Dry skin at mouth!?

[miss_eva]

Hi there!

My 1 year old female syrian Peaches seems to have very dry skin around her mouth, almost chapped looking, its not red, swollen or inflammed. I suspect this is possibly because of her avid cardboard chewing. Any suggestions of what I could give her to 'moisturise' her poor wee mouth?!

Thanks!

[racinghamster]

Hi miss_eva. It`s a tricky one really as you don`t want to be applying anything she could ingest unless it was something like a small amount of olive oil on the end of your finger. Olive oil is safe if licked off, but I would only apply a small drop on your finger and dab it either side of her mouth a few times a week and see if it helps. I wouldn`t use creams or tea tree or anything drying. It`s good that her skin isn`t red or cracked though. Is she a bar chewer? x

[cypher]

Olive oil should have a moisturising effect but most hams really don't like the taste of it so it could be quite unpleasant for her to have it around her mouth, I'd be more inclined to use coconut oil.
I was wondering if it's just cardboard she's been chewing too, it does seem a bit unusual unless she chews an awful lot of card!

[miss_eva]

I have both olive oil and coconut oil in the house, I will give that a go! She likes to chew bars but only in certain areas so I tend to stuff lots of cardboard in the bars at those areas as I thought it would be better for her :(

[WinnieTheHam]

Does she have a salt lick in her cage? For some reason they're on pet store shelves aimed at hamsters. If she does this would most likely be the cause. Check the foods you give her and see if they contain high amounts of salts.

Another reason could be sawdust/shavings. They contain acids which are known to irritate even human skin and this could have caused some sort of skin reaction. Kiln dried is known to be the better choice of shavings to use for a hamster.

Dry skin can also be caused by mites, so maybe go for a vet check.

I completely agree with what the others have said to treat the area. Hope everything goes well. :)

[cypher]

Chewing the cardboard is definitely preferable to chewing the bars so you did the right thing there but if she's really obsessive maybe try to find other ways to distract her (Vectis gives lots of good ideas in the bar chewing thread (http://www.hamstercentral.com/community/behaviour/54508-managing-bar-chewers.html)) or even consider a tank style cage if she really won't stop?

[miss_eva]

Does she have a salt lick in her cage? For some reason they're on pet store shelves aimed at hamsters. If she does this would most likely be the cause. Check the foods you give her and see if they contain high amounts of salts.

Another reason could be sawdust/shavings. They contain acids which are known to irritate even human skin and this could have caused some sort of skin reaction. Kiln dried is known to be the better choice of shavings to use for a hamster.

Dry skin can also be caused by mites, so maybe go for a vet check.

I completely agree with what the others have said to treat the area. Hope everything goes well. :)


She doesnt have a salt lick but she does have a mineral stone, its barely been touched the whole time I have had her! I will check her foods, just incase! Im fairly certain the shavings I have been using is kiln dried but I've just recently ordered some finacard because I was planning on changing it over anyway!

Im fairly certain its not mites, she doesn't have the bald patches that are common of mite infestations!

Thanks so much for all of this to think about! Just worried about her! I'll try the oil for a week or so and if it doesn't clear we will take a trip to the vets