Friday, July 31, 2009

My Hamster Keeps Itching..?

I have a hamster named Peady. I have had him for about 1 month so far. Today I noticed that he keeps itching his under belly. I don't think its fleas or mites because hes not loosing any hair. I don't know any possible reasons so please help!
Answers:
It could just be that he's not able to clean himself down below as easily, so it's bothering him.

If he shows signs of bleeding, or scabbing over, I'd worry. As long as it's not an obsessive type itching, like constantly doing it, or doing it until he bleeds, then it shouldn't be anything to worry about.

Provide him with Chinchilla Sand (Not dust!), just a little bit in a small dish, and place it in his cage.

He'll roll around in it, and it cleans them. It leaves your hamster feeling SO soft, too. That might help clear up the itching. It's about $5 for a package, which has 5 '1 time serving' packets inside. Because ham's are so much smaller than Chinchilla's, each packet will alst MUCH longer than 1 serving, though.

I can split 1 package up equally between 4 cages with dwarf ham's. For a Syrian, I'd say use 1/3 of the package.

If it's one large package, though, use a measuring cup to scoop about 1/3rd to 1/2 a cup into a dish.
Male hamster are highly sexed little creatures. Your Peady is probably doing for himself. ALL of my male hamsters had this trait.
Clean the cage. Put in Cedar chips. Do not put any fresh fruit in the cage because they come from Syria. Give them fresh water to drink when they need it. They are dry food eaters and can get the mold on them from wet foods because they lack resistance as there is not much water in Syria - they are desert rodents. They excrete uric acid not urine for that reason. Keep the cage dry. Been there done that killed my hamsters from ignorant kindness. Dried fruit is ok but not wet fruit they love it but it makes them very fertile mine had too many babies because I did not know better and she would hang from the top of the cage trying to escape from nursing them. Yeah the males like to entertain themselves one little kid thought that his was having a baby.
r u using pine or cedar bedding? if so, immediately change to carefresh or aspen. the oils in pine/cedar can cause itching. r u feeding her too many oily nuts/sunflower seeds? too many of these can cause skin problems. they dont get fleas unless u have a dog or cat with fleas who passes it to them. as for mites---look for tiny black specs on his skin. i posted a remedy for those earlier. they do sometimes scratch and it means nothing. depends how often %26 how severe the scratching is. make the changes noted above if needed.
mites
It is probably mites, he just hasn't lost any hair yet. Maybe you should get him to an exotic vet for an exam before it gets out of hand
You have flees in your house

1 comment:

  1. My hamster is rolling around the bottom of his cage itching his sides like crazy!!! i don't know what's wrong with him! Any help?

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