# scratching against the sides of the cage



## Flissy (Jul 27, 2009)

Stella keeps running around and rubbing herself against the bars of the peggy cage as if she has really itchy sides, does anyone know what might be causing this other than mites or an allergy to something? She previously had wood shavings for bedding so I have replaced it with carefresh but is it possible that she's still sore? Or does she have mites


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

Flissy said:


> Stella keeps running around and rubbing herself against the bars of the peggy cage as if she has really itchy sides, does anyone know what might be causing this other than mites or an allergy to something? She previously had wood shavings for bedding so I have replaced it with carefresh but is it possible that she's still sore? Or does she have mites


Aw, sorry to hear that hun!! Hope she's okay, has the vet had a look to see if it is mites?


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## Flissy (Jul 27, 2009)

zany_toon said:


> Aw, sorry to hear that hun!! Hope she's okay, has the vet had a look to see if it is mites?


no not yet, was going to leave it until midweek to see if it clears up as if its still bad i will know its not an allergy to the bedding... she doesn't seem to have any sore patches of skin/bald patches and i dont really know how she would have got mites unless she got them from [email protected]?? but her previous owner got her in september so i would have thought she'd be pretty bald by now if she had had mites for that long!!!


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

Flissy said:


> no not yet, was going to leave it until midweek to see if it clears up as if its still bad i will know its not an allergy to the bedding... she doesn't seem to have any sore patches of skin/bald patches and i dont really know how she would have got mites unless she got them from [email protected]?? but her previous owner got her in september so i would have thought she'd be pretty bald by now if she had had mites for that long!!!


It could be from the bedding. If it is it might be from a recent bag so it wouldn't have shown up until now. That's how my original mice got it, I bought a bag of bedding when I first got them and it was fine. Within a few hours of changing the bedding (using a new bag of stuff) the week after they started scratching and started getting worse. I now freeze everything I buy them overnight before they get it to make sure that it can't happen.


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## Flissy (Jul 27, 2009)

zany_toon said:


> It could be from the bedding. If it is it might be from a recent bag so it wouldn't have shown up until now. That's how my original mice got it, I bought a bag of bedding when I first got them and it was fine. Within a few hours of changing the bedding (using a new bag of stuff) the week after they started scratching and started getting worse. I now freeze everything I buy them overnight before they get it to make sure that it can't happen.


so you're saying you can get mites in wood shavings  thats weird!


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

Flissy said:


> so you're saying you can get mites in wood shavings  thats weird!


I know mine did - but I think it's because [email protected] aren't very clean and were leaving the clean bags of bedding by the animal cages when they were unpacking


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## Flissy (Jul 27, 2009)

zany_toon said:


> I know mine did - but I think it's because [email protected] aren't very clean and were leaving the clean bags of bedding by the animal cages when they were unpacking


lol thats helpful... 

Her wood shavings were probably from pets at home so that would make sense, thanks for telling me about that though as I thought they could only get them from another animal!! Would it be better to take her to the vets or get some of that spot on stuff... I used it on Sausage once but it was soooo messy and he was soaked afterwards!!


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## ....zoe.... (Jul 8, 2009)

it may just possibly be here scent marking the cage, with syrian hamsters their scent glands are on the sides of their bodies (around the hip areas) and it may be that because she is around another hamster (especially a male) that she feels she needs to leave her scent  some of my hammies do this after i have cleaned them out, one of my dwarfs turns upside down and pulls herself along the tube to leave her smell on the floor of the tube. 

was very confused when i first seen it lol


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## Flissy (Jul 27, 2009)

....zoe.... said:


> it may just possibly be here scent marking the cage, with syrian hamsters their scent glands are on the sides of their bodies (around the hip areas) and it may be that because she is around another hamster (especially a male) that she feels she needs to leave her scent  some of my hammies do this after i have cleaned them out, one of my dwarfs turns upside down and pulls herself along the tube to leave her smell on the floor of the tube.
> 
> was very confused when i first seen it lol


oh ok I didn't know that either lol, i did think it seemed a bit like how a cat rubs against peoples legs to get their scent on them 

I think she is scratching as well though so will keep an eye on her and see how it goes


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

Lol!! Scent marking will be a lot easier to sort out/put up with than mites!!! Fingers crossed!! 
Re the mites, as far as I know mites can live for a short time off of an animal (a bit like fleas) so rather than take the chance of the mice coming into contact with anything at all I freeze everything including their toys!!


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## laststar89 (Jun 15, 2009)

domino does that hip rubbing thing with her scent glands, it might just be because she in a new place, and wants to settle herself in lol.


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## stucee (Nov 6, 2009)

I've similar thoughts to Zoe as Totoro did this when I first had her and for the first couple of cage clean outs. 

Hope it is that and not mites.

Sharon


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## Flissy (Jul 27, 2009)

I hope it is her scent marking but she seems to sit in the hamster igloo and scratch a lot so I'm guessing it is mites


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## happysaz133 (Jun 5, 2008)

Sounds like she is marking, Doughnut did that for ages when we first got her, she freaked my out because she looked like she was ill!

But if she's in her house scratching a lot then it sounds like mites. I recommend Xeno, but you'd have to speak to your vet about the amount for a hammy.


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## Lady3131 (Nov 26, 2009)

It did occur to me that she could merely be scenting the cage... hamsters have something called hip spots at their sides which basically act as scent glands.. It's quite natural... 

It all depends on how often she is doing this? Can you see any sore patches? Have you checked inside the ears and on her skin for mites? 

Hamsters will seem to excessively groom themselves too... I second the idea that it may be a change in bedding though... are you using scented shavings? Sometimes that can upset them.

Our hamster Rambo likes to scent us if we sit for too long on the couch...he has even on one occasion run up to my partners face as he was lying down and attempted to scent his mouth...


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## Flissy (Jul 27, 2009)

Lady3131 said:


> It did occur to me that she could merely be scenting the cage... hamsters have something called hip spots at their sides which basically act as scent glands.. It's quite natural...
> 
> It all depends on how often she is doing this? Can you see any sore patches? Have you checked inside the ears and on her skin for mites?
> 
> ...


I haven't had a look for mites as I don't really know where to look! I will check her skin later to see if it looks irritated. I'm not using scented shavings but she did have wood shavings before we got her so she might have had a reaction to that, she has carefresh now


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## Lady3131 (Nov 26, 2009)

Mites are very hard to see... they are very small flecks of black that will be moving around on the skin surface. They are particularly fond of around and inside the ears. 

However seeing as you aren't suffering any hair loss or bald spots it may be unlikely but it's worth having a look just to be sure! 

I shall try and get some videos of my hamster scenting if you like and see if that helps? Bare with me whilst I trawl through my rather shameful amount of hamster footage...


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