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Pebbles82 · 05-07-2021, 07:22 PM

Hello. How old is your hamster? They start losing fur behind the ears as they get older. Hamsters can be allergic to any type of wood whether it is safe hardwood, or softwood. First thing to try would be paper bedding and no aspen. I always found aspen a bit dusty too.

Keep an eye on it. It could possibly be mites but I think she'd have a lot more areas of sore skin and scratching if it is. The only way to know that is take her to a vet and ask for a skin scraping to diagnose. Don't buy mite treatment yourself - it can be quite toxic to hamsters and should only be prescribed by a vet. Even then some vets just assume it's mites and prescribe without doing a skin scraping (which islooked at under a microscope to check for mites).

So first I would change the bedding and see if it settles down. If it doesn't settle down then take her to a vet and ask for a skin scraping. You need an exotic vet - most vets don't know much about hamsters at all and don't always diagnose correctly.

05-07-2021, 07:22 PM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Allergies? Hello. How old is your hamster? They start losing fur behind the ears as they get older. Hamsters can be allergic to any type of wood whether it is safe hardwood, or softwood. First thing to try would be paper bedding and no aspen. I always found aspen a bit dusty too. Keep an eye on it. It could possibly be mites but I think she'd have a lot more areas of sore skin and scratching if it is. The only way to know that is take her to a vet and ask for a skin scraping to diagnose. Don't buy mite treatment yourself - it can be quite toxic to hamsters and should only be prescribed by a vet. Even then some vets just assume it's mites and prescribe without doing a skin scraping (which islooked at under a microscope to check for mites). So first I would change the bedding and see if it settles down. If it doesn't settle down then take her to a vet and ask for a skin scraping. You need an exotic vet - most vets don't know much about hamsters at all and don't always diagnose correctly.