Taming the beast

[likejackansally]

I've had my dwarf for several months now and I haven't handled him because I am afraid too. He nips a lot. I wash my hands everytime I've tried to pick him up so I know its not because my hands smell like food. He has drawn blood from myself and my sisters ex. He will let me pet him while he is eating and he takes food from my fingers but I want to

Comments

[charshark]

Gloves!

Start out by wearing a nice cotton glove (or similiar) on your dominant hand (the one you want to hold him with). Have a little treat with you and carefully put your gloved hand in his cage (don't do it suddenly or you might scare him) and put the treat on the palm of the glove. Wait and see if he'll crawl up naturally on your gloved hand for the treat and if he does, slowly lift him up (or out) of the cage and watch to see what he does for a little bit. If he seems comfortable on your hand, try petting him with an ungloved finger. You'll probably have to try this several times before he'll respond well with you, but hopefully, he will!

[likejackansally]

I tried this, and he still kept nibbling at it and then i would sort of move my hand up and down til he stopped and he would just repeat this process..maybe he thought it was fun lol.

[charshark]

When I first got my dwarf hamster, Jasmine, she was terribly mean. Then, I found out she was pregnant, ha, so she became nice after awhile. Anyways, I doubt your boy ham's pregnant, but maybe he's just a stinker like that.

[solipglossed]

or get him into a cup or toliet paper roll, and then let him crawl out into your hand from it.

One of my girls is evil while in the cage but just a sweetie while out.

[poo]

Agreed. My ham is evil in the cage, but nice outside of it. I'd try that.

[zarya]

The "evil in the cage, sweet outside" behavior is typical of dwarf hamsters... They're very cage-territorial, so even when they're tame, they can still nip/bite when something enters their territory! Good luck with the suggestions above, they should improve things!

[gogogola]

cover your hamster in that stuff they put on kids fingers to stop them biting their nails.

no, don't really do that... i have a little dwarf who likes to bite. she doesn't seem to calm down when i get her out of the cage, but i kind of just got used to being bitten. she's lovely, it's worth being bitten a few times a day.

[likejackansally]

lol, im not as willing as you to be bitten it scares me a lot