Behaviors

How to Treat Your Hamster

When you first get your hamster, you should leave it be in its cage for a few days. Let it have time to get used to the new environment. The new place is already scary enough - your hamster can get used to you after it has gotten used to its home.

After a few days, you can begin to interact with your hamster. When it is awake, gently and quietly place a fruit or vegetable in the cage. Do this for a about a week every to every other day so your hamster gets used to your presence. Try to do this at the same time every day you do it so your hamster knows when to expect your arrival. After about a week if your hamster does not hide when you leave out food, try to feed your hamster from your hand. Hold the food near the hamster. If the hamster moves, do not try to chase them with your hand. Keep doing this until your hamster eats from your hand. Some hamsters do not like interaction at all so if your hamster will never come out when you are there, you may not be able to ever change this. Other hamsters will tolerate interaction or are friendly.

If your hamster is comfortable eating out of your hand, put some food in the palm of your hand. Do it with something your hamster likes - a seed it prefers or a fruit or veggie it likes. They may get the food but leave, or they may eat right on your hand. Do this for multiple days so your hamster gets used to it and comfortable.

If your want to pick your hamster up, do all of the above steps first so your hamster is comfortable with you. After that, you can put food on your palm, and if your hamster eats on it, you can gently lift your palm. If your hamster tries to leave, lower your hand and let it. Do not lift your hand too high until you have done this a few times and your hamster clearly is okay with it (this can look like your hamster continuing eating without reacting to the movement). If you want to hold your hamster not above its cage, you may want to sit in an enclosed space in case your hamster runs off of you (hamsters, especially certain ones, are quite fast). You can make the space easily - just make a fence out of cardboard. Such a fence will be mentioned later in the floor time section.

If you hamster is calm and comfortable enough, you can pet it in your hand, or let it eat on another part of your body. I - the author - had a calm hamster who would walk around and eat on my legs or chest. Once you get to know your hamster and think your hamster could do this and once your hamster knows you enough to be comfortable to, you can try this, but I still reccommend being in an enclosed space unless you have had your hamster for a while and it has never run - though still be careful.

Floor time: It is crucial to give your hamster time outside of its enclosure - they need a bigger space and a new one for enrichment. Especially if you have not done floor time yet/many times/do not know your hamster that well, you should have an enclosed space. One can easily and cheaply be made by using cardboard and tape. Duct tape is reccommended because it is strong and cannot be ripped easily (so if your hamster tries to bite the tape it will not ingest it because it will not come off or a piece will not be ripped off). The walls should be about 6 or more inches tall so your hamster cannot climb out. The space should be farely large, larger than the cage and big enough for you to sit in. You should put the area on hard, empty floor, not carpet that could have things like crumbs on it and not an area with objects or wires in it. So your hamster does not get bored nor scared, take its wheel and at least two hide houses from its cage and place them in the space. Also put a bit of food and water in the area - a bottle cap full of water should do, or if you already have a water cup you can use that (the bottle cap is for people who have bottles, which would be hard to put in the area).

If your hamster pees or poops in this area it is okay - the pee can easily be wiped and the poop is hard and can be swept or picked up easily. You should do floor time at least every few days and after your hamster has already woken up - you should not wake up your hamster unless it is for necessary things like a vet or moving. Also put some chews and some other objects, like branches and rocks from the cage or a toilet paper tube, to make the space more fun for your hamster. If your hamster likes interaction with you, you can use this time to pet your hamster and let it climb on you.

Do not use a hamster ball. It can be hard for your hamster to breath, their feet can get stuck in air holes, they will be stressed because they can not leave, and if the ball roles into something the hamster may be injured.

Typical Hamster Behaviors

If your hamster yawns, this means it is comfortable around you.
Hamsters are clean animals and often groom themselves. This could be licking themselves or licking their paw and cleaning another part of their body with it - like they are wiping themselves.
Hamsters may look like they have bigger cheeks than normal sometimes - this is from putting thing in their cheek pouches, usually to carry these items.

Non-typical Behaviors

If a hamster is bored or their cage is too small they may pace the cage, climb/bite on the bars if they have bars in the cage, or wall scale, which is trying to jump up the walls, which usually happens in cages without bars. If you notice your hamster doing these things a lot, you may want to get your hamster a bigger cage with more things in it.

If you are carrying your hamster and it pushes out what it has pouched in its cheeks, put your hamster back in the cage because that means they are stressed and are making themselves lighter in preparation to run.