My Robs are eating each other?

[LRansom]

I'm not sure what is going on here, my three Roborovski girls are 2 years old and have lived together their whole lives.

Basically all three of them have bald patches on the backs of their heads between their ears. Two of the girls have nasty looking wounds on these patches.

One of the girls is very underweight and I don't know why, I have been watching them closely and she is eating plenty without being harrassed.

Are they nibbling on each other or is it something else? I am unsure as I have had a bullying Rob before who was then removed from the cage because she bit holes in all her sisters bums (she has since passed away).

I haven't separated because I don't know if it is fight related or not. I have never seen this before. All coats look clean with no sign of bugs.

[Flissy]

I would say that it could be ear mites if they have bald patches in the same places... I think you would probably notice aggression between them if they were fighting, maybe take them to the vets and get them checked out as they will be able to tell if its mites or something similar?

[Fidgetthefirst]

Do they have "dandruff" on their coats? My hamster (whos passed away <3) had what i thought was dandruff and we took him to the vets, before any hair loss started and she said yeah its mites and she gave a spot on for hamsters and it got rid of most of it, make sure you clean their cages very thouroughly* check their bedding there might be mites in there

[Katzilla87]

Remove the sandbath if they have one, I had a robo suffering with this a long while ago and found that removing the sandbath helped her loads to recover xx

[fluffymunchkins]

I would think that the bald patches will be caused by something like mites. And the wounds might simply be from them scratching. But your very right to be cautious just in case they are fighting!
When Peggy lived with Dot i found Dot had a big sort of blister/lump thing on her back, which turned out to be a cut that had swollen and scabbed over (so it looked much worse than it was). But i never found out where it came from, at first i immediately thought Peggy had bitten her, but she could have just caught it on something. Anyway i was surprised how quickly it healed and she was happy and healthy throughout the injury.
So i'd definitely recommend going to the vets, just in case it is mites so you can get them treated and sorted before it gets worse. Plus although none of them are being bullied now, if one gets weaker it may be targeted.
Hope they get better soon!

[LRansom]

Hi, Thanks for your responses and sorry for the delay in updating.

I had taken one of my rats to the vet for a lump removal and he was found to have lice on him. The robs cage sits on top of his cage so I treated them all. The girls bald bits are regrowing and their wounds have healed.

Thank you all for your responses, you were right.

[babyboos]

as hamsters get older mites and lice can really affect them worse than when they were young so glad they are now on the mend