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Old 03-06-2019, 01:30 PM   #1
Gingers
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Default Help! Tiny bugs in Hamster's food

I think this is the right place to post this? Forgive me if it isn't!!

Yesterday my mom put a piece of veggie on my hamster's wooden home for her to eat later. Around midnight, I was passing by her cage and there were tiny bugs all over the food. I checked her food dish and found a couple in there too.

The bugs are so small I would never be able to find them in the bedding! I checked her stored food and didn't see anything, but again they're so tiny I don't know if I missed any. I picked her up and looked through her fur as much as I could but didn't see anything there either.

I am going to clean her cage immediately, but I want to know what kind of bugs they are and how to prevent them in the future. I googled all morning but I could only find answers about bugs that were bigger than what I have, so I don't know if they're the same! I'm so anxious, please help.

All those tiny brown-ish specs are the bugs. The picture actually makes them look bigger than they are!!

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Old 03-06-2019, 04:54 PM   #2
alpacassei
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Default Re: Help! Tiny bugs in Hamster's food

Its hard to tell but I’m guessing they’re some kind of mite
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Old 03-06-2019, 10:41 PM   #3
cypher
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Default Re: Help! Tiny bugs in Hamster's food

It's impossible to say what kind of bug they are tbh but tiny little bugs like that can come from all sorts of things.
The best way to prevent things like this is to freeze things for a week before putting them in the cage, anything like natural wood, cork, hay, leaves, flowers, dried food & seeds should all go in the freezer.
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Old 03-07-2019, 09:02 PM   #4
Gingers
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Default Re: Help! Tiny bugs in Hamster's food

Thanks guys. Still don't know what they are, but we're eliminating things from her cage to see if anything changes!
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Old 03-08-2019, 01:09 AM   #5
souffle
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Default Re: Help! Tiny bugs in Hamster's food

They are most likely in the food - probably grain weevils or flour beetles or one of the sort that hatches out in food. Freezing the bags of food is a good idea. This type doesn't bother the hamster but the larvae do destroy the food and some types spin webbing type stuff in the food.
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Old 03-08-2019, 05:08 AM   #6
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Default Re: Help! Tiny bugs in Hamster's food

Definitely freeze any hamster mix you have left - for a week. Just get a new bag and hope that is ok for a week while the rest is freezing then swap them round - ie put the new bag in the freezer and take the old one out. The food is defrosted in a couple of hours.

They do look a bit like weavils so a cage clean should do the trick. Might be an idea to bake any wood items in the oven. I think 100 degrees is recommended - not so hot as they would burn but hot enough to kill bugs. Not sure for how long. If there are weavils there may be moth eggs too and they are too tiny to see- you don’t want those hatching out. A week in the freezer kills moth eggs. As does baking.
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