Chewing hips?

[gremlin]

Hi everyone,

Im posting this because im unsure, my Syrian atlas ive managed to tame but ive got two problems/questions.

He has two small patches on either side of his hips with fur missing I think hes been chewing but I dont know why? can syrians have problems with there hips? any ideas?

Secondly, like I said I managed to tame him but he still startles initially when I pick him up so I use a glove on one hand and recently hes going abit hyper. Also today he lightly pressed his teeth against by hand but unsure why... can male hamsters get hyper because of there hormones??

Thanks

[rabt91]

That first thing is nothing to worry about, those patches are where his scent glands are. Male hamsters often lick and scratch those a lot while marking territory, so it's normal for some hair loss to occur.
Any animal has it's ups and downs, sure, it happens to females too, so long as he's not doing anything unhealthy and is sleeping enough there's no need to be worried that's he's more active.