Sneezing Ham: Bedding Issue, Excitement, Both, or something Else?

[Strawberries]

Hi everybody! I picked up my little Mister Chubbs a few weeks ago from his previous owner when they no longer wanted him, and he's been an absolute sweetheart and little bundle of fluff since he joined the family.

He's got this thing he does where when he's digging through his bedding, getting something he likes, or exploring something new, he just starts to sneeze and he either just sneezes a little bit or he has a full on sneezing fit that has his body jerking. Sometimes it lasts a few minutes, other times I can hear him sneezing on and off for hours.

His sneezing is not wet sounding, there is nothing coming out of his nose or mouth as a result of it, he doesn't have any difficulty breathing and I do not hear clicking or any similar noises when I lift him up to listen closer or listen to his chest. His nose is still a nice pink and his eyes are always bright and active when he's out and about.

He does rub at his face now and then when the sneezing is on the more extreme end, but he still eats and drinks normally, is plenty active, and enjoys exercising on his wheel as much as he does getting to explore while getting his free roam time outside his home. I have not noticed a change in his bathroom habits and his poops are normal. When he is asleep, there is absolutely no sneezing or squeaking. He sleeps quite soundly and when he's up for his hamster party hours, he's up without any lethargy.

For some background on him, he was kept in a 20 gallon long with the bare minimum of bedding and supplies. His previous bedding was a Walmart variant of Carefresh's paper bedding, and the day I brought him home he had been switched overnight to the Forti-Diet paper bedding made by Kaytee, which is where his sneezing began.

Because the paper bedding had a noticeable scent to it (it made ME sneeze and feel gross after sniffing it!) even though it was simply listed as odor control with no added scents such as lavender or chamomile or anything else, I had assumed it was contributing to the problem and things would clear up once he was in his new home.

He has since lived in a 50 gallon sterilite plastic bin with several inches deep of bedding, toys, hideouts, and a wheel to go with the saucer he came home with. His bedding is Kaytee's Clean and Cozy, which I'm under the assumption is just another version of their Forti-Diet paper bedding at a higher price because it looks and feels the same, just without the smell.

He sneezes when he digs (which he loves to do now that he's got so much bedding to explore through), and he sneezed up a storm when he realized he had a wheel (he's abandoned his saucer entirely for it) and spent the first day it was in his home running and sneezing and running and sneezing. When he's out in free roam, he sneezes whenever he finds something he likes or he gets particularly spooked by something. He stepped on a chip bag that crinkled a little excessively the last time he was exploring and immediately sneezed as he scurried away.

I'm under the assumption that this bedding may be too dusty for him, but I was told by another hamster owner that some hamsters (like theirs) sneeze as a result of excitement and it can be triggered by literally anything that happens to excite them. So, maybe it is both?

The reason I began using Kaytee's Clean and Cozy was my boyfriend has several hamsters, his syrians all found Carefresh too dusty and would sneeze near constantly and when switched to C&C their sneezing stopped entirely.

I've thought about switching his bedding again, but I'm unsure as to what out there would be even less dusty than the C&C and was hoping the community had some ideas or advice they could give.

Thank you for reading!

[cypher]

The clean & cozy substrate (the plain white one) shouldn't be causing a problem it is fairly dust free & definitely better than carefresh so I wouldn't think that would be the problem & it seems unlikely that changing that would really help tbh.
They can sometimes sneeze if they get excited or have been digging around in the substrate.
Anything else in the cage he could be reacting to that you can think of?
What food is he on?
If he seems fine in himself I would just wait a while, keep an eye on things & see how he goes for now.

[Strawberries]

Hello!

The plain white one is what I've been using, as I heard scented beddings were bad for them because they'd be sniffing the scent all day and night. That'd make me miserable, no doubt it'd do the same for the babies! I thought about the natural/brown beddings but wasn't sure if there was any real difference other than the color.

He does sneeze when he digs and when he gets into his nest for the night, he likes to get into his little dug out and then fluff up the bedding around him and that gives him some sneezing time until he settles.

The additions to his bin that he didn't have in his old home were a giant silent spinner, a large plastic igloo, a few toilet paper rolls, some small chew blocks (the shaped ones, like the cylinders and the stars), a loofah crunch piece and an applewood stick from Kaytee's chew pack, and a twig tunnel. He likes to scurry through the twig tunnel and bounce it around the house, but doesn't really chew on it. He does go ham on the toilet paper rolls and sort of gnaws on the smaller chew blocks and then does what Boo does, move 'em around every so often and otherwise ignore them. I haven't noticed any sneezing when he's playing with the twig tunnel or chewing on any chews.

The person I got him from couldn't remember the name of the food, as she had it in a metal storage tin by the time I picked him up. It looks like Kaytee's Forti-Diet Pro Health Hamster & Gerbil Food because the picture on that bag (I haven't been by the store to check out the bag in person) looks exactly like what's in the tin. Boo Bear and my boyfriend's hamsters are all on Oxbow's Hamster & Gerbil pellets, so I added some of that into the food dish with his original food so that he'd be introduced to them.

He came with a stuffed Snak Shack and Brown's Carnival Hoops (Honey/Berry flavor) and a small mixed Forti-Diet treat bag of miscellaneous things (popcorn, seeds, etc) that I haven't tried feeding him with yet.

Since Boo Bear enjoys baby carrots, strawberries, broccoli, milk bones, yogies, Timothy Biscuits (Apple), Kaytee Fiesta Yogurt Cups, Oven Baked Crunchy Bites (Apple), millet, grapes (seedless), apple bits, banana bits, I've been slowly introducing them to Mister Chubbs.

I've got a bag of Rosewood Natural's Nature Salad that I bought for Boo Bear and give him a small bit to forage in his bin with, but I haven't really introduced it to Chubbs yet aside from him sniffing at the bag while I had him out for free roam and he waddled past the supply box.

He's currently got a yogurt cup (mostly gone by now since he's been working at it) and his snak shack for in the bin treats.

Whenever I feed them anything fresh like strawberries or carrots, I check their stash locations and nest to make sure they eat them within the day and don't grow icky.

And that sounds good, I'll continue to keep an eye on him (and a ear!) and see what happens.

Thank you very much for your reply C: