Hamster cleaning itself, normal or sign of stress?

[virtualkeith]

Hi everyone, I just had a question out of sheer curiosity. I've read that hamsters cleaning themselves is a sign of stress. I've also read in a different place that hamsters cleaning themselves meant they were relaxed and feeling good.
Does anyone have any insight into this?
Thanks.
BTW, my hamster cleans himself which I would consider normal, but he does not do it incessantly. I am not worried about him, just curious.

[smallpetshop22]

Hi!
I thought I would tell you that it is COMPLETELY normal for a hamster to groom themselves so you have nothing to worry about

[hammy2]

I think if a hamster is stressed outside their territory they crouch with ears flat to make themselves lower to the ground and are very jumpy. Gerbils and mice tend to clean themselves when they are nervous but don't think hamsters do this

[cypher]

Hams do tend to groom when they're anxious but it's mostly just the face, it usually only happens out of the cage when they're young & getting used to being handled etc or if something upsets them a bit when in the cage, it is quite distinctive from normal overall grooming & fairly easy to recognise once you get used to ham behaviour.

[Pebbles82]

Yes I think there are two types of 'grooming' maybe. After waking up they like to have a good groom and sit somewhere to do it, maybe a shelf or something. I've only noticed the 'stress' grooming when out of the cage and as cypher says it's like a worried kind of face wash. Sometimes it is when something else happens to stress them as well.

[Goldie Flower]

I've never particularly known mine to stress groom. They do groom a bit when they're out for playtime but it's usually a full body wash rather thank just the face. I'll be sure to look out for that from now on though.

[virtualkeith]

Thank you cypher for making that distinction. I'll be watching him for that. I don't think he's been doing stress grooming though.