Baby Hamster Screeching

My hamster flips on his back and starts screeching when I try to pick him up, why does he do this ?
Simply because he is frightened and has not been tamed yet. This happens with a baby hamster that has had very little or no handing from being a baby. No doubt you have followed all the usual bumf on taming hamsters. I know it is said in general to offer a treat on your hand and then place your hand on the bottom of the cage, Blah, Blah and all the other usual tricks that go with it. Possibly, and maybe sometime in the near future before he gets too old to run away, he may pluck up enough courage to come along and take it off you. Sorry, he is not going to, and you will ‘never’ tame a hamster by offering him treats off your hand. All you are doing is stressing him out more than he already is. Once tamed then he will take treats from your hand, and not before.

When he is nervous and frightened the last thing on his mind is food. It will literally take weeks if not months to build his confidence and tame a hamster this way. I tame and socialize baby hamsters often and can do so in a matter of hours rather than day’s or weeks.

He is frightened because he does not know what to expect from you. He does not know that you do not intend to harm him.
All baby hamsters are a little jumpy at first when you try to handle them. This is just a natural reaction. After the initial settling in period you have to be fairly stern with them. Don’t be too gentle with him but don’t be rough, be quick and be forceful. He will be scared and he will jump off your hand and try to run away. It is not a case of being cruel to him but this way will avoid weeks of stress for you and your hamster.
You need to gain his confidence and trust very quickly rather than over a great period of time. Once he knows he is safe in your hands he will stop screeching, slow down, and become at ease when being handled.
Take him out of his cage about half an hour or so after he has wakes up. This is giving him time to feed, drink, and clean himself up. Screeching or not pick him up, within 30 seconds or so he will stop screeching once he realizes you are not going to harm him. He is more frightened of you than you are of him. Here in this short video clip is a 4 week old baby hamster that has not been handled. It will give you some idea of how to work with him. Scoop him up in both hands and force him to walk from one hand to the other. Don’t give him time to think about it keep him moving all the time this will take his mind of other things. Once he begins to realize he is safe in your hands he will be a lot calmer and he will slow down I assure you.

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