Can hamsters be allergic to stuff?

Question

My hammie has these sudden fits where she would hiccup or sneeze repeatedly! It happens like once every few hours. When she has them, it's really scary because her entire body would jump up and down..Is she allergic or sick? I'm scared she might die! She's only 1 year old..Has anyone else had a hamster who had these kind of sneezing or hiccuping fits?

Answer 1

When I changed my hamsters bedding to carefresh they started to sneeze alot so I cleaned their cage and switched to aspen bedding and just to be sure I gave them cod liver oil on some bread in case it was a cold.  If you have changed anything in their enviroment lately try changing it back and see if that helps if not consut a vet.

Answer 2

if its that bad and your worried take it the vets even if it turns out to be nothing at least you can relax and now its fine but i would try cangeing it bedding first see if that helps but if its the same bedding you have always used and its not sufferd from it before vets is the best.

Answer 3

Hamsters can get colds, and deaseas from humans as its been said... You hamster may be alerigic to anything hanging around your room, eg) Deodrant, spray or anything which is very strong. Hiccups are to do with his/her envirment, or tyhe erea again, so maybe use whatever ur using that making ur hamster sneeze and hiccup somewhere else. somties its to do with fleez

Answer 4

Yes it can beallergic to things or may be because if the bedding pine and cedar are the worst gool luck with your hamster!

Answer 5

Syrian Hamster

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Syrian or Golden Hamster



Conservation status

Endangered (IUCN 2.3)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia



Phylum: Chordata



Subphylum: Vertebrata



Class: Mammalia



Order: Rodentia



Suborder: Myomorpha



Superfamily: Muroidea



Family: Cricetidae



Subfamily: Cricetinae



Genus: Mesocricetus



Species: M. auratus





Binomial name

Mesocricetus auratus

Waterhouse, 1839

The Syrian Hamster or Golden Hamster, Mesocricetus auratus, is the best known member of the rodent subfamily Cricetinae, the hamsters. In the wild they are now considered endangered,[1] but are popular as housepets and scientific research animals. Adults grow from 5 to 7 inches (12.5 to 17.5 cm) in length, and will usually have a lifespan of 2 to 3 years.

Contents [hide]

1 Biology

2 Discovery

3 Surviving in the wild

4 See also

5 References

6 External links



[edit] Biology



Syrian hamsterLike most members of the subfamily, the Syrian Hamster has expandable cheek pouches, which extend from its cheeks to its shoulders. In the wild, hamsters are larder hoarders; they use their cheek pouches to transport food to their burrows. Their name in the local Arabic dialect where they were found translates to "father of saddlebags" due to the remarkable amount of storage space in their cheek pouches. If food is plentiful, they will store it in large amounts--it has been reported that 25 kg of grain was found in the burrow of a single hamster.



Sable coloured Syrian hamster filling cheek pouchesSexually mature female hamsters come into season (oestrus) every four days. Putting a male and female hamster together when the female is not in heat may result in the female attacking the male. Yet even if in heat, the female may still attack. Syrian Hamsters have the shortest gestation period in any known placental mammal at only 16 to 18 days. They can produce large litters of 20 or more young, although the average litter size is 8. If a mother hamster is inexperienced or feels threatened, she may abandon or even cannibalise her pups. It is inadvisable for inexperienced owners to breed them.

Experts advise that syrians should not be kept together. They are extremely territorial and will attack any other hamsters. This rule does not apply when a female and male are put together when the female is in heat. Brothers, sisters, mother and babies, etc. are included. Babies must be separated from mother after 4 weeks, all babies can be housed together for 3 weeks, until sexually mature. Never breed siblings or any family members together, because this will result in inbreeding although it is argued that all syrian hamsters are already inbred as they are descended from just a few individuals.



