Sudden biting

[Dominika]

I have had my hamster (female) since 4 months now (she is 5-mo), and she has been super sociable since the beginning, climbing on my hand, eating food directly from there...
But a couple of weeks ago she started to bite me while outside of the cage. This has happened I think mainly when I have actually gave her food when outside (cuz I let her out often). She would turn and bite my legs or anything she could reach.
It is true that a week prior to this I have done a complete cage cleanup and she got visibly stressed. I have cleaned all bedding, reordered the cage and cleaned her food hoard from her poo (but put the hoard back where I found it). I normally just do spot cleaning, but I felt we needed a full cleanup this time.
PS:
I thing everything else should be ok. She does not seem ill, has a huge cage with a lot of bedding, hideouts, varied food...

Any ideas on what this could be and what can I do?
Thank you!!!

 

[Maz]

Hello and welcome What is your hamster's name and is she a Syrian or dwarf hamster? I'm sorry she's biting you and yes it does sound like the cage clean has caused this and she is either stressed or punishing you for being a thief! They do get really upset and stressed if it's a fairly big clean out, especially if it involves removing their hoard and removing all her scent (all new bedding). Yes sometimes they are ready for a bit of a proper clean out, but depending what kind of enclosure/cage you have and how much bedding, there are "partial clean" methods that can work well and avoid them getting stressed. Most of the time you can just "spot clean" - it's only really their pee that's unhygienic and poops can be spot cleaned out if they start taking over.

If she pees in her nest (which young hamsters sometimes do for a while but usually grow out of it quite quickly) and pees on her hoard, then yes you do need to remove it and replace it (which is usually when they learn not to pee in it!). I tend to try and leave a little bit of old nesting material behind that's dry, even if a bit whiffy and try and leave a little bit of old hoard behind as well. And then add a handful of new food to replace the hoard. They seem to accept that better if you put some food back!

There's a cage cleaning tips article on the home page that might be helpful I tend to spot clean mostly and then after a while do a "third" cage clean and just do one third of the cage, replacing the bedding in that third. Even then I keep a bit of the old clean bedding back and spread it on top so it still smells familiar. That layer will get spot cleaned out eventually anyway.

Then they don't have a huge change and upheaval all at once.

Hamster cage cleaning

Tips on how to clean your hamster cage and avoid causing stress to your hamster. It's best to have plenty of depth of substrate and mainly spot clean your hamster cage. Avoid disturbing your hamster's nest and hoard.

www.thehamsterforum.com