Taming Syrians and Different Dwarf Hamsters

I have dealt with all species of hamsters in commercial trade in California. Which means I have Syrians and Campbells, Winter Whites and Robos. Most of my hamsters have come to me from hard times, or they have been bought by me specifically because they were on sale and I chose those that were most aggressive.

Syrians are everyone's preferred hamsters (at least for new hamster owners) so far as temperament goes. A lot of people say that Syrians are the easiest to tame and the friendliest from the get go. I have realized this is not always true. The only hamster I have ever owned that has shown taming capabilities but also shows no desire to further relationships with humans at all is a Syrian. I can pick him up and touch him without getting bit at all. But he generally hates human contact, and is the most likely to jump out of your hands than any of my other 6.

I have a Robo hamster who is worse than my Syrian in the fact he shows no ability to be tamed and generally wants no human contact. But my other Syrian seeks out human affection, and I've never actually needed to tame him, he was immediately affectionate and open to holding. I have all types of Winter Whites and Campbells, and hybrids between the two, some who came to me openly friendly and desperate for attention, some who are hard to tame but get there, and then there are the ones who most people would likely give up on. One of my favorite hamsters I have ever had was one of the most aggressive in the beginning, it took 6 months until I could safely hold him without him obsessively chewing on my hand in the process and mauling me. I am not one of those people who says "oh, just throw on some glove and get him used to it that way." Honestly, I believe if you need gloves to handle your hamster you are moving too fast for your hamster and it is biting you for a reason. The only reason I would ever use gloves or a towel for handling a hamster is for medication dosing or for emergency purposes.

At the last 2-3 months of Icarus's life he was extremely affectionate. He wanted to be held all the time, wanted to be talked to and taken out daily. It was worth the waiting most of the time he was with us, just to have him enjoy our company so much when he was taken out.

Taming with any hamster should start with at LEAST 2 weeks of no handling other than necessary feeding and watering or if you have a hamster who needs meds etc. I prefer to go 3-4 weeks for most of my less severe cases. Trust me the extra time does help.

After the settling in phase, you want to start accustoming your hamster to you presence. Spend time around him/her. Maybe read a book out loud when near his/her cage. Scent some toilet paper by rubbing it on your hands and then place it near his/her house, then it will be his/her choice to use it. Which eventually all hamsters do. I do this until the hamster shows less fearful and skittish behaviors, it shouldn't run full out and hide once you are in the room and messing around. A little bit of a startle is ok, but otherwise your hamster should be used to your presence before starting the next phase.

This phase is when contact starts, by now you should have learned you hamster's favorite foods. You can start with a seed or nut that is regularly available in the seed mix and then start mixing it up from there. Almost all my hamsters love pumpkin seeds and will readily take them from my fingers as treats. I do have a few who are more protein oriented, or veggie/fruit oriented. Now what you do is you offer it to your ham, I will wait sometimes for 10 minutes just holding it in my fingers and having my hand in the middle of the cage.

If the hamster shows stress or bites you, remove your hand and take a step back. This should not be happening. Try going to one of the earlier steps of taming. If it sniffs you but walks away just leave the treat and walk away from the cage (it was a success, small but a success). Do not reward a hamster for negative reactions, nothing like boxing or biting should be rewarded. Anything showing outright stress means you should not give a treat and should instead just leave. At this point in your relationship you trying to stick out an interaction will just make it worse. If your hamster immediately takes the treat offered, mark the word with his/her name or something similar. Trust me, hamsters are just as easy to train about being good and knowing their names as a dog. All my individual hamsters know their names. If your hamster accepts the treat, have a few extra on hand. Do not push for holding yet. You should be able to treat feed safely without any problems for 2 weeks at least before attempting to hold at all.

For different personalities there will be different ways to approach picking up. Some of my hamsters are so social with me I don't have to wait for them to wake up fully before picking them up (I don't recommend trying this with a new hamster), these hamsters also don't really care if I scoop them or just reach in and pick them up. Some of my hamsters have to absolutely be two hand-scooped. And then I have some I have to lure out onto my hand with a treat. Remember they are ALL different individually and all require a huge amount of accomodation for each individual.

