After giving Beanie three nights to settle into her new home I started the taming process. Personally the taming process was quite easy for me, because that’s just Beanie’s personality. Keep in mind taming any pet takes diligence and effort, and there’s no way to know when your pet will be fully tame, or if they’ll ever be.
Preparing For Taming
During the settling in and taming period I didn’t try to pick her up with my hands, but I would hand-feed her through the bars sometimes. I’d wait until Beanie was asleep then do the spot cleaning so I wouldn’t frighten her.
I just braced myself for taming to take a month or more. Since getting bitten, I was kind of wary of Beanie, so I was wearing a pair of thin, fuzzy gloves. Some protection. Oh well, I felt safer.
Beginning The Taming Process
After carefully putting some food or a treat in my hand I’d offer it to her, and she crept over right away, obviously curious. She snatched a seed and would sit an inch away and devour it, and we did this every night for a week or two, but soon Beanie was climbing on my hand and sitting contentedly to eat, then let me pet her.
Playpen Bonding
About the second week of taming we started ‘Playpen Bonding.’ I had made a cardboard playpen weeks prior to adopting Beanie, and was eager to use it. Some people do use their bathtubs, but… yeah, I used a playpen. I put on some clean clothes and layed a clean towel inside, added several toys, then got Beanie. After so long in her awful tiny cage she was eager to get out, and climbed right on my hand, and was lowered into the pen.
The playpen was large, probably around five by four feet, so I could sit comfortably inside while Beanie dashed around exploring. I would scoop her up, let her run all over my back, arms and hands, and she seemed to enjoy it thoroughly.
Beanie’s Reaction To Skin
After another week or two of this I felt like Beanie wasn’t going to bite me, and I took off my left glove. Beanie disliked the texture of skin for a while and actually avoiding walking on my hands. She also seemed confused because I wasn’t furry anymore.
A few short weeks later I was a confident hamster handler, and had chucked the gloves. Beanie seemed comfortable being handled, and that’s how I tamed my Syrian hamster, Beanie.
After Beanie was officially tame we still worked on some taming just to boost our confindence around eachother. After all, I’d never owned a hamster before and was very new to handling them. Animals can sense your feelings, so if your scared of them they’ll know and won’t feel confident while being held, so always be confident but not cocky when holding any animal.
If you’re interested in more hamster-related content be sure to like this post and follow the blog, and I’ll be back on Tuesday with more small pet care, DIYs, recipes, cage setups, stories and more, have a ham-tastic day!
Some Thoughts:
- Wait a few days for your hamster to settle into their new envirornment before beginning the taming process.
- Feel free to use gloves if you’re uncomfortable handling your hamster.
- Use the larger peices of your hamster’s seedmix as treats so your hamster doesn’t get too many treats.
- Don’t hold your hamster unnessecarelly while taming, this will put you back.