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Old 07-18-2019, 10:21 PM   #1
PuppyMintMocha
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Default Running Around Biting Everything?

Just over a week ago, I adopted my new syrian hamster, Enoki. She's been a little nervous but seems to be settling in, and has recently started letting me handle her very easily.
Well, just a few minutes ago she started doing something I've never seen her or any other hamster I've had do. She started frantically running around the cage biting everything. It didn't seem to matter what material it was- she bit chew toys, she bit tubes, she bit hides, she bit her wheel quite a bit, and I even saw her bite at her aspen bedding for a moment. She started quickly cycling between this biting behavior, running on her wheel, and digging into her bedding (there didn't seem to be a goal in the digging, she didn't dig to the bottom or only in one place, just started throwing bedding every which way). She didn't seem to be bothered by my presence though, I picked her up to unblock her wheel since she stopped it up with bedding, and she gave me a soft nibble to put her back down, but during the whole ordeal didn't seem to be scared of my hand or me watching her or anything, and was fine with sitting in the open while she was doing this. She did it for a few minutes and eventually stopped biting, but at the moment of writing this, she's still throwing bedding around.
Of course this seems like a stressed behavior, but I haven't seen her do that at all before and I don't know what could be bothering her all of the sudden like this? It's especially odd to me because even when she first got home and was quite scared, she barely bit or nibbled anything while she settled in, and she hasn't even "test" nibbled me.
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Old 07-19-2019, 01:58 AM   #2
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Running Around Biting Everything?

Yes it does sound like stressed behaviour. Has anything happened recently, or any changes, that could have stressed her? Sometimes a cage clean can do get them stressed and want to scent mark everything. Best to just do partial cleans (ie don't clean everything at the same time so something always smells familiar - eg substrate one week, wheel a different week, any toys a different week again etc - and don't overclean so substrate can be left a few weeks and just "spot cleaned" if necessary - if it's at least 4" deep).

The other thing is they are highly sensitive to scents so nothing perfumed should be used when cleaning as this could drive them a bit crazy and be very unpleasant - best to just use warm soapy water and rinse well (eg plain washing up liquid in water and not lemon scented etc). Disinfecting isn't necessary unless there's been illness or disease).
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Old 07-19-2019, 02:29 AM   #3
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Default Re: Running Around Biting Everything?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000 View Post
Yes it does sound like stressed behaviour. Has anything happened recently, or any changes, that could have stressed her? Sometimes a cage clean can do get them stressed and want to scent mark everything. Best to just do partial cleans (ie don't clean everything at the same time so something always smells familiar - eg substrate one week, wheel a different week, any toys a different week again etc - and don't overclean so substrate can be left a few weeks and just "spot cleaned" if necessary - if it's at least 4" deep).

The other thing is they are highly sensitive to scents so nothing perfumed should be used when cleaning as this could drive them a bit crazy and be very unpleasant - best to just use warm soapy water and rinse well (eg plain washing up liquid in water and not lemon scented etc). Disinfecting isn't necessary unless there's been illness or disease).
Since she's only been here about 8 days, I haven't done any cleaning at all yet, to allow her to establish her scent. But the plan for the future, as with my other hamsters, is only removing particularly nasty bedding when needed, and a "full clean" once a month, but placing some of the old scented bedding back into the the cleaned enclosure.

As for scents, again, I haven't cleaned anything yet, and nothing was sprayed in the room or anything. (When I do clean I generally just rinse with water.)

Nothing new really happened either. I gave her a new hide a few hours prior, but she had already explored it and seemed to like it. The moment she started going berserk was shortly after me and my sister fed her and Miko, but I don't see why that would bother her since I have my hands in the cage and feed her regularly.
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Old 07-19-2019, 12:47 PM   #4
Schwartzie
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Default Re: Running Around Biting Everything?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PuppyMintMocha View Post
Since she's only been here about 8 days, I haven't done any cleaning at all yet, to allow her to establish her scent. But the plan for the future, as with my other hamsters, is only removing particularly nasty bedding when needed, and a "full clean" once a month, but placing some of the old scented bedding back into the the cleaned enclosure.

As for scents, again, I haven't cleaned anything yet, and nothing was sprayed in the room or anything. (When I do clean I generally just rinse with water.)

