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Why are some hamsters like this2007-11-24 22:19:13

My granddaughter has a Teddy Bear Hamster(male) & he spends most of his time stuffing his wheel with bedding & food & sleeping up there.

Her room is not loud or busy all the time,but when she tries to pick him up,& put him in his ball,he bites!

He is fat too!

Answers:

Hamsters can be bitey, often more so than many other pets (save for ferrets--ferrets tend to bite when they're young a whole lot, but get better as they age). Some are nice, but many are feisty and dislike being held. I had two hamsters that sometimes bit, even though I was gentle with them and handled them often, and one hamster who was a little miracle--he only bit me once.

If he's fat, maybe he hasn't been running in his wheel enough, or he's getting overfed.

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there could be several reasons for these behaviors:

first of all bedding in the wheel and sleeping in it as well-

it sounds like he doesn't like his wheel, what kind of wheel is it?

I've had the best luck with silent spinners:

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_d...

or he doesn't have a bed he likes, there alot of beds to chose from (but in the end, hamsters will chose to sleep in odd places at times, luckily most of them won't sleep in the same place for more than a week or two):

http://www.petsmart.com/global/search/se...

being overweight-

he could be bored and not getting enough exercise, in which case I'd suggest new more interesting toys; most hamsters need lots of things to chew on, climb on, hide in, etc... There is a wide variety out there (my hamster loves his see-saw, the other one likes things he can climb and mirrors):