Robo Hamster breathing weird and scratching

[RoboPoppy]

I'm sorry for all the posts, but i'm just worried.
I had Poppy for more than 3 weeks now. First of all,she had a stressful life I already had to change her bedding twice: from hemp to carefresh ultra, because I was allergic and then from carefresh ultra to paper bedding: Petlife safebed. In Germany this is the only paper bedding I can get. I also found and bought Hugro Back to Life Cellulose Litter, but I placed Petlife Safebed in her terrarium.

Why I thought she's allergic: just after placing carefresh she scratched non stop (before s would groom herself normally, not scratching all the time). Also she started to do this weird thing last days where after running for like 30 min she goes to the corner of the cage and zones out - sits there kind of hibernating and once in a while (every 10-15sec) she would have this weird pinch - as if someone poked her. No sound just this weird quick shrug. Otherwise, she eats, drinks and runs on the wheel and around the cage all the time.

Now yesterday, I changed her bedding to Petlife safebed. First she started to make nest in new place and seamed to not scratch herself and seamed to love it. After running in the wheel for 30min she went to the corner and suppose hibernated/slept? Now it's almost 24h that I changed the bedding. She's sleeping near the glass and I can see her scratching herself sometimes in my eyes excessive. Sometimes she sleeps fine and calm and sometimes she's shaking and it would almost look like she's eating, but she has her eyes closed, and her paws are nowhere ear her mouth. And again sometimes there's those weird shrugs rarely. Is she sleep eating? If it was an allergy would she just need more time to recover? Carefresh was in her cage for almost 5 days (damn Easter, nothing was working).

I am also sick at the moment with Brochitis and i'm afraid I could have made her sick, but the scratching? I want to go to the vet, but could this be from stress? She had so many changes.. In that case i I go to vet, I would stress her even more... Otherwise she's eating and drinking, playful, poops fine.. I'm honestly so lost. Am I overthinking? Or should I run to the vet?

[cypher]

It's always hard to tell if something is an allergy or not but if the substrate she's on now is just paper then she should be fine with that, if you only changed it yesterday then you need to give her a bit more time to see how she gets on with it.
The changes could have caused her stress which in turn could cause a mite problem, they all have mites under their skin but these aren't usually a problem but sometimes stress can lead to their immune system not functioning as well at normal & the mites can get out of control & need treatment from the vet.
Also with the changes she will probably be doing a lot of scent marking & that can appear as over grooming & some scratching too.
The running then crashing out thing is actually not that unusual in young hamsters but it's hard to say if it is just normal behaviour in this case or possibly something else.
It doesn't sound as though you've passed on anything with your bronchitis, they can pick up things from us so it's best not to have too much contact for a while & just be extra vigilant about washing your hands etc, it doesn't happen that often so try not to worry about that too much.
I would give her a few days or so to settle again after having everything changed, keep an eye on her to see if there are any more signs that something might be wrong but I wouldn't do anything at this stage if not, it can take them a while to settle again after a big clear out like that.

[RoboPoppy]

Thank you so much for more info, that's very very helpful to know. So for the scratching I will see, if it persists when she settles down, it's probably mites and we go to vet to check for that.

About my bronchitis - I'm sick also more than 2 weeks. And i'm shamed to say, but I didn't know first that I can make her sick. So I was sitting near her cage and giving her treats and probably coughing straight at her for like a week before I randomly found this info on the internet.. It was also so damn cold in Berlin that week, I was trying to make her warm by putting warm sheets on the sides and bottom of terrarium. Then she started to nibble her glass drinking pipe and I had to change it to small bowl of water for a few days. And she managed to fall in it face down, which scared me to death. After that she had those weird shrugs, where I was thinking,she's sick, but just when I wanted to go to vet on third day she had no shrugs at all. Now it's almost 2 weeks since I've seen her shrug last time (hamster cough or not) and it's again third day she's doing this shrugging. I assumed it's allergy for her bedding. I'm still sick,coughing like hell hound, but I handle her with mask and gloves. These weird shrugs is what bothers me the most. Since she's eating and drinking, playing, I wouldn't assume she's doing really bad.

I know it's maybe silly to speculate so much and not go to the vet. I have the money, I just want to avoid putting her on even more stress. I am just not experienced yet what is a worthy problem to go to the vet.

[cypher]

It can be confusing sometimes but as she's eating & it hasn't been the easiest start with her but try not to worry too much, if she's eating, drinking etc ok the a vet trip may well be unnecessary stress for her, just give it some time & see how she goes.

[RoboPoppy]

Thank you so much for all your relies cypher! I'm really grateful for nice people in HC for being so patient with all us lost first time owners. I will keep observing and will continue to monitor her food, water etc.

Btw she did start to hoard her food (:

[Pebbles82]

I would just give her time to adjust and settle with the new bedding. She sounds fine Good she is hoarding now!

[RoboPoppy]

Usually I see her only in the evenings, but now when she's sleeping near the glass it's so weird to see her sleep-scratching with her eyes closed for hours and I mean hours really. Like for the last hour and a half she's biting and scratching herself without a pause and I have a strong urge to bring her to the vet seeing this. I am not familiar to any other causes than allergy, mites or stress. And although I personally know that stress and allergies can affect you so much, I just feel terrible to see her suffer without rest. It sucks to not know how to help my little friend.

[RoboPoppy]

Hey guys, just want to make an update, because when I'm searching threads for info myself it's always great to know what really happened.
Poppy is fine! Taking your advice I just tried to let her settle in. I also kept it calm, didn't ask her to go on my hand and just cleaned her sand and refreshed her food and water for 2 nights. I think her scratching herself was her being nervous in new cage/trying to make it smell like her, like you said. And going to corner and breathing weird was just Pop being scared and hyperventilating... Now after not touching her for 2 days she's scared of me almost like the first week, but I don't mind we will go slowly,as long as my little fluff is healthy!

I just want to bring awareness to this for new owners, how stress can affect them. In my eyes, since she was already quite tame and ate on my hand, I was thinking that it's ok to keep taming her. But with cage change (and so many changes that happened with wheel, drinking bottle etc) it was all too overwhelming for her.

I do still believe she was allergic to dusty carefresh ultra, because she kept grooming herself crazy for a week with that and with this bedding it only took her days to adjust. Maybe I was wrong and just made it worse by changing to PetSafe Papper bedding, but I guess we'll never know... Mostly because the new one is so soft and she loves it! Made herself a tunnel where she sleeps (same corner like Seredipitys little fluff haha, they must like it) and is doing much more burrowing now.
I'm so thankful for the advice guys, I cannot imagine how much more stress she would have had if I also had to wake her and bring her to the vet, where she would have to be touched by strangers..

Here's a pic of her sleeping peacefully

[cypher]

I'm glad you've got everything sorted now & she's doing so well, that is such a cute photo of her, she looks lovely