Amy, I'm so sorry about your bad experience with the hamsters! *ouch* is right!! The first hamster we got was a teddy bear, and her name was Nibbles. (Incidentally, the day after we got her she had BABIES we totally weren't ready for babies, and unknowingly I picked a couple up & she abandoned them ) Anyway, she was a doll. I used to have a problem with insomnia pretty bad, and every night I would take her into the bathroom (no nooks or crannies) and let her run free and play with her. She never bit us or anything. She was a real friend...

I was so sad when she passed on and we got another a couple of days later and named her Buffy. Buffy was just a baby, not even full grown. I tried spending a lot of time with her as well, but she was always more aloof. When I put my hand in Nibbles cage she would come running up and climb up, but with Buffy she always ran & cowered in the corner and you could force her up, but you could tell she didn't like it. Buffy never bit us, but I didn't exactly trust her either.

So I think that hamsters have a range of personalities, and maybe you just saw the worst of them. Or maybe they felt threatened with sudden movement...it's really hard to say.But the reason that we aren't getting more hamsters is that their life span is so short...you get attached and a few months later they are gone.