Please, you are babysitting. Clean his cage, feed him, water him, and leave him alone before you kill him.

He probably doesn't like you because you replaced his bedding that he burrows into for sleep with sand and expect him to be awake and interactive when you are.

What a great (and well-informed!) baby-sitter!

I never had a hamster, and it's been many many years since I had rodents, but I know my mice really enjoyed chew sticks (made of balsa wood I think) and little wooden structures they could run in, on, and thru -- plus chew on, of course.

Good luck!

What type of hamster is this? If it's the larger Syrian type, they need the constant activity provided by the wheel. If you take it away there is a type of paralysis they can get from lack of sufficient exercise. He really isn't just behaving repetitively like bored animals do. He really needs to do it. Dwarf hamsters prefer a large cage or tank where they can run around and burrow to a wheel. They all like hiding places like toilet paper rolls or little boxes with a door cut in them.

Regarding your other post, hamsters usually choose a corner to potty in and go there all the time, particularly to urinate. They will sometimes change corners, though, especially if the cage doesn't get cleaned once a week. I don't know whether he is using the sand corner because of the sand, or if he just chose that corner. If this is the larger, common type hamster they don't take sand baths, but the dwarf hamsters will.

Taming is good, but some of the dwarf hamsters we had remained nippy all their lives no matter how much we tried to tame them. The larger ones are usually pretty easy to tame and some of our dwarves were friendly right from the start. I think too much inbreeding causes some of the nippiness in hamsters.

He/She is not bored. They LIKE running in the wheel. I believe it fulfills an instinct they have regarding patrolling their territory. Most hamsters would rather "decorate" their own cage and some of them get downright rangy if you move something.

Our hamster Sparkle will move her dishes back if I change their position in the cage. She doesn't get upset, but will sit back and wait until I am done then "put them where they belong".

She will also make these hollow hills in her bedding and hide things there. Food, toys, scraps of paper. They have a strong hoarding instinct. She didn't like me taking uneaten food from the cage, so now she "stores" it. I let her do it because we clean the cage very often and she seems so proud of her hollow creations LOL.

The more you handle a hamster in general the less nippy they are. If you go through a period of no contact, even a tamer hamster might nip for a bit at first when you go back to touching them. It is better not to come at them from above their heads, which increases the liklihood of a nip.

Place your hand in FRONT of the hamster. If it does not gingerly place paws onto your hand and at least think about crawling aboard, gently nudge the back end with your other hand. If that does not work, scoop the hamster up by gently bringing your open hands together underneath it. Cup your hands a bit. Once the hamster is up, cup your hands around it more so that it feels secure. Hamsters can jump, so be prepared, but don't hold it too hard or squeeze it.

Make sure your hands are clean and dry and free of any food scents. Sparkle will "taste" us sometimes if we chop veggies then handle her. She has also been known to lick our fingers too.

Her favourite activity out of cage is roaming around. She likes to wander around our bed, but once she finds the edge that is all she can think about and no matter where you put her she zooms right over there again. Hamsters are FAST. We are lucky that she likes us and is not trying to escape us, she just wants to look around. When she has gotten away, we simply sit for a few minutes and wait and sure enough out she comes to see what we are doing. Funny thing!

Let us know how things are going.

When I was a kid we got one of those clear plastic balls for hamsters to roll around outside the cage. We thought it would be great fun for him, but really he was terrorized... we used it once and decided he was better off in our hands or in his pen.

Geez, I'm with Gammy...leave the poor critter alone! I had a hamster and he loved his wheel...at night.. Hamsters are nocturnal. I hope you're not waking the poor guy up during the day, because that will just stress him out.

I had a series of mice and hamsters at one time in my life and they are so sweet. The mice were the best because they just seemed really alert and smart. I had a good sized cage for them and keep a small wooden birdhouse in the cage. They all -although I only had one at a time- would take some toilet paper and stuff the opening giving them a dark cozy hole to sleep in. I would wave a chex cereal piece over the cage opening and the smell would bring them right out and they would eat from my hand.
I also used a small fan paintbrush to stroke them and they would stretch just like a dog does when they want their neck scratched.

They will run on the wheel all night - let them do it.

Hi, original poster here. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice about the hamster!

Just to clarify, I had no intention of removing the hamster's wheel! And I didn't remove his shavings, either -- the sand is in a small container within his cage. Also, I don't wake him up during the day to play with him or move around his nesting material.

To update, he has been peeing exclusively in the sand box! Even after I changed the sand and washed the container, he goes straight to the sandbox when he wakes up, lifts his little tail and makes a puddle!

