Dwarf hamster, about a year. I leaned in while he was asleep in the afternoon and heard tiny squeaks, and his paws were twitching with them. It was sort of adorable and sort of alarming.
He is normal at night: running, eating, rearranging everything. But I now cannot tell whether what I heard was him dreaming or him breathing badly, and I do not know what the difference sounds like.
The difference is rhythm, and once you know to listen for it you cannot unhear it. Occasional squeaks with twitching paws, scattered and random, is dreaming. Plenty of mammals twitch and vocalise in deep sleep and hamsters are no exception.
A respiratory noise is attached to breathing. Click, click, click, one per breath, regular, going on as long as he is breathing. That is a different sound and it is the one that matters.
It was definitely scattered rather than regular. Is there anything else I should check to be sure?
Record it on your phone next time. Much easier to judge on playback than live with your ear next to a cage, and if you ever do need a vet it saves you describing a noise. Watch his chest on the video and see whether the sound lines up with the movement.
He is nocturnal, so a squeak at you in the afternoon may just be a hamster being woken up and resenting it.
The list that would make me go now rather than watch: sneezing, a runny nose or crusty eyes, breathing with his mouth open or with visible effort, sitting hunched with his fur puffed, eating less, weight dropping.
Respiratory infections are one of the more common serious illnesses in pet hamsters and they move fast in an animal that size, so with those it is an exotics vet promptly rather than at the weekend. Yours running and eating and rearranging at night is the opposite picture.
@dust