concern for mites in long haired syrian

after i had finished spot cleaning tiggers tonight and was just holding her i noticed a pretty large and quite dry patch behind both her ears.

I dont hold her very often therefore dont know how long its been there but i know last time i held her there was a little patch there but i didnt really think much of it.

It obviously could be something else (any ideas??) but my mind went straight to mites when i saw it because of how common it is in long haired hams - but its a little bit odd because theres no other patches on her that have abnormally short hair.

thoughts??

How old is she? With older hamsters that is sometimes the first sign of fur loss - behind the ears . It’s also maybe more visible on dark coloured hamsters.

she's only apx 9 months wich is more what leads me to think its perhaps more likely mites than age? She's my first long haired ham so im not all that experienced in fur loss though. Is there any other signs to be able to tell mites wise?

Generally it tends to be on the body area and sore skin from scratching as well as fur loss. I think I would just keep an eye on it and if it seems to have increased (the bald area) you could get a vet to do a skin scraping. That's the only way to tell really - they do a skin scraping and look under a microscope.

Fur loss can be for other reasons as well. Diet, hormones etc. What food mix is she on? Low protein diets can cause fur loss in younger hamsters.

Maz said:

Generally it tends to be on the body area and sore skin from scratching as well as fur loss. I think I would just keep an eye on it and if it seems to have increased (the bald area) you could get a vet to do a skin scraping. That's the only way to tell really - they do a skin scraping and look under a microscope.

Fur loss can be for other reasons as well. Diet, hormones etc. What food mix is she on? Low protein diets can cause fur loss in younger hamsters.

Click to expand...

She's on the little one Syrian mix. I think I'll just keep a close eye and if it continues to worsen I'll take her up to my local vets. thanks

Ok well the Little One is very low in protein. It is a good mix otherwise, but you need to supplement the protein. I think it only has about 13% protein and Syrians need 18% to 22% in their first year. You can easily supplement it though by giving some fresh food extras - eg chopped hard boiled egg a couple of times a week, a half walnut a couple of times a week and maybe freeze dried chicken bites. Another option is to give her 2 or 3 science selective pellets daily - separate from her Little One mix (so you can see she takes it) which contains everything needed and the correct protein levels. I would do a bit of both - a couple of science selective pellets daily, chopped hard boiled egg twice a week and half a walnut twice a week.

The other thing that is amazing for fur quality and growth is linseeds. If you give a pinch of those daily, on a separate little dish (eg a jar lid) she will lick them up. They really do work wonders with fur and usually within 2 weeks you will see a difference.

Personally I don't think it's mites and a protein and linseed increase will help her nutritional balance. In 2 or 3 weeks if it hasn't improved or has got worse and spread further, then you might want to check to see if she's got mites. But as it's just thinning behind her ears I suspect it's diet related personally.