A male "Teddy Bear" Hamster

A young Golden Banded Hamster explores a cardboard boxMost hamsters in American and British pet stores are Syrian Hamsters. Originally, Syrian Hamsters came in just one color — the mixture of brown, black, and gold which gave them their "Golden" name — but they have since developed a myriad of color mutations such as cream, white, blonde, banded, tortoiseshell, calico, and sable. Therefore in pet stores today, Golden Hamster is only used to label the original coloration (also known as agouti). Other-colored short-hairs are banded under the label Fancy Hamster. Teddy Bear is a term used to describe the long-haired variety of the Syrian Hamster, named so for their remarkable resemblance to toy teddy bears. They are also sometimes known as "angora hamsters". The fur on a long-haired hamster is thick and fluffy, like a cotton wool, rather than the velvety feel of short-haired fur. For this reason, people who are not allergic to short-haired hamsters can be allergic to long-hairs. Male teddy bear hamsters usually have much longer fur than the female variety, culminating in a "skirt" of longer fur around their backsides. Black Bears are a recent off-shoot of teddy bear hamsters (mutation discovered in 1985), with their major difference being their black-colored fur. It can be argued that black bears are just black teddy bears rather than their own breed; on the other hand, black bears were originally selectively bred for their larger size and more docile nature as well as their color. However, in current stock, this may or may not still be the case.



A pet Syrian hamster, banded CreamSyrian Hamsters are wildly popular as housepets due to their docile, inquisitive natures and small size. They are popular as "first pets" for young children, as well as being classroom animals, because of their hardiness and relative ease of care. Some pet owners find them more attractive in relation to rats and other rodents due to their lack of visible tails. Syrian Hamsters are notoriously territorial, however. Even tame Syrian Hamsters will frequently attack and, indeed, kill, other adult hamsters. When kept as pets, Syrians must be housed in single s*x groups after the age of six weeks, and housed individually by the time they are ten weeks old.

Syrian Hamsters have also been used in scientific research — in the study of many diseases, as well as in the study of behaviour and chronobiology (circadian rhythms). They have a number of fixed action patterns that are readily observed, including scent-marking. They are particularly used in airway and respiratory physiology research. Additionally, because captive Syrian hamsters are highly inbred, being descended from only a few captured individuals (see "Discovery" below), they have a high incidence of a genetic heart condition causing dilated cardiomyopathy. Several inbred strains of hamsters have been developed as animal models for human forms of dilated cardiomyopathy. The gene responsible for hamster cardiomyopathy in a widely studied inbred hamster strain, BIO14.6, has been identified as being delta-sarcoglycan.[2] Pet hamsters are also potentially prone to cardiomyopathy, which is a not infrequent cause of unexpected sudden death in adolescent or young adult hamsters.

Studies of animal welfare concerning captive Syrian hamsters have shown that they like to use running wheels of large diameters, and that they prefer bedding material which allows them to build nests.

[edit] Discovery



Red-Eyed White hamsterIn 1839 British zoologist George Robert Waterhouse reportedly found an elderly female hamster in Syria, naming it Cricetus auratus, the Golden Hamster. The hamster's fur was on display at the British Museum (Natural History). The Syrian Hamster was then ignored by European science for the next century.

In 1930, Israel Aharoni, a Jewish zoologist and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, captured a mother hamster and her litter of pups in Aleppo, Syria. The hamsters were bred in Jerusalem as laboratory animals. Some escaped from the cage through a hole in the floor, so that most of the Syrian hamsters in Israel today are believed to be descended from this litter.[3] Because they were bigger than the ones Waterhouse found, they were named Mesocricetus auratus. Mesocricetus auratus is the currently accepted scientific name of the Syrian Hamster.

Descendants of these hamsters were shipped to scientific labs around the world for use as research animals. They arrived in the United Kingdom in 1931, and reached the United States in 1938. Soon after their initial discovery, they were found to make great pets. Just about all captive Syrian Hamsters today are descended from the original litter found in Syria, except for a few that were brought into the United States by travellers who found them in the desert. A separate stock of hamsters was imported into the US in 1971, but it is not known if any of today's North American pets are descended from them. Recent genetic studies involving Mitochondrial DNA have confirmed that all domestic golden hamsters are descended from one female.[4]

