| How to Train Your Hamster to Come when You Call Posted: 24 Feb 2019 04:00 PM PST Training hamsters can be a tricky business, as they can be much more anxious and more easily scared than other pets. Hamsters can be trained with patience and lots of snacks, though it doesn't always work — some rodents simply never learn their own name, whereas others quickly associate human voices with treats. When training hamsters, be gentle, talk softly, and let them come to you rather than force them to like you. After a few weeks of training, your hamster will come running up to you just like a little dog or cat would! EditEstablishing Trust through Food - Give your hamster a few weeks to adjust to its new surroundings. When you get a new hamster, it is very natural for them to feel anxiety and stress being in a new place. Don't fuss over it for the first few days, just give it food and water and talk softly around it so it doesn't get scared just by seeing you.[1]
- It is essential that the hamster gets used to your scent and the noises of the house before you continue. Hamsters are easily startled creatures, so if you try to train it while it is still getting used to everything, the process will be much more difficult.
- Place a sunflower seed or other treat in the palm of your hand. You should choose a treat that you know your hamster loves. Sunflower seeds are usually a great choice, but keep in mind that these are high in fat and should only be reserved for the occasional treat. Specialty hamster snacks or fresh veggies will get their attention as well.[2]
- Wash your hands with unscented soap before and after handling your hamster, as strong odors on your hands might alarm it.
- Move the treat to the opposite side of the cage to entice the hamster. With your hand at the opposite end of the cage where your hamster is sitting, slowly raise the treat up and down to get the smell of the treat to your hamster's nose and bring their attention to the snack.[3] Your hand's movement should be non-threatening and slow.
- Keep in mind that some hamsters - such as the dwarf varieties - will consider movements a threat and either run for safety or bite! If your hamster appears frightened by you, stop moving, and try again after a few minutes.
- Let your hamster take the treat when it comes up to you. Don't say its name yet — this exercise is about establishing trust between you and your hamster. If it knows it can get treats from you, it won't act so defensive and will start to like you.[4]
- Try to avoid handling the hamster until it trusts you intrinsically, or you may have to start the trust-building process all over again.[5]
- Hold a treat in your closed hand after a few days of building trust. Your hamster will start to understand that you are not a threat, and will willingly come up to you to look for the snack it smells.[6]
- If your hamster hasn't started to trust you yet, just keep trying for a few more days. After a while, it will stop biting and being skittish and will come to feel safe even with you towering over it.[7]
- Put out your hand without a treat to see if your hamster responds. If your hamster has been willingly coming up to your hand to get snacks, it probably trusts and likes you a lot more than it did the first day.[8] See what happens when you hold out your hand without a snack — if they come to your hand, congratulations! Your hamster feels safe around you.
- If your hamster doesn't come to inspect your hand, or approach you at all, simply keep trying each day until you develop a mutual feeling of respect with the hamster. It may take several days of training with snacks and food, but eventually it will come around and feel safe around your presence.
EditResponding to its Name - Release your hamster in a small enclosed space. Make sure that your hamster cannot escape from this space. You can use cardboard to create a playpen that is too tall to jump over, a room with no cabinets or couches to hide under, or the bathroom with a baby gate up to keep your hamster in the same room as you.[9] Make sure you can sit in this space with your hamster — this will force it to get comfortable being around a much larger creature.
- Your hamster's natural instinct will be to run away and hide anywhere it can. Look for small holes in the cabinets and small hiding spots that you can't reach, and watch the hamster the whole time.
- Use treats again to get your hamster to feel safe around you. While you are both enclosed in the same space, get some small treats, such as sunflower seeds or carrots, and place them into your hand.[10]
- If you are lucky, your hamster will trust you enough already to jump up and try to take the snacks away. Don't let them have one until you have completed name recognition training.
- Call your hamster's name with a treat in your hand. Call out your hamster's name while you sit across from it and let it smell and investigate the treat. Keep calling its name until it responds and comes over to you.[11]
- Only let your hamster take its treat when it successfully comes over to you after you call its name. Don't let it just take snacks without hearing its name.
