Hamster Central - View Single Post

Pebbles82 · 06-13-2019, 02:45 AM

CMB's advice is good. It may be that your hamster does it more when under stress. It is usually some kind of neurological thing, whatever the cause. And a vet visit can be stressful so he may have been worse at that time.

Is your vet an exotic vet? It might be worth having another opinion with an exotic vet - they know much more about hamsters - and if you read the list of people at the vets and their little bios, you can ask for one particular vet if they seem to specialise in hamsters or "small furries". I am just thinking that a vet experienced in hamsters, may be able to prescribe something that would help and maybe give a diagnosis as well. There aren't many medicines for hamsters - the general ones are Baytril (antibiotic for infection) and Metacam (anti-inflammatory/pain reliever). The vet will know whether Metacam is likely to help or not. You can put it in soft food and they tend to like it, rather than stressing them with syringe feeding.

As well as distraction with scatter feeding I think it's important not to cause too much stress from cleaning - so he has stability and familiarity, so avoid big clean outs.

They don't need weekly clean outs (if you do them). Giving him a lot of substrate and a sand bath/dish (if he doesn't have that already), means the cage will stay clean and dry a lot longer and you can just "spot clean" mostly for a longer time and change the sand (they often use a sand bath as a toilet). I would also leave his nest and hoard alone - they can be left for really quite a long time, if not pee'd in. So if he doesn't pee in her nest usually then just leave it. If you put out a pile of torn up strips of plain white toilet paper in the cage, he may take some to refurbish his nest. I find they just refurbish it themselves and chuck out the odd bit and take in new paper to refurbish it.

Assume you know it needs to be Chinchilla bathing sand (not dust). Although some people use childrens play sand. I prefer the Chinchilla sand and tub lasts quite a while.

So avoid doing big clean outs - leave the substrate as long as you can. The wheel or any other toys that need cleaning, can be done at a separate time, as and when necessary. Toys etc often don't need doing very often at all. Wheel - I don't superclean the wheel

Maybe give it a wipe round if it's a bit manky and then give it a full wash after a month or two if necessary.

So something always smells familiar. When changing the substrate you can also add a bit of the old substrate on top that is clean and not whiffy and that can help it smell familiar too, to avoid stressing him.

But if you can give about 4 to 5" of substrate (or even more) then it lasts a lot longer.

06-13-2019, 02:45 AM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: russian hamster circling and twirling CMB's advice is good. It may be that your hamster does it more when under stress. It is usually some kind of neurological thing, whatever the cause. And a vet visit can be stressful so he may have been worse at that time. Is your vet an exotic vet? It might be worth having another opinion with an exotic vet - they know much more about hamsters - and if you read the list of people at the vets and their little bios, you can ask for one particular vet if they seem to specialise in hamsters or "small furries". I am just thinking that a vet experienced in hamsters, may be able to prescribe something that would help and maybe give a diagnosis as well. There aren't many medicines for hamsters - the general ones are Baytril (antibiotic for infection) and Metacam (anti-inflammatory/pain reliever). The vet will know whether Metacam is likely to help or not. You can put it in soft food and they tend to like it, rather than stressing them with syringe feeding. As well as distraction with scatter feeding I think it's important not to cause too much stress from cleaning - so he has stability and familiarity, so avoid big clean outs. They don't need weekly clean outs (if you do them). Giving him a lot of substrate and a sand bath/dish (if he doesn't have that already), means the cage will stay clean and dry a lot longer and you can just "spot clean" mostly for a longer time and change the sand (they often use a sand bath as a toilet). I would also leave his nest and hoard alone - they can be left for really quite a long time, if not pee'd in. So if he doesn't pee in her nest usually then just leave it. If you put out a pile of torn up strips of plain white toilet paper in the cage, he may take some to refurbish his nest. I find they just refurbish it themselves and chuck out the odd bit and take in new paper to refurbish it. Assume you know it needs to be Chinchilla bathing sand (not dust). Although some people use childrens play sand. I prefer the Chinchilla sand and tub lasts quite a while. So avoid doing big clean outs - leave the substrate as long as you can. The wheel or any other toys that need cleaning, can be done at a separate time, as and when necessary. Toys etc often don't need doing very often at all. Wheel - I don't superclean the wheel Maybe give it a wipe round if it's a bit manky and then give it a full wash after a month or two if necessary. So something always smells familiar. When changing the substrate you can also add a bit of the old substrate on top that is clean and not whiffy and that can help it smell familiar too, to avoid stressing him. But if you can give about 4 to 5" of substrate (or even more) then it lasts a lot longer. Last edited by Pebbles82; 06-13-2019 at 02:51 AM. Reason: Changed she to he!