Hamster Skittish

Question
My female hamster doesn't like to be handled. Sometimes she'll be okay if I sick my hand in the cgae and pet her and other times she gets really scared and kind of flinches. My freind has a hamster and we got them at about the same time and his can be picked up no problem!! How to I get my hamster to be like this?

Answer
Hi Kristin.  Thanks for the question.

Taming any animal is a very long, involved process so this will be a very long answer.

Taming hamsters requires a lot of patience and time.  I would first of all suggest that you switch her to a cage that is not an aquarium, at least for taming purposes, so that you can go IN at her when you pick her up, instead of DOWN on her.  Going DOWN on a prey animal reminds them of a predator (like a hawk or an owl) and they don't like it.

Also remember to always cup a hamster when you pick it up, don't grab it around it's middle.  Being prey animals, they usually don't like this either (although docile animals with good temperaments will allow it more than un-tamed animals).

Hamsters don't like to be startled and are nocturnal, so if you have to wake her up during the day, do so by rustling some of her bedding away from her nest or sleeping place to wake her up before you handle her.

To tame any animal, you need to take baby steps and have the patience of Job.  If it were me, I would start by simply sitting near the cage and talking to the hamster, around dusk when they are more likely to be active.  (Remember, hamsters are nocturnal and would rather sleep during the day.)  She may initially run and hide just by your being near, but they *are* curious little critters and often come out to inspect things.

Just sit by the cage for a week.  Maybe more.  You know the hamster better than I do, you will know more than I could tell you if you notice any improvement or difference in her behavior.  When you are sitting near the cage, try your hardest not to make any sudden, jerky movements or loud noises.  Also, don't stare at her.  She may not even see it (rodents don't have great eyesight), but then again she may, and any prey animal feels uncomfortable being stared at.  (Think of a cat stalking, and you understand why.)

When you put your hand in the cage, try to wait until she is already on the far side so you don't make her feel she needs to run, or bite.  You want your presence associated with as little stress and trauma as possible.  If she does bite, try your hardest not to move your hand (or at least not to remove it from the cage) until she moves away, so she doesn't learn that biting gets her the results she wants (the hand going away).

Unfortunately, you will probably have to traumatize her a bit to catch her in order to do routine cage cleaning, but if you shoo her into a cardboard tube and close both ends with your hands to transfer her instead of grabbing her, it will probably be much less traumatic for her.

Signs of improvement will likely be that she will not immediately run and hide at your voice or sounds near the cage, if she DOES run and hide she comes back out more quickly to investigate, or, in the most ideal situation, that she runs right up to the cage to see what's going on.  But that won't likely happen until round two..

The next step would be to remove all sunflower seeds from the food mix.  I know this is tedious, but it usually gets results.  You'll probably have noticed that hamsters are gluttons for sunflower seeds.  They love them.  They crave them.  They covet them.  Which is why YOU'LL want to control when your hamster gets them.  :)  Because then, you'll be the bearer of wonderful, great lovely edible treats everytime she sees you, and she will start to associate you with them instead of with fear.  You see?  :)

Start by simply poking the seeds through the bars of the cage to her.  After being deprived of sunflower seeds, she will very likely want them very badly.

Soon, she'll start to figure out that.. Hey!  Hands mean SUNFLOWER SEEDS.  Hands are GOOD.

If all goes well by this point, she'll likely run up to the cage side when she hears your voice every time without fail, so that she won't miss out on the goodies.

If so, move on to the next step, which is opening the cage door, and resting your hand, palm up, on the bottom, with a sunflower seed in it.  Lay your hand flat, don't cup it -if you cup it she may feel as though you're trying to trap her.  Make no move at any time to grab her.  Let her come to you.

Once she's confidently taking the seed from your palm (should take a few days or so) up the ante a bit by moving it from your palm to your wrist.  She'll probably have to actually climb into your hand to retrieve the seed now.

Again, do this excersize a few days, or until she does it confidently every time, and then move the seed up your arm a bit more.  Now she has to step onto your palm and move up your arm.

As you go through this, if she still seems a bit jumpy, you may want to work sitting inside of an empty plastic kiddie pool or somewhere else where, if she gets startled and runs up your arm and then leaps, she can't get far or run under furniture and be lost.

Eventually you should have a pet that at least doesn't mind being cupped in your hand.  She may never enjoy having fingers around her middle, but being cupped in two hands will probably not bother her.

If at any point you feel that you are not making progress or she has regressed, go back to the previous step and do it until you are satisifed that you may move on.

Patience is key!  But remember, some of them just don't like to be handled.  This excersize, if done right, may take anywhere from a month to three, but shouldn't take any longer than six.  If you have gone six months and she still extremely fearful or nippy, just let her be herself and love her for it just the same.

It is a combination of genetics and learning from their parents, as well as a lack of socialization with people when they are young, that makes them hard to handle as adults.  Most hamsters purchased at pet stores are bred and born in commercial wholesale facilities where the breeding of as many animals as possible, as cheaply as possible, is their main goal, not making quality pets.  (Unfortunately.)  So the hamsters that are bred may not have the best temperaments, and to make it worse, they are not handled by people any more than putting them in the boxes to ship them to stores (which is a very stressful experience to have for a first contact with people).

So you can understand why your hamster is a shy.  Your friend's hamster may have been bred by a private breeder, sometimes private breeders take animals that are not up to their standards and should not be used for their breeding program to pet stores to make pets, and these are usually much tamer and more friendly than the others because they have been bred for these qualities.  :)