- Let it eat the snack, and repeat the process for a few days. Let it take the snack, and call its name again with another snack a few minutes later. You should do this for a few days, until you feel that your hamster starts to understand the connection between your voice and food.
- You can usually tell your hamster understands the connection between your call and getting snacks when it starts running over to you when you don't say its name.[12] You should try to reinforce its name by avoiding saying anything else around the hamster while you are training it.
- Call its name but don't offer a snack after a few days. If your hamster comes running over even when you don't have a snack, that means it responds to your voice thinking you will have a snack. Relationships between small animals and people are mostly based on food, so by this point it recognizes that you are the provider of treats and will start to trust your voice as a source of good eats.[13]
- If your hamster still isn't responding to your calls without a snack being offered as well, keep offering a snack every time you call its name until it associates your voice with food.
- It may take several days, even weeks, before your hamster understands very basic human communication.
EditMaintaining Trust - Let your hamster out of the enclosed space to explore a bigger area. Hamsters, like all rodents, like to explore and roam, even if they prefer to sleep and nest in a small area.[14] Watch your hamster closely and let it have free reign of the house once you know it will come to you at your call.
- If you have a particularly small hamster, look for places it can hide. It may be fine around you when you have snacks, but could go back to being anxious and skittish when it is given a place to escape to.
- Never ever use hamster balls to let your hamster explore, as they are traumatic and scary for small animals. Just keep a close eye on it, as you would with a dog, so you can catch it if it goes for the trash or tries to chew up your linens.[15]
- Call its name every so often, but only give it a snack sometimes. If you trained it correctly over the course of a week or two, it should come scampering towards you. Have a treat ready every now and again so you can reinforce the association between snacks and your voice, but don't offer snacks every time or it might get fat and greedy. Don't avoid giving it snacks either, as the association between your voice and snacks may deteriorate with time.
- Over time, offer snacks less and less until you only have to give it a few snacks a day for it to keep responding to you.[16]
- If your hamster doesn't respond to your call, you may need to go through some training steps again, but it could also just be sleeping in a corner. Keep a close eye on your hamster so you know exactly what it is up to while it is out.
- Handle your hamster delicately and talk softly so it feels safe. One of the number one ways to make your hamster distrust you is to handle it incorrectly. Don't grab the hamster, or pick it up quickly, instead allow the hamster to crawl towards you and gently lift it with your palm open or cupped underneath it.[17] It is more important that the hamster comes to you and accepts you than it is for you to cuddle it and smother it.
- Talking in a soft voice is recommended as some hamsters are easily scared by loud noises. They generally respond well to higher pitch voice, but don't say their name in a shrill manner or you risk scaring it as well.
- Trying giving your hamster wet or dry fruits as treats, but do your research and be sure you aren't giving it any foods that may harm its health or kill it!
- Be as calm as possible when picking up your hamster.
- If your hamster bites you, use gloves when handling and training it.
- If you have multiple hamsters, only train one at a time. Put the other hamsters in a separate cage, or your hamsters may get confused.
- Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work in a few months or even at all. Hamsters aren't like dogs and may just never get it. Just keep at it and try your best! But if it doesn't work out then your hamster just may not understand human communication.
- Reward your hamster with treats when training or taming it.
