Sudden change in temperament

[Carla Gordon and Derrick]

My robo Derrick has always been the more cuddly of the two, enjoying back and head strokes, but about 4 days ago he suddenly started nipping at our fingers every time we go to stroke him.

I did trim his nails 2 days ago as they get very long and gave him a partial cage clean (he's constantly knocking over his water bottle so the wet bedding has to go!), which he usually has a tantrum about for a few days but nothing like this.

I can't notice anything specifically wrong with him, but I'm worried he might be hiding something. Does anyone have more advice for what I should be looking for?


For now, I'm going back to the simple taming techniques (tissue trick etc) and he's OK sitting on my hand to eat his food, but he won't come over for a cuddle without a snack there, and he won't take food if I pass it to him (e.g. holding a piece in my fingers for him to grab).

[BorisPasha]

Sorry to hear that Derrick is being a bit nippy. Has anything changed at all or happened in the last 4 days that might have upset him (apart from the nail clipping and partial clean)? It could be that there has been a noise or something that's maybe changed in the room he's in and he's feeling sensitive to it.

I would have thought that he would have been ok after 4 days (especially since he's normally quite outgoing) if it was something that upset him but maybe the clean and the nail clipping has prolonged it.

I guess the obvious things to look out for would if he's eating, drinking, peeing and pooping ok, and if he's still using his wheel.

Hopefully someone will be able to suggest something or specific signs to look out for.

Hope Derrick is back to normal soon.

[Carla Gordon and Derrick]

Thank you it's just out of character!

Hard to tell with the running - he's still trying but keeps covering it in paper and then getting cross he can't run, but of course equally stroppy when I move his wheel-fort so he can run again. Such a strange little person, but hopefully he'll be back to our normal baby soon!

[Pebbles82]

It's probably the nail trim and the cage clean Maybe just give him some time to settled down for a week then take it steadily - he may be jumpy if he thinks it might happen again. Is there any chance you could have cut the quick on his nails? That can be painful - their nails are so tiny and you just want to take the very tips off as it's easy to go too far and cut the quick. Sorry if you already know that.

[Carla Gordon and Derrick]

Hey all,
Sorry for the slow update here - it's been a little hectic with Christmas travelling! Little Derrick is still nipping unfortunately which is very out of character for our cuddle little guy.
He's drawn blood on a few occasions too...
The tissue scenting trick doesn't seem to have done the trick. He excitedly collects the paper and takes it to his best but it doesn't make him anymore relaxed around me.
He's still active, though a bit more clumsy, and he's still eating, but won't take food directly from me anymore (He used to love it!). He's also still pooping normally too.
He's been scratching a bit more than usual it seems but I can't see any noticeable fur loss, though it's been very hard to give that squirmy bitey guy a proper health check.
He's the same in the play pen as I did wonder if it was territorial behaviour...

He's a robo and only a year and 5 months now, which I know isn't super young, but it wouldn't be worryingly old either!

What's concerning me most is that this came on very quickly - within about 3 days he was a completely different hamster!

Does anyone have any advice?

I'm going to give our vet a call tomorrow too, but I'm worried they won't be able to identify much with the little wriggle monster.

[cypher]

Sorry to hear Derrick still isn't back to his usual self.
It is hard to guess what the problem may be, if he's itching more it is possible he may be having a problem with mites, sometimes something can cause them extra stress which can result in under skin mites getting out of control & that would make him uncomfortable & probably a bit irritable, although mite problems are usually accompanied by excessive scratching & hair loss that isn't always the case so it's something that might be worth discussing with your vet.
Sorry I don't really have any other ideas as to what the problem may be but as it's been going on a while now I do think it would be worth going to the vet, really hope you can find an answer & he gets back to normal soon.

[Carla Gordon and Derrick]

Thanks Cypher. We're booked in for Tuesday, but I know he's going to be a terrified little nightmare to take there!

[cypher]

Hope it goes ok & he doesn't get too stressed out, fingers crossed!

[Carla Gordon and Derrick]

Derrick's Update:
I've been working with our vet to try to identify what it could be, as his behaviour does indicate that there's some pain, but we can't find any source of this as physically he seems fine.

It may be that he's suffering from something like headaches (anyone come across this?!) which may be causing 'episodes' of pain, and usually the next step with a human or larger animal would be an MRI but that's not really an option with our little Derrick.

We're trying out a very small dose of Metacam to see if that makes any change to him. Fingers crossed that our little guy starts feeling a little better soon - on the whole he's happily hamstering away, so that's good!

[cypher]

I don't have experience of anything like this but I hope he responds well to the metacam & feels better soon.