[edit] Surviving in the wild

In the beginning of the 20th century, the Syrian golden hamster was considered to be virtually extinct in the wild by unknown reason until Professor Aharoni collected one female and her 12 broods in Aleppo, Syria.[5] After that some later sightings and captures were reported. Since the 1980s this species was not seen in the wild, until two expeditions were carried out during September 1997 and March 1999 to confirm the current existence of the wild golden hamster in northern Syria. The researchers mapped 30 burrows. None of the inhabited burrows contained more than one adult. They caught six females and seven males. One female was pregnant and gave birth to six pups. All these 19 caught wild golden hamsters, together with three wild individuals from the University of Aleppo, were shipped to Germany to form a new breeding stock.[6]

[edit] See also

Hamster

[edit] References

^ Baillie (1996). Mesocricetus auratus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 9 May 2006. Listed as Endangered (EN B1+2c v2.3)

^ Nigro V, Okazaki Y, Belsito A et al. Identification of the Syrian hamster cardiomyopathy gene. Human Molecular Genetics Vol. 6, 601-607, 1997. Link to abstract at [1]

^ :: Professor Paul's Lives of the Great Naturalists: Israel Aharoni

^ [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/03930201... The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry Bryan Sykes pages 58-62] ISBN 0393020185

^ Hochman B, Ferreira LM, Vilas Bôas FC, Mariano M. Experimental model in hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) to study heterologous graft of scars and cutaneous diseases in plastic surgery. Acta Cir Bras [serial online] 2004 Vol 19 Special Edition. Online pdf

^ Gattermann et al. 2001. Notes on the current distribution and the ecology of wild golden hamsters (Mesocrice

Answer 6

Yes. It might be your bedding... pine or cedar can do that.

Or it might have a respiratory infection.

Answer 7

yeah, hammies can b allergic to stuff, actually small animals have VERY sensitive respiratory systems. thats why you should NEVER use cedar or pine shavings for any small animal. if you must use wood chips, aspen is the safest rute but even then some hamsters are allergic. id suggest taking the hamster to the vet, just to be sure =]

Answer 8

Unfortunately, yes. Just like humans, Hamsters can be allergic to things or may suffer from diseases.

You hamster might be allergic to something. Might be the bedding, or the accessories, and sometimes it's food.

If it is sneezing too much, then give it some bread soaked with Cod liver oil (not too much though).

Clean the cage thoroughly and disinfect it...let it dry in the sun. The germs must be destroyed in order to prevent infection.

Your hammy may have respiratory problems, which is quite common among small rodents.

If your hamster looks sick, ain't eating right or perhaps just lying around more instead of exercising, or moving a lot, then it is advisable to consult your vet since it's life might be in danger.

Better take precaution. Perhaps call your vet if you need advice, because he can tell what's wrong.

Just treat your hammy like you'd treat your child and It'll be fine.

Yes, my hamsters used to do all that...but they are okay.

And if you keep them in your room, make sure they are placed far away from the Air Conditioner.

I wish you all the best with your hamster.

<:^_^:>

Have a Good Day!

Regards,

¸.•*´`*♥Shining Star♥*´`*•.

Answer 9

all animals can be allergic to things try changing her bedding , food and if that doesn't work take her to a vet

Answer 10

is like in people if sneezes could have a little cold or just allergies look for this signs:: .....Respiratory Infection: Respiratory infections can lead to pneumonia. You should watch for sneezing, discharge from eyes or nose, wheezing and labored breathing. Don't worry about occasional sneezing unless there is loss of appetite, decreased activity, wheezing or difficulties breathing. or

Allergies:Hamster can becomeallergic to bedding ,some foods,cigarrette smoke,furniture polish,perfumes etc...more..

http://www.hamsterific.com/IllnessGuide....

Answer 11

Hiccups and sneezing once in a while are normal but if your hamster is sneezing repeatedly with heavy shaking of her body, then you should take her to the vet immediately. She could be having a flu or respiratory infection which should be treated as quickly as possible or it would affect her health even more.

Also rule out the following -

Check to be sure you are not using pine or cedar shavings as the bedding in cage

Check to ensure that the cage is not near open windows or any areas where sudden drafts of wind and air can flow through the cage

Some things which hamsters are allergic to are -

Cedar Shavings

Pine shavings

Certain foods such as oats, corn and maize in the diet