Taming a 1 month syrian

[Maple]

i just bought a 1 month old male syrian, he have been here for 6 days.
he's very shy and scared. whenever i want to touch or carry him, he always run away and bites me. there have been 10+ more bite marks on my fingers now. idk why, but sometime he bites, sometime he doesn't. he want to take food from my hand, and i can lure him to my palm with food strips. but without food, he doesn't want and scared of my hand. he doesn't wanna be petted or carried. he always hide inside his multichamber home. he only come out at 11pm while i already slept so i dont have time to bond or interact with him.
it's almost a week and i dont see any progress.
any help or suggestion ?

more information: i had 2 winter white hamsters before, they just passed away several months ago. when i first bought them, they were not that scared and shy like my syrian. they want to play, very active, and tame. it kinda break my expectation to see my new syrian like this, but im still trying to do my best

 

[Maz]

Hello and welcome. Is he actually only a month old? If so he is very very young to go to a new home. They are normally about 6 weeks old when they are rehomed.

He is a tiny baby! They get very scared. It's probably too soon to start handling and you need to start slowly with letting him get used to your scent and presence, and avoid cleaning him out or changing anything for the first two weeks. Syrians only really bite out of fear or if they are in pain.

Moving to a new home, environment and different person is a massive adjustment for them and you also need to be careful to avoid stress for him while he's settling in, to avoid illness. What cage or enclosure is he in? It sounds quite normal. My last syrian, who was unusually under 6 weeks when he came to me, squawked a lot every time he saw me or I said everything - although once he was in his cage, he just hid.

Your new hammy will have come straight from living with his siblings and isn't quite grown up enough yet to learn independence. So it's just time and patience really. Allow him to just get into his own little routine and gradually adjust to your voice. You can talk to him through the enclosure gently. If it has bars you could try offering the odd treat through the bars. But they do need a good two weeks to settle in and a few days of being left alone. They also need somewhere dark to retreat to in the cage to feel secure - so deep bedding and/or a platform or shelf or large house, or he will feel terrified of predators!

They are a prey species and it takes a bit of time to build trust with a human sometimes. They all vary.

How to tame a hamster

Hand taming a hamster can make life with your hamster very rewarding. Suddenly they will sit on you to be stroked or even go to sleep on you, and will be very easy to handle. It can take a bit of time and patience initially.

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[Maple]

yeah, he's 1 month and 2 days when i bought him. he have been here for 6 days, so for total he's about 1 month and 8 days old. i gave him 80×40×40 wooden and acrylic cage. 20 cm deep bedding, 30 cm diameter wheel, 1 multichamber, 1 underground home/tunnel, a large sand bath, sprays, hay tunnel, and more. but he's only out from his home at night when im sleeping, he sleep nonstop from morning to evening, and never get out from his home, i don't have a chance to bond and interact with him. do you have any suggestion ?

oh and today i remove some of his enrichment and hideout so i can know whenever he's awake and can interact with him for a short time. i didn't know i shouldn't have done that. but my previous winters doesn't have that lot of enrichment and they're okay even the first day when i bought them home, so i though it's okay to remove some ? idk why they're different. it doesn't go as my expectation, but that's alright. i still love Pon Pon

i'll change my mindset from "i want him to be like my previous hamsters", to "he's just a tiny baby that got seperated from his mom and trying to learn how world goes"

 

[Maz]

That’s exactly what it is. But I think also, as he is less than 6 weeks old, perhaps having a bit less bedding at first might help or he will hide away and it become a habit.

I’d wait until it’s been another wwwk before changing anything else though.

Do you have a nightcam? I find that really helps in the early days so you get to see what they get up to at night while waiting for them to get braver . It is fairly normal for Syrians to hide away a bit at first. It’s a balance - if you try too soon it stresses them out. If you wait too long they’re harder to get socialised.

When I had my less than 6 weeks old Syrian I started him in a 80 x 50 cage with less bedding so I could see him when he came out. He did start to venture out after a week or so but if I went to speak to him he would go in a corner next to his wheel and stick his head under the bedding. Sort of Ostrich mode. .

After a couple of weeks I used to offer him a rat tube to walk into - he was incredibly timid but did eventually edge into it. From there I took him for bathtub taming - maybe a couple of times a week - so we bonded and he was then starting to be handleable. A few weeks later I upgraded him to a 120cm cage with 10” of bedding. And he disappeared. Avoided me completely - couldn’t even find him. Partly the cage change had unsettled him but I then ended up with a hamster I didn’t see at all for months.

So their personalities vary - some are shyer than others. My previous Syrian would have been leaping about and digging in that big cage and wanting to be out.

After a few months of an invisible hamster I decided to downgrade him to a 100cm cage with a bit less bedding. And then he was back to wanting to come out and interacting.

So my personal view is that a hamster who is only four weeks old needs a different kind of “upbringing” for a while. They miss out on a further two weeks of socialisation with siblings so need to bond with a caregiver to build confidence.

I would wait a week. Then lower the bedding slightly and another tip is to put a bit of fresh veg like cucumber or broccoli on a little dish at the opposite end of the cage to where he sleeps. The smell tempts them out and as he gets a bit braver and more settled in he will cross the cage to get the veg. That is then a good time to offer him a taxi to walk into - like a rat tube. So you can take him to a safe area like the bathtub or playpen area for some out of cage time and gradual taming.

If you put the veg out maybe 8pm each night and his food out at the same time, he will get in a routine of waking for it.