Homemade Hamster Food

Sources of good fats: walnuts, blanched sweet almonds, roasted peanuts, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, roasted soynuts, millet

Protein: sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, roasted peanuts, walnuts, blanched sweet almonds, freeze dried turkey, mealworms, roasted soynuts, flax seed, millet, quinoa, chia seeds, hard red wheat berries, nutritional yeast flakes, barley, spelt flakes, freeze dried chicken liver, freeze dried crickets, freeze dried chicken, freeze dried river shrimp

Macrominerals and Trace mineral-

Calcium: basil, sesame seeds, spirulina, chia seeds

Phosphorous: sesame seeds, spirulina, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds

Iodine: spirulina, oat, wheat berries

Selenium: chia seeds, wheat berries, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, blanched almonds

Iron: chia seeds, basil, spirulina, sesame seeds

Molybdenum: blanched almonds, peanuts, walnuts, barley, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast flakes

Vitamins-

Vitamin A: carrot, spirulina, freeze dried chicken liver, bell peppers, basil, parsley

Vitamin D: freeze dried chicken liver

Vitamin E: sunflower seeds, blanched almonds, peanuts, basil, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, parsley, bell peppers, cranberries, carrots

Vitamin K: basil, carrot, spirulina, parsley, dried berries, carrots, bell peppers

Thiamin: spirulina, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, barley, oats, peanuts, carrots, bell peppers, parsley

Riboflavin: spirulina, blanched almonds, basil, freeze dried chicken liver, bell peppers, freeze dried turkey, carrots, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds

Niacin: peanuts, carrots, basil, freeze dried turkey, freeze dried chicken liver, bell peppers, sunflower seeds, barley, carrots, parsley

Pantothenic Acid: Sunflower seeds, bell peppers, freeze dried chicken, freeze dried turkey, wheat berries, carrots, spirulina

Pyridoxine: basil, millet, sesame seeds, freeze dried turkey, freeze dried chicken, sunflower seeds, bell peppers, carrots, spirulina

Biotin: blanched almonds, oats, peanuts, carrots, walnuts, nutritional yeast, wheat berries, roasted soynuts, berries, cranberries, sunflower seeds, freeze dried chicken liver

Folic Acid: basil, carrots, sunflower seeds, peanuts, flax seeds, blanched almonds, parsley, bell peppers, quinoa

Vitamin B12: freeze dried chicken liver, freeze dried chicken, freeze dried turkey

So this isn't a complete ingredient list, but this is very close. I now have 32 regular ingredients. I don't weigh my ingredients by grams anymore, I have realized it's pretty much useless anymore, I know how much each of my hamsters generally need and eat in each department of fat/protein/carbs. Each of my hamsters (though I have different species many of them are the same since I have six) need extreme differences in their diet for what is recommended individually. I just use volume measurements even when doing my base food mix, and then alter it from there when I feed each hamster. This is why I don't include measurements, I also don't sell my food at all... because hamsters are hugely different for each individual, and generally each person who would feed their hamster it needs to know what a healthy hamster looks like. In general all my hamster lost an extreme amount of weight for the first week or two, then they gained it back in lean muscles. They lost a lot of what I call excess fat. 

Most of my hamsters are rescue hams, so they come to me in some sort of bad shape or being fed crap food. I have two I want to discuss in detail, one is my severely aggressive dwarf ham and my other is a syrian who has some physical problems with his hips and and muscle atrophied side. My dwarf hamster, Icarus, actually had a bad bacterial infection that started to heal itself when I switched him to the homemade mix that the vet said was a really good choice and his aggression and anxiety in general has reduced. My syrian, Badger, I have adjusted his food to have more lean proteins and omega-3 fats, his hips are moving better and his atrophied side has actually gained muscle which it never has before. I am very happy with how it has helped not just them but also everyone else. If any of my readers have any questions about my food, I will gladly answer them.

Different Hamster Types and Basic Care

There are 32 different known types of hamsters in the world. There may be more that are undiscovered, the thing with wild hamsters is they are almost never seen. Hamsters even in captivity are extremely nocturnal, so wild hamsters are skewed to this life style even more. The fact that they are extremely nocturnal and are usually found at 18+ feet under ground, it's very rare to run across a hamster in the wild unless actively looking for them.

Though there are so many types in the wild there are only technically 5 types available in captivity. The Syrian, the Campbells dwarf hamster, the Winter White dwarf hamster, the Robo dwarf hamster, and the Chinese dwarf hamster. In the US commercial pet trade there are no known pure bred strands of Campbells or Winter White dwarf hamsters, only hybrids. The only way to get a pure strand for sure is through a reputable hamster breeder.

Why does having a hybrid over a purebred matter? Unlike with mixed breed dogs, mixed sub-species of hamsters, the two dwarf species, are not healthier when mixed. In fact they are more likely to have not only a myriad of physical health problems but also many behavioral health problems.