He still poops wherever it's convenient, even in his sleeping nest (although he does make half-hearted attempts to toss the poops out of the sleeping nest sometimes).

Following some of "dances_in_garden's" advice, I have gotten him to climb onto my hand and eat his treat while I hold him! That's coming a long way for this hamster! (BTW, to those of you who suggested I leave him alone since I'm just babysitting him, I'm trying to save his life. His young owners are hoping he'll die while they're on vacation so they can get a replacement hamster that doesn't bite. Their mom is hoping I can work a miracle on him, since I have some animal behavior experience.)

About the wheel, I'm wondering if there are any ADDITIONAL activities he might enjoy (that I can suggest to his owners when they get back), such as climbing a little ladder, monkey bars, a swing, tunnels, a slide... basically, hamster-sized playground equipment! When I was a kid, my dad made a 2-story cage for my hamster with a swing, and the hamster often played on the swing and climbed up the ladder.

At the very least, I wish I could give him a choice of exercise wheels, so he could pick his favorite. The one he has is solid with metal bars for traction, and the first week that his owners had him, his feet were bleeding from small snags on the metal. Their dad filed off the snags, thank goodness, but maybe he'd prefer a different footing.

Or maybe a different diameter wheel, just for variety. I'd think he'd get "carpal tunnel" syndrome from the repetitive motion! Maybe I'll teach him to dance for cross training. (That one's for "Gammyt"!) ;-)

JoePyeWeed mentioned that he tried an exercise ball that just seemed to terrify his hamster.... I've always thought it seemed like a risky idea at best! This hamster is so fearful naturally, I wouldn't want to do anything that might terrify him, and his permanent home has dogs and cats that would love to play "ball"!

To Alison, the idea about getting some non-toxic wood toys to chew on/play with is great. He does have a little wood stick that he's chewed on once. It was store-bought; probably balsa. Maybe it would be more interesting if it was dangling from a string?

I tried Deb18's idea about toilet paper rolls, but so far, he's not interested. Honestly, I'm not sure the pudgy little guy could fit! Also, I don't have room to bury it and make tunnels -- his cage is less than one square foot. But if his owners ever get him a bigger cage, I'll suggest deeper bedding with TP rolls to tunnel through. As for whether his nippiness is from being inbred, I can only say he was bought at a major pet superstore, and his owners told me horror stories about the hamsters there -- sick and bloody diarrhea but still out on display, and being dropped on the floor by the employee.... I'm guessing he probably didn't have an ideal childhood!

Bumblebeez' idea about scratching/tickling with a small paintbrush is cool! I'd have to get him comfortable with it gradually, of course. Would a toothbrush be okay? Or is that too prickly? He did get a look of bliss on his face once when I rubbed his ears.

Thanks again to all of you who have read this far and who offered me good advice. I have the hamster for two more weeks, and so far it's all been good progress. He now peeks out of his nest when he hears me coming, which is so cute! Especially when he "peeks" with his eyes still closed! And today I saw him yawn, and his two bottom teeth flexed -- came apart and then back together! His teeth can move independently of each other! Now that's a superpower! And it must make flossing him so much easier! (Just kidding, "Gammyt.") Thanks again, everyone! Say hi to Sparkle for me!

Correction: the hamster's cage is a little more than 1 square foot in area.

I had a hamster years ago and it was very socialized and never bit. It seemed to love the ball. It would actually go after the cat in it. Follow it around and bump into it. He seemed to love to terrorize the cat. A few years ago I got my son one on the small breed of hamster and could never get it socialized, it bit alot and didn't like the ball. I am the one who usually held it and my son was always careful. I think the larger breed hamsters are not a jumpy as the small ones

If the toilet paper rolls don't fit well, just cut them shorter. My hamsters used to love to crawl through and chew on them. And he may look big, but if he wants to fit through the tube he can! They are like mice, they can fit through very small spaces. My hamsters also loved kleenex boxes, oatmeal containers, bits of paper, and they loved kleenex and that cottony bedding you can buy. Mine could spend the whole day chewing and digging, and the whole night running on their wheels. We had 3 hamsters together with 2 wheels, but they all wanted to use the metal one. None of them liked the plastic wheel. If it was your hamster I would suggest getting one of those kits of tubes for him to run through, but those can be a bit expensive. As long as you keep working with him he should be more relaxed and happy.

Joanne

Tara -- is there anyway you can keep this hamster permanently? You're putting far more thought into his care than it sounds like his owners do!