Czarina waking up

Czarina waking up, originally uploaded by Lostfiniel.

Czarina is my little diluted russian dwarf hamster. Originally she was named Natasha but I found the name Czarina more fitting. "Female ruler"

I had been so excited about having a hamster again that I forgot that they can be mean.

Czarina started out being very sweet. I don't know if it was because she was so young or because she was still in a bit of shock. After a couple days she did start nibbling though. My natural instinct was to put her back when she would do that. But, while I was reviewing operant conditioning in animal training, I realized what a mistake it was.

So instead of returning her to the pet store I will be trying to train my hamster. We started out today with my new regime. She is only a hamster so I knew the consequences needed to be instant so she could better associate them with the wrong behavior. I doubt that hamster would understand physical abuse or any strange noises so I chose to blow on her until she would stop biting.

It has been working well, she started getting it within the first 15 minutes or so. I am going to continue with the blowing when needed. I also want to work on her running from me when I go to pull her out of the cage, so, from now on I will give her a piece of apple when she has been with me a while and acted well. Apple is her favorite. The apple will only be offered to her when she is out with me. She will have plenty of normal hamster food but no treats unless she has been good.

We'll see how it goes, I have high hopes.