The minimum cage size for hamsters is 450 sqaure inches of uninterrupted floor space. However I personally think this only applies for single dwarves, especially robos, and only depending on their individual needs. I don't think you should go any smaller as their permanent cage, but larger can often be far better. Though sometimes too large too quickly can be detrimental. Syrians in my personal opinion should have a cage floor space minimum of uninterrupted 650 square inches. More territorial hamsters often do better with larger cages and deeper substrate.

I prefer making bin cages, with wire squares attached to at least one side and the top. The wire always needs to be no bigger than 1 inch by 1 inch openings and made only of galvanized wire. Attachment can be done by wire or cable ties depending on your hamster. It is amazing how much a hamster's behavior can change with a larger cage. No commercial cages available in the US stores are acceptable for any sized hamster that I know of.

Hamsters have constantly growing teeth. There are certain ways to take care of this, wooden toys (though some hamsters never chew on wood), providing lab blocks in their diet, providing nuts with shells, cookies made for dogs that have hamster safe ingredients and low fat preferably, also a dog dental chew called Whimzees, the mini alligator or toothbrush is usually a fine size for a hamster (any other dental chew is usually unsafe). Seed blocks or cookies for hamsters sold in pet stores are usually high in artificial sugars and fats, and have little to no nutritional value. I have started making my own seed blocks where I control every ingredient that goes in, instead of using cane syrup and honey to stick it together, I use small amounts of honey (around 1 and a half teaspoons in a couple cups worth seed mix) and an egg. I also add a small amount of protein in the form of a tablespoon of mealworms per batch, and also add a few pinches of dried berries. I am also working on making rodent safe cookies, with a total of five ingredients in them to bake for my hamsters, which would be perfectly safe for rats or mice, and even dogs.

Foods (I currently do not feed commercial foods of any sort)... there are many types of acceptable commercial foods out there. However in my mind they still have unnecessary additives in the form of probiotics/vitamins/ minerals, all in a raw form, which are harder for hamsters to digest. The only reason these are necessary to add, is because of how their food is processed. A lot of pellets and lab blocks have unnecessary added sugars in the form of molasses and cane sugar. However it is perfectly possible to make a healthy diet out of commercial foods. A normal adult dwarf or syrian hamster needs 18% protein, 5%-6% fat, 8-15% fiber. Robos need a much higher protein level even as adults, they do best at 20-22% protein, 7-8%, 8-15% fiber. Growing pups, at 6 months or below need 22%-24% protein for dwarves and syrians, and for Robos always shoot for 24%. These levels can be reached with a seed mix and some sort of protein booster. Protein boosters can be anything from lab blocks to multiple types of freeze dried meats and insects. However each hamster is an individual especially with their diet, so what be good for a few other hamsters may be severely bad for the current hamster you have. You must pay attention to your hamsters weight.

Hamsters need the chance to be able to get to a vet if needed. Just because they are small pets does not mean they won't eventually need a vet, and usually small animal vets can be relatively expensive.

What you want to look for in a good lab block and seed mix, is something that has no or few added dyes, no unhealthy preservatives and no dangerous ingredients. Hamsters should be offered fresh food on a regular basis, this means fresh vegetables, a few fruit, and some types of healthy unseasoned meats. Whoever has told the public that hamsters are purely vegetarian are totally wrong. Hamster's are omnivores and actually do better on a higher protein content than most rats. In the wild they hunt and eat insects, they also scavenge dead animals when they run across them. However their diet is largely grains, seeds, and vegetation.

Wheels are relatively important to hamsters who will use them, however there are often hamsters who will never use them. In my opinion these hamsters need larger cages than minimum because they don't get the usual exercise they would with a hamster who use a wheel. Toys and hideys are severely important to keep hamsters entertained.

Bedding, I only use Kaytee Clean and Cozy, with no scent. Carefresh has more dust and can be a problem with rodent with Upper Respiratory Problems. Wood shavings are safe if you use Aspen, no types of soft wood combinations are safe as they are known for causing cancer, cedar and pine aren't safe at all. Anything labeled as odor control is most likely filled with baking soda which is known for causing Upper Respiratory Problems in rodents and possibly death.

Disclaimer: Just because I make my own food, does not mean you should. In fact I don't recommend for most people, I did months of research, it is not cheap compared to commercial foods unless you have a bulk store near you who can provide you with everything. It also takes a lot of time and observational skills. You have to know what a healthy hamster looks and acts like and have to have the funds to take your hamster to a good small animal vet.

Soon to be posts for hamsters- Taming Syrians, Dwarves, and Robos
Keeping multiple hamsters together
What goes into my Homemade food, and how it has affected the health of my hamsters
What creates diabetes in hamsters?
Different product reviews I personally use
Different Treats I make (though I will not be putting exact recipes I will be selling them)