Meet Haleth!

Say hello to Haleth!  I got this beauty on March 17 from the ACC.  After Laurelin passed away, I knew I wanted another Syrian hamster as they are my favorite.  But I wasn't ready right away.  I decided to wait while checking the ACC daily since I was looking for something specific.  My desire was to adopt a young male that didn't look like any hamster I've had before.  After a while, I saw a handful of females listed and definitely considered one of them, but I decided to contact the ACC first with some questions.  I chatted with some awesome people on and off for over a week before I went in to see the hamsters.  I initially thought that there were new little males available that day, but their final determination was that they had 2 baby girls, not boys.  Regardless, I instantly fell in love with this one!  She was VERY scared compared to her sister.  In fact, she pooped and even peed on me when I was transferring her into my travel bin to take her home.  😅

The first week with her was a bit rough.  I didn't want to give her a name until I confirmed that she was in fact a she and not a he.  Her fluffiness was making it very difficult to tell.  And she was terrified of being held and peed on me again the second time I held her.  So I spent an hour sitting on the floor with my hand, full of food and treats, laying in her bin to convince her that my hand was not something to fear.  After almost two weeks of doing this nearly every night, she's not as scared of me and I actually picked her up and held her last night fairly easily.  😊

She does use her teeth to communicate to me more than any hamster I've had before.  The first couple times I had my hand in her bin for her to sniff and eat food and treats out of, she bit a couple of my fingers hard enough to make me bleed.  The best way to teach a hamster not to bite is to not react, which is obviously easier said than done!  I think that worked though because she hasn't bit me hard since.  I am also getting better at understanding her personality which helps immensely!  Last night, when she was done being held and wanted to be put down, she gently put her teeth on me which I took as a warning and put her back in her bin.  She is VERY food driven and quite curious which has helped speed up this taming process.  I have yet to find a treat she won't eat!  😂  

All of these pictures are from the first day I had her as she was exploring her new home.  As she is still quite jumpy and I'm still working on taming her, it'll likely be while before I can get pictures of her outside of her bin.  Oh by the way, if you can't tell how fluffy she is from these pictures, she's definitely a long haired Syrian, but since she's a female, she won't get really long hair like Tarcil had.  She was 5 weeks old when I brought her home, so she's 7 weeks old now and already quite a bit bigger than she was in these pictures.  Welcome to the family Haleth!  💗

Name of course comes from JRR Tolkien's works.  I also want to say again how awesome the staff is at the Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control!