- Never use a hamster ball to let your hamster run around the house. Hamster balls are terrifying for all rodents, because they are trapped in a small space and hear and see things in a distorted way. As cute as plastic balls may look rolling around the house, it is not a pleasant experience for the hamster trapped inside.[18]
EditThings You'll Need - Enclosed space
- Hamster treats
- A glove (if your hamster bites)
EditRelated wikiHows EditSources and Citations EditQuick Summary
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| How to Get Dewy Skin Posted: 24 Feb 2019 08:00 AM PST If you love the natural clean look of dewy skin, it's easy to achieve! To get the look without applying makeup products, make lifestyle changes that will improve the health of your skin. You can also apply natural oils to moisturize your skin and give it a gentle shine. If you'd like to use makeup to get the dewy look, choose skincare products that illuminate and highlight your fresh face. Use makeup sparingly and apply strategic pops of color to pull the look together. EditTaking a Natural Approach - Wash your face every day. Always wash your hands before you wash your face. Then, clip or tie back your hair so it is out of the way. Splash your face with tepid water to wet it. Then gently rub a mild cleanser onto the skin taking care not to get soap in your eyes, nose, or mouth. Wash off the cleanser using clean water to remove oil and dead skin cells.[1]
- Use a gentle cleanser that doesn't dry or irritate your skin. Look for one that's designed to match your skin type. For example, if you have oily skin, look for a deep-cleanser that will remove oil without stripping your skin.
- If you have dry skin, choose a cleanser that will moisturize as you wash.
- You may also need to remove any makeup you have on using a makeup remover product first.
- Exfoliate your skin 2 to 3 times per week. Since your skin cells can become clogged, it's important to gently exfoliate your skin a few times each week. Purchase a product that will slough away dead skin cells. Wet your face and gently work it into your skin, then use cool water to rinse it off. Exfoliating will prevent blemishes and help your skin look bright.[2]
- Avoid products that contain large pieces of physical exfoliants, such as nut shells and fruit pits. Opt for exfoliants that contain fine ingredients, such as sugar and baking soda, or go with a chemical exfoliant, such as a cleanser with alpha-hydroxy acid in it.[3]
- Be gentle when you exfoliate or you could irritate your skin. Exfoliating too frequently may also dry out skin and make it appear red.
- Keep in mind that there are different type of exfoliating products. Depending on the type you use, you may want to exfoliate more or less often. For example, if you are using a gentle exfoliating product, then you can exfoliate 2 to 3 times per week.
- Spritz your skin with diluted oil. Fill a small spray bottle with 2 parts of water and 1 part of a natural oil. Shake the bottle and spritz it over your skin throughout the day to give it a naturally dewy glow. If you also choose to apply makeup, you can spritz your face after putting the makeup on. Some good oil options include:[4]
- Marula oil, which may help to reduce the signs of aging, such as fine lines and wrinkles.[5]
- Jasmine oil, which has a pleasant scent and may benefit dry skin.
- Lavender oil, which has a soothing effect on your skin along with a relaxing scent.
- Sweet almond oil, which can help to minimize fine lines and provide antioxidant protection.
- Eat a healthy diet every day. Include fruits, vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats to create a balanced diet that nurtures your skin. Eating a variety of healthy nutrients will help your skin repair and maintain itself so it looks dewy.[6]
- The healthy fats are especially important for dewy skin. Eat salmon, avocado, nuts, and seeds for a good source of healthy fats.
- Drink water throughout the day. Your skin will appear healthier if you stay hydrated so it's important to drink water and eat foods that contain liquid, such as fruit and vegetables. Aim for 8 glasses of liquid including the liquid from food you eat. Staying hydrated will flush toxins from your body so your skin looks bright.[7]
- Your skin will also look more youthful if you cut back on alcohol and caffeine.
- If you're tired of drinking water, drink herbal teas or fruit-infused water.
- Get more sleep. Your body repairs and restores your skin faster while you sleep so try to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. This can prevent your skin from looking tired or dull.[8]
- If you can't get more nighttime sleep, try to sneak a few naps during the day. This will also make your skin look energized and rested.
EditAchieving Dewy Skin with Makeup - Apply a creamy moisturizer to your face. Start with clean skin that you've already washed and patted dry. Then spread a dime-sized amount of cream-based moisturizer evenly over your cheeks, forehead, nose, chin, and neck. Use the tips of your fingers to rub the moisturizer deep into your skin. This will make the skin look plump and dewy.[9]
- For extra hydration, mix in a drop of cold-pressed avocado oil. This will give the moisturizer a little extra shine.
- Use your index or pinky finger to apply the moisturizer over your brow bone and around your eyes.
- Massage a vitamin-rich foundation into your skin. Choose a product that contains vitamin C and SPF. Then dab finger tips or a soft makeup sponge into a little foundation and rub it evenly into your skin so it gets deep into your pores. Use a circular motion so the foundation blends in. It's important to use a light foundation that won't cover the details of your skin, such as freckles.[10]
- This will act as a primer that evens your skin tone and makes your skin shine.
- For a little extra color, you can use a lightly tinted foundation or moisturizer.
- Use a concealer only to cover up blemishes or undereye circles. Dab just a little concealer with a sponge or your finger onto trouble spots as needed. If you're using a concealer wand, dot a few circles of product on trouble spots and blend it in with your finger. Don't get carried away with correcting and coloring your skin, since your naturally hydrated skin should be visible.[11]
- Apply a powder to areas that are extremely oily. Instead of brushing a powder over all of your skin, use a small powder or fan brush to pat just a little powder onto areas that are very oily. For example, if your T-zone or chin are too oily or shiny, brush a little powder on the area to match the level of shine to the rest of your face.[12]
- Use highlighter to accent your cheeks. Highlighter will help to give your skin the appearance of dewiness, even if it is not dewy. Apply highlighter to your cheekbones, brow bones, the bridge of your nose, and on your cupid's bow, which is the V right in the center of your upper lip.[13]
- Add a pop of color to your cheeks and lips. Rub a little cream blush between your fingers or dab some stain on the apples of your cheeks. Massage the color into your cheeks to make them rosy. Then apply your favorite lipstick for another burst of color that plays up your dewy complexion.[14]
- If you're concerned that your skin is too oily to pull off a dewy look, it's fine to use a matte primer instead of an illuminating one.
EditSources and Citations
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| How to Stop Your Cat from Begging Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:00 AM PST A cat can learn begging behavior through positive reinforcement: your cat nags you, you give it what it wants (food, cuddles, your warm and comfy seat), and your cat learns that begging is rewarded. To get your cat out of a begging habit, start by consulting your vet to ensure there aren't any medical or psychological issues involved. Then, work on creating consistent routines, rewarding good behavior and ignoring begging, and keeping your cat occupied when you're home and away. EditRuling Out Medical or Psychological Issues - Get a vet check for illnesses like parasites, hyperthyroidism, and diabetes. Make sure that your cat is healthy before trying to address the begging behavior. Sometimes begging and/or constant meowing can be an indication of illness or a disorder. Take your cat to the vet for a health checkup and mention the behavior.[1]
- If a cat is ravenously hungry all of the time, and is begging for more food, this may sometimes be due to feline diabetes or hypothyroidism. Or, it may have intestinal parasites that are "stealing" the nutrients it consumes.
- If a cat is meowing a lot, it may be a sign that it has a disorder such as kidney disease or an overactive thyroid.[2]
- Consult the vet about your cat's nutritional requirements. It's possible that your cat begs for food because it's simply not being fed enough, or that the food you give it provides insufficient nutrition. Talk to your vet about the ideal food type and feeding routine for your cat, based on factors like age, breed, and overall health.[3]
- Give your cat a high-quality cat food that provides balanced nutrition.
- Additionally, make sure it has access to fresh, clean water at all times.
- Do an evaluation for an eating disorder or other psychological issue. Cats can develop "psychogenic abnormal feeding behaviors" that lead to frequent begging and other problems surrounding eating. Describe your cat's eating routines and any triggers for begging or other problematic behaviors to your vet.[4]
- Such disorders can cause a cat to refuse to eat to the point of malnutrition, or to overeat (and yet beg for more) to the point of causing health problems.
- Medical interventions may sometimes be necessary, but changing routines and behaviors at home may help overcome such disorders.
