Behavoir

Question
Ive had a hamster for 3 weeks and she is extremely mean! She bites and screams and chews threw everything! ive tried feeding her by hand and just petting her but nothing seems to work she is a fancy hamster!

~Beth~

Answer
Hi Beth.

I'm sorry to hear about the troubles with your hamster.  There are a few articles I know of that would probably greatly help you.  They were written by members of the California Hamster Association.

Agressive Hamsters:
http://www.geocities.com/calhamassoc/QandAAggressive.html

Skittish Hamster Q&A:
http://www.geocities.com/calhamassoc/QandASkittish.html

Taming Ideas:
http://www.geocities.com/calhamassoc/QandATaming.html

The two probably most helpful to you will be Taming Ideas and Skittish Hamster Question and Answer.  It sounds as though your little hamster was just never properly socialized.  That screaming that she's doing is her screaming because she's scared to death that something bad is about to happen to her, the same way you'd scream if something really really terrified you.

The thing you have to remember with skittish animals is that it will take a lot (a LOT) of time and patience to get them to trust you.

One major important thing:  Hamsters don't like things coming "down" on them, they'd much rather be cupped from the bottom.  A hand coming down from the top of a cage to grab them just makes them think a predator is about to make them dinner.  If you have an aquarium or tank-style cage, you may want to consider buying one that has a door opening from the side, so at least you are reaching in at her.  Or, alternately, you could shoo her into a cardboard tube and gently tip her out onto your hand to hold her.  Many hamsters prefer this method of being picked up to being grabbed around the middle.

As for the chewing through things.. well.. that's what hamsters DO.  They have teeth that always keep growing, and if they don't chew things and keep them worn down, the teeth will grow up through the roof of their mouth and eventually their skull, leading to death.  So make sure she always has plenty of safe things to chew on!  

Good luck, and feel free to ask me any other questions you may have, or if anything in those articles is unclear to you.

:)