Brushing up against everything

[Lozzyjayne]

Hi guys,

I've been noticing lately that Hamilton has been obsessively brushing up against literally anything and everything almost all the time, especially when he's out of his cage. I'm guessing that it's because he's scent marking, but I was under the impression that hamsters tend to do it more often if they've recently had a change in environment or feel that they're under threat. I haven't changed Hamilton's environment or routine at all; he has the same cage he's aways had, I let him out at the same time every day and he's allowed to free roam in the hall as he always has been doing. The only thing that's changed recently is that I gave his cage a full clean and changed his toys around a bit yesterday, but as he was behaving like that before the cage clean, I don't think that would have caused it.

I was just wondering if maybe there was a reason other than scent-marking? Could it be because he's stressed out by something, or is it just a phase he's going through?