I bought a hamster 8 days ago from pets at home he was fine for the first 5 days really happy and playfull. Since saturday he has completley wrecked his cage doesnt sleep in his bed but under his wheel with no bedding has kicked all his sawdust out of one half of his cage and been itching like crazy. Im really worried about him any advice please?

With regard to the itching, could be mites? You can get "spot on" drops from most pet shops (check they're the ones meant for hamsters though!) that will get rid of them if it is mites...

Some hamsters can be allergic to dusty bedding like woodshavings and carefresh etc. Maybe try him with ECO bedding which is 100% recycled cardboard with no dust. The only other problem I can think of is it may be mites. If so they can be gotten rid of by some small animal insecticidal shampoo which I have here at my rescue should you wish to borrow some. Just PM me

I bought a hamster 8 days ago from pets at home he was fine for the first 5 days really happy and playfull. Since saturday he has completley wrecked his cage doesnt sleep in his bed but under his wheel with no bedding has kicked all his sawdust out of one half of his cage and been itching like crazy. Im really worried about him any advice please?well before thinking about mites or anything else try getting rid of the sawdust wouldnt advise it any way use shredded papper and just put some tissue or sumat in for bedding see if that stops hammy icthing if not then you will need to take it a step further.

OOPS soz Lottie_s lol

You can also use some cat litters instead of sawdust. I use one for my rat as their noses are too sensitive for sawdust... it's mainly just the paper-based ones that you can use - look on the label to check they're suitable for small animals... some of Pets at Home own brand litters are suitable for rodents (but not rats), and also catolet which is the one I use for my rat..

My Russian dwarf had this same problem when i got him. tried the mite drops, wasnt that. i tried tea tree ointment on him nd that helped the sores but not the itching, i then just decided to change his bedding and just put him loads of toilet roll in he stopped itching after a day or two and now seems to be fine. so id change bedding first instead of buying treatments that may not be needed.