New hamster tips

lolseh

I'm always talking away to my small furries and you can hear me from the back garden. Wonder what the neighbours must think :rotfl:

heretolearn_2

Try not to react if he does take a nip at you. I know it hurts but just grit your teeth and wait a couple of seconds for him to let go, if he doesn't let go try to just distract him away with a tasty sunflower seed or something.

IF you yell, squeeze, hop around, drop, shake, whatever, it scares the living daylights out of them and they then associate people with nasty things happening and are more likely to get difficult to handle or bite.

They don't often bite, I think that over my son's 3 hamsters he got bitten just once by a new one, he just kept his cool as advised and it never bit him again. It's the ones that get handled roughly that start biting in self defence.

They are great escape artists but not usually too hard to recatch once you've found them again, if they are tame and happy. One of ours escaped over Christmas and was discovered several days later behind the cooker in a little nest made of tinsel! They are so adorable.

A good place for initial handling sessions is the bathroom, as it's a confined area without anywhere they can get into and disappear like the back of a sofa. Sit on the floor of the bathroom with them with the door shut, let it out of cage, it can have a run around, and come and explore you - especially if you've got some juicy bits of carrot etc to hand, and not get into any mischief.

I want a hamster now...