Sneeze/huff? Odd nouse help.

[lady jocardi]

Jed often makes a noise that sounds like a sneeze...or a huff...I can't tell if it'd his nose or mouth making the sound. We does it a lot on waking, he doesn't seem poorly. I've looked through old threeds here, sounds like it could be an allergy to the bedding?,he sleeps in tissue paper, but the base of the cage is woodshavings. If I were to change the substrate, would I have to replace it totally,,or try the sleeping area only for a start?
Any advice grate fully received x

[Lala Noma]

Could it be a cold?

[lady jocardi]

It could be.....but its mostly when he first wakes up.

[SKB_Hamsters]

I think it could be an allergy. I experienced a similar thing with my hamster, Sherbet, when she was housed on carefresh she kept sneezing due to the dust in the bedding, since changing substrate to Fitch her sneezing stopped. Occasionally when she rummage in her food especially when I get towards to the end of a bag she sneezes a little but I think that's due to the dust.

I would change the substrate around his sleeping area to start of with and see whether you notice any changes in him sneezing. What substrate do you use?

Does Jed have any discharge around his nose? As if he does I would consider maybe taking him to the vet to be on the safe side.

[lady jocardi]

Thank you. We use woodshavings and ripped up tissue.
I shall look into alternatives. X

[cypher]

If it is an allergy I'm not sure that just changing a small area of substrate will make much of a difference tbh, might be worth a try but if that doesn't work there's no way of knowing if it is an allergy or not.
I wouldn't do a complete change all at once as you would want to keep some of the old but if you just kept a little for his scent & his nest material a change over shouldn't be too stressful.
Fitch is probably the least likely to cause any problems if your ham is a bit sensitive.

[freyashamsters]

I agree with Cypher definitely, that's the only way really to check if there is an allergy to the substrate. Hope ur hammy is well soon xx

[SKB_Hamsters]

I recommend trying Fitch that is what I use now and my hamster is fine on it.
The only way I realised my hamster had an allergy to carefresh is I had half the cage with carefresh and the other hemp, when she was on the carefresh side she was sneezing but when she was on the hemp she was fine and normal. So then I removed carefresh and replaced it with hemp and then she was fine and her sneezing stopped.

So you could replace the half of his cage in which his house is in with a different substrate, and see if you notice him sneezing on either side more.