Hi guys! My name is Stephanie and I am a new hamster owner. I got a winter white dwarf hamster from someone who lives on my college campus. She is 4 months old and her name is Pepper. I absolutely adore her and would appreciate any help.
Information:
She has a 2 ft by 3 ft cage (it is a plastic container), an 8 inch wheel, white soft bedding, and a huge rock underneath the bedding from the previous owner. I keep her in my bedroom away from ultrasound noise, and it is usually not too sunny during the day and is dark at night. I do not own any other pets and the noise level is quiet. I used the same brand of bedding the previous owner used to make her comfortable. She has a large bowl of food, a water bottle, and water in a bowl that is standing as I find she prefers to sip from the bowl. She also has plenty of toys and wood chews. She has a hut and a mug that she likes to hide in. I also scattered a few pebbles or small rocks around her cage. I keep the temp anywhere from 69F-73F. I also place down a sand bath two days of the week. I replace her bedding weekly and spot clean when I can. I also replace her food once every 3 days and change water daily. She poops on her wheel all the time, and the previous owner warned me of that as well. The previous owner did not take good care of her. She had a tiny cage and her bedding was full of poop. Owner advised me to change the bedding only once every month, which I was shocked after doing my research to find that is awful. Her old cage was filthy and she seemed like she did not care for poor Pepper.
Normal at first:
She seemed to be doing just fine in the first two weeks. Sleeping during the day and active on her wheel at night. I followed all the guidelines about not touching her for a few days and let her settle in until I touched her. When I finally got around to introducing myself she let me hold her just fine and I put my scent on paper towels. She ran up to my hand a lot to check me out and never ran away from me.
The problem:
However, these past few weeks have gone crazy. She started biting me all of the sudden out of nowhere. I think she is running up to my hand to check me out when really she runs up to my hand to bite me. To the point where she actually broke skin on one of my fingers. This is strange because she still allows me to pet her and basically do whatever I want when she is nibbling on food. She also allows me to feed her sunflower seeds in my palm no problem; she picks it apart and lets me pet her while she eats. Next, she stopped coming out from 6-7 PM. She would always come out and run on her wheel per usual until 7-8 AM. Now, she stays hidden mostly all night in her mug or under her bedding. Not only this, but wherever she hides she ends up pooping there everywhere instead of her normal spot, to the point where the cage has started to smell bad even after I freshly cleaned and replaced the bedding. Also, her poop is green and sometimes runny and I noticed this around week 1. I feed her hamster food from PetSmart and take time to remove the sunflower seeds from it because that can be too much for a hamster. I am not sure if the artificial dyes in it make her poop green? Here is the link to the food:
https://www.petsmart.com/small-pet/f...kaAuHqEALw_wcB
Changes:
The only changes I have made was the bedding and her wheel. I didn't know scented bedding wasn't good for hamsters. I only had that bedding for a day or so when I noticed she refused to burrow and was running on her wheel constantly due to stress. I changed it to the non-scented brand of bedding her previous owner used and she finally burrowed and did fine. Next I changed her wheel out because it was making a ton of noise and keeping me up at night- the only difference was the size was an inch smaller but still 6 inches. The material was the same plastic. I just changed her wheel back to the old one to see if maybe that is the issue. I also recently put pebbles (or small rocks) in her cage but that was after her behavior started changing.
Please if anyone could help me regain trust with my hamster and figure out what is wrong? I asked someone at PetSmart who is supposed to be the expert in hamsters and he gave me a basically "I don't know". If this worsens I think I will take her to the vet. Please help!!!