Hello, and why has my Syrian suddenly become ultra hairy?

[Nanerica68]

Hi all, I've just joined this group. I'm based near London, UK, and have two Syrians, Felix and Arnold (who may be Arnolda, the jury's still out on that one). I've had many hamsters over the years and my kids are lucky that I like rodents and am prepared to clean them out: I've a question to the forum about longhairs, though. Felix is about a year old, and although he's a longhair, has merely been fluffy. He has recently grown the longest, most uneven and unkempt coat I've ever seen - his white patches are longer than his brown patches. It's winter but even so, this coat looks totally out of proportion and it's odd as last year he didn't have it. Why has he suddenly put on such a massive coat? He's healthy and friendly and I can't work out why this year and not last year...

[souffle]

The coat is very dependent on the weather and the hormones in the male hamsters. It was very hot during summer and many hamsters shed off most of their coat and we were seeing very thin coated hamsters then we suddenly seem to have seen a huge drop in temperature so many have much more luxurient coats! If he is having problems grooming then you can trim the very long or matted ends with no problems for the hamsters. We also groom them with a toothbrush!