Scooping Scooby

[stellamaris]

I've had Scooby, my 3 1/2 month old boy, for 2 weeks now.  He's on his own due to Covid.

I'm trying (and failing) to get him to let me scoop him up. He readily climbs onto my hands in hopes of a treat. He lets me (slowly!) pet his head while he eats. During floor time, he climbs around on me, and runs up my sleeves and trouser legs. He sits next to my hip and falls asleep. All good things, but transferring him to & from floor-time is a challenge. I was using a travel cage, thinking he'd associate it with good things and jump in.  But after the first time, he balked.  Trying to lure him into a container is hit-or-miss, also.  How do I get him used to being 'scooped'? If I go slowly, he hops out of my hands; if I grab quickly, he freaks and scrambles away.

Any ideas? Shall I put him in a small container (if I can, haha) and gently chase him around, scooping and letting go? Or will he eventually trust me to close my hands on him?
Thanks for your help.

[stellamaris]

Hey! I found a video that answers my question!
I don't know why I didn't see it earlier, I've seen her other taming videos.
I plan to try it tomorrow...

youtu.be/bMnyhkeR1P0

[LilyandDaisy]

It sounds like he's coming along really well with taming. This is a young gerbil thing unfortunately. They're usually far too busy to want to be picked up. If he will hop onto your hand for a treat, are you able to then lift him up, or does he jump off at the slightest movement? If he jumps off you could practice lifting your hand very slightly before he gets the treat, and eventually putting your hand over his back so he gets used to the feeling of being held (as opposed to just sitting on your hand).

When mine are out on the floor they also like to climb on me, so what I do is just keep picking them up, holding them for a couple of seconds and putting them back down so they get used to it and don't learn to associate it with being trapped. If they wriggle at all or try to get down I let them immediately so they feel more in control. If he's happy to eat while outside his tank, you can follow it up with a treat.

I hadn't seen that video before but that method looks really good too, and you might find that better in the early stages when he's very wild. My method of picking them when they're climbing on me tends to rely on them being at least slightly tame so they don't immediately panic.

[elsaandanna]

If you have a cage topper, whenever you see Scooby on it, pick up a handfull of food and then put both hands level with the topper but only have the food on one hand. This way they get used to being on your hand and you can also start moving them out of the cage into a carrier. This worked for me, but only at their usual dinner time

[stellamaris]

Thanks, folks!
So I tried scooping Scooby from his bin (like the video).
FAIL.
I never managed to scoop him, and just wound up freaking us both out. Sigh.
So here's where we're at:
I got Scooby at 3 months from a gal who'd trained him to climb onto her hand. I've had him 3 weeks.
If I make a tisking noise and call him, he'll usually come into the topper and climb onto my hand(s) for a treat. (I give him bits of cheerio or half of a shelled sunflower seed.) He'll happily climb across one hand to get to the other "treat" hand. He'll happily climb out of the topper and onto my hands. I can move my hands up and down and a bit side to side. However, maybe half the time he'll get the (tiny!) treat and jump off or even go down into his house to eat it.
I'm afraid to move away from his home with him sitting on my hand, for fear he'll jump off and hurt himself or be loose in the house. He used to pee on my hand often, but I think that's happening less now. I guess a fear thing?
To solve the floor time transport problem, I put his gerbilarium on the bathroom floor, with a bendy bridge so he can climb down. Eventually, he goes back 'home' and I just close the cage. So no stress for him.
He readily comes to the front of the cage and wants to climb onto my hand for a treat. He climbs up my trouser leg, and has climbed up onto my chest to look me in the eye. He occasionally lets me pet his head while he's eating a treat.
He's just very skittish if I move toward him, and he REALLY doesn't want me to close my hand around him. That's why I can't yet use lillyanddaisy's idea. Which sounds great, by the way.
I thought I might try click training to see if I could get him to stay on my hand longer, then stay as it increasingly curled around him.
Or is it possible he'll just naturally get more comfortable around me to the point that he'll let me scoop him without freaking? Do they turn 4 months and suddenly become comfortable with handling? That would be nice.
:-)
Anyway, thanks for reading all this! I'm open to any ideas or experience...

[LilyandDaisy]

Try having on your hand something he can't grab and run, like a pile of oats, or I have a mix of milled pumpkin seeds, linseeds and goji berries (I think they call it a breakfast topper? It's sold in health stores). Because it's in lots of small pieces they're incentivised to stay and eat it all rather than running off with tiny bits and coming back. You can practice stroking his head and then his back while he's eating.

[tanzanyte]

I think you're doing amazing in the short time you've had Scooby.
You could try a tube. Ours will always go through one, they're just too curious not to. Mark swears by poster tubes which might be easier than ours as we have the more colourful cardboard striped ones you get for pets to chew on. Ours are just that little bit too short and they can sometimes jump out of them so I'm still intending to get a poster tube.

Also along the lines of what LilyandDaisy has mentioned of foods that take them longer to eat, you can try baby food fruit pouches as they have to stay and lick them and a small blob can take them quite a while. They usually get so engrossed you can move them slightly more without them realising so it may be a way to increase the movement in a shorter amount of time than it would normally take. That said not all gerbils seem to understand that they can lick it - our boys just walk straight through it so it's a bit of trial and error as to whether you can successfully use it, or if you have a large clean up operation!

[stellamaris]

Hey, Elsaandanna, LilyandDaisy, and tanzanyte:
Thanks for all you great ideas!
I tried LilyandDaisy's idea re: oats. Makes a nice change for him to go with the Cheerio bits and sunflower seed bits. Also Elsaandanna's idea about two hands.
I have some baby food left from my ageing hamster, I can try that, too, tanzanyte. :-)

Things are going well, I think. We spend about 45 minutes every evening in floor time. He runs up my leg, sits on my chest and stares at me. Perhaps wondering when I'll give him another treat. He often sits on my hand and eats; while he's busy eating, I can move him up and down (a foot or so; I'm afraid to take him too high, for fear he'd jump off and hurt himself.). He readily jumps onto my hand and is becoming more tolerant of me touching his back while he's in my hand. He's still not tolerating 'scooping', tho. Sprints madly off whenever I (gently) try. Still, he seems to be getting significantly less jumpy around me.
I've found two things that helped me be more patient with our progress:
1. I read about clicker training. (I'd need training myself, since I keep forgetting to do it properly.) Someone mentioned that if you change venues (floor time vs in-cage, cage at face- vs waist-level, etc) the critter (they were talking about dogs) will "backslide" in their training because of the new environment. Scooby's a bit more tentative in the cage topper vs the bathroom floor. Once, I decided to sit on the bathroom floor instead of the usual small stool, and he freaked out. Hopefully, as he gets more used to me, he'll become more adaptable.
2. I watched "Buck" a movie about a guy who trains horses. He talked about how their prey animals (like gerbils!) and need to be approached with that in mind. So I've been more patient with the process...

Anyway, I'm sure enjoying the little guy!

[tanzanyte]

Scooby sounds like such a character already and I think because he is coming on to your hand without any trouble I would continue with training him more that route, and not worry about the scooping. A lot of gerbils will not willingly walk onto hands and so the scoop method is necessary. Between the hand and utilising hides or tubes, you'll probably find you can catch him fairly easily should you need to move him for play time or vets visits etc.
I'm so pleased it's going so well, especially with him being on his own. It sounds like he's bonded amazingly with you.