Nothing new really happened either. I gave her a new hide a few hours prior, but she had already explored it and seemed to like it. The moment she started going berserk was shortly after me and my sister fed her and Miko, but I don't see why that would bother her since I have my hands in the cage and feed her regularly.
Did you change the order of feeding that day? Did you maybe feed Mike first and their scent was on your hands or something? Did you or your sister change deodorant or perfume? What were you handling before you fed them. Was there not something on your hands that tasted yukky and your hamster was trying to get rid of the taste?
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Old 07-19-2019, 02:27 PM   #5
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Default Re: Running Around Biting Everything?

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Originally Posted by Schwartzie View Post
Did you change the order of feeding that day? Did you maybe feed Mike first and their scent was on your hands or something? Did you or your sister change deodorant or perfume? What were you handling before you fed them. Was there not something on your hands that tasted yukky and your hamster was trying to get rid of the taste?
I never use perfume and always use the same deodorant. I'm not sure about my sister, but she didn't have any contact with Enoki.
My sister fed Miko and I fed Enoki, but I did handle Miko a little bit, and handled Enoki after, but she acted totally normal during handling and for a little while after she was back in her cage. Their cages are also only a few feet away from each other so I thought they would be used to each other's scents. But I suppose maybe that could be it, so I'll be a little more careful about not handling her with any of Miko's scent on me. Miko on the other hand has never seemed to care at all about other hamster's scents so I guess it didn't occur to me that it would upset her that much. Still, seems like maybe she would have bit my hand or something if that was the problem?
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Old 07-19-2019, 04:17 PM   #6
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Running Around Biting Everything?

It's always a good idea to wash your hands in between handling hamsters anyway - it avoids one catching something from the other (which can happen) but yes she would have smelled the other hamster's scent. That might be part of it but I think it's more to do with her not being settled yet or tamed, and having a hand in the cage. They can get quite territorial and feel threatened. Also use very plain soap when washing your hands - no honey scented or flowery soaps or they can bite thinking you're food.

What cage is she in? Our first syrian was like this at first and hated a hand in his cage. It was actually cage rage. He was in an awful badly ventilated rotostak thing with top opening. Once I upgraded him to a single larger, barred cage he was like a different hamster.

For now I would put the food out when she's asleep and avoid putting your hand in the cage at any other time, until she has fully acclimatised to the cage (it can take a good two weeks without moving or changing anything or cleaning anything).

So it sounds like a combination of - smelling the other hamster in her territory, especially when she's still quite new to the cage - a hand in the cage and possibly the cage itself not being right? But that depends what cage you have. And possibly the soap?
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Old 07-19-2019, 07:52 PM   #7
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Default Re: Running Around Biting Everything?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000 View Post
It's always a good idea to wash your hands in between handling hamsters anyway - it avoids one catching something from the other (which can happen) but yes she would have smelled the other hamster's scent. That might be part of it but I think it's more to do with her not being settled yet or tamed, and having a hand in the cage. They can get quite territorial and feel threatened. Also use very plain soap when washing your hands - no honey scented or flowery soaps or they can bite thinking you're food.

What cage is she in? Our first syrian was like this at first and hated a hand in his cage. It was actually cage rage. He was in an awful badly ventilated rotostak thing with top opening. Once I upgraded him to a single larger, barred cage he was like a different hamster.

For now I would put the food out when she's asleep and avoid putting your hand in the cage at any other time, until she has fully acclimatised to the cage (it can take a good two weeks without moving or changing anything or cleaning anything).

So it sounds like a combination of - smelling the other hamster in her territory, especially when she's still quite new to the cage - a hand in the cage and possibly the cage itself not being right? But that depends what cage you have. And possibly the soap?
Thank you! I didn't think my hand would have been the problem since she is very calm tame when I do pick her up, and when I have had my hand in the cage to feed/move anything, she follows my hand but doesn't nibble or flinch or anything. I had figured since she seemed calm and it had been a few days that I was ok to start taming, but maybe this was her sign that it had been bothering her even if she wasn't showing it much.

This is the cage she has

It's 32x19x18 inches (81x48x46 cm) so as far as I know this is a fairly good choice for hamsters? Although I know there are better, and I wish I had the space for something even bigger.
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