- Ask if your cat may have an attention-seeking behavior problem. This is a particular type of "psychogenic abnormal feeding behavior" in which your cat uses overeating (or not eating) and begging as a way to demand your attention. This can be a response to being excessively bored and/or ignored, or it may develop in cats that are given plenty of attention and simply crave even more.[5]
- Beyond making sure your cat receives adequate attention and mental stimulation, the best way to address this issue is typically to reward positive behaviors and redirect or ignore negative ones (like begging).
EditEstablishing Routines and Positive Rewards - Build consistent routines around begging-related behaviors. If your cat always gets food when it demands it, stop providing the food in response to the begging behavior. Instead, set two consistent feeding times each day that are always met, and do not feed your cat outside those times.[6]
- Don't leave the food out all day, either. Give your cat a reasonable time to eat—like 30 minutes—each feeding time, then remove the food dish until the next feeding time.
- Alternatively, if your cat begs to go outdoors, schedule regular sessions of supervised outdoor time each day, or you might even install a catflap to allow your cat to let itself out.
- Distract your cat when it begins to beg. When your cat starts begging, calmly and quietly pick it up, take it to another room, and try to distract it with a toy or game. As soon as your cat stops whining or meowing, praise it by petting it, saying "good kitty," and playing or cuddling with it for a few minutes.[7]
- The goal here is to redirect it away from begging and toward a positive behavior that you can reward.
- Ignore your cat if it continues begging. If your cat returns to begging after you've redirected it once, ignore it for as long as the begging continues. Don't give it negative attention, such as telling it "no" or wagging your finger at it. Instead, act as if the cat isn't there whenever it begs.[8]
- Your cat needs to learn that you are not going to respond to its begging behavior, teaching it that there is no reward.
- Reward good, non-begging behavior enthusiastically. As soon as your cat stops begging on its own, turn your full attention to it and praise it verbally and physically. This positive reinforcement must be immediate in order for your cat to properly associate it with the preceding behavior (e.g., not begging).[9]
- While you can occasionally use treats to reward calm, desirable behavior, don't fall into the trap of handing them out all the time. Rely instead on praise that's verbal and physical (such as petting). Otherwise, your cat may deduce that it can pester you for treats rather than earn them.
EditKeeping Your Cat Happy and Occupied - Interact and play with your cat regularly. If your cat is begging for attention, try giving it more of what it craves! Get down on the floor and drag a string around for it to chase, or simply pet and talk to it while it nestles in your lap. Aim for, at minimum, 15-20 minutes of focused 1-on-1 time per day.[10]
- Cats may have a reputation for being aloof, but they like getting attention—at least when it's on their own terms!
- Provide supervised time outdoors. It's easier than you may think to leash train a cat, and using a leash will let you walk and explore the outdoors together safely. You'll both get some exercise and 1-on-1 time together![11]
- If you cat isn't on a leash outdoors, keep it in an enclosed yard and supervise its activity. Even better, play with your cat in the yard.
- Occupy your cat with toys and puzzles to limit boredom. True enough, a simple ball of yarn or toy mouse can make a great play item for your cat. Additionally, though, set up some cat-friendly toys, mazes, and puzzles to keep a feline friend mentally stimulated.[12]
- Simple food puzzles, which require your cat to work a little for their meal, can make feeding time more fun and interactive.
- Don't use toys and puzzles as a substitute for 1-on-1 time with your cat, though. Instead, play together!
- Keep your cat's stress levels to a minimum. Take a moment to consider whether your cat has started begging in response to life upheavals. Changes in the household, such as the arrival of a new baby or an additional pet, can cause stress that results in begging behaviors. Likewise, home renovations, moving, or shifting attention from your cat to work or other projects can be feline stressors.[13]
- If you cannot remove or improve on what is creating the stress, at least spend more time with your cat and reassure it a lot.
- When you know a big change is coming, try to slowly introduce your cat to the new reality instead of making it an all-at-once shock.
- If your cat was adopted as a stray, it might have learned that food isn't easily available, and begging—especially if you give into it—may be a sign of its determination to avoid hunger. This may improve over time if you feed your cat a consistent, nutritious diet.
EditSources and Citations EditQuick Summary
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