all the clean bedding in - put her toilet in there - this will be the only thing that smells like her and hopefully she will start to use it.

Whilst it is important to keep the cage clean - and especially if there are tubes, sometimes if you over clean a hamster they scent their territory even more.  I clean my hamsters out weekly and they rarely smell (only if it is really hot) - but a friend used to clean hers daily and it smelled really bad!  This is because when you clean them they panic and scent everywhere again.  So whilst you want to keep her cage clean so she doesn't get sick - just a quick rinse with no disinfectant might be an idea for the next week or two and see if things settle down.  Also, remove any uneaten vegetables or soiled dry food - let her keep the rest of her food.  

With regard to handling her - talk to her a lot, and when you go to pick her up, rub some of her bedding onto your hands so that her scent is on you.  Can you dismantle the cage?  If so, it is good to remove the top section so that you can scoop her up.  Some hamsters don't like walking on skin, therefore let her walk on your clothing.  Only get her out for a short period of time initially, then return her to her cage. You can build up the handling time over the following day/week. Remember to talk to her all the time so she recognizes your voice.  Now is an important time to train her, so the more time you spend with her the better pet she will end up being.  hamsters only bite for a few reasons: they are being handled badly, are frightened or genuinely mistake the hand for food.  Don't grab at her, scoop her up or let her walk out onto you. She needs to feel confident with you, and you with her.

Good luck with this, I hope you get this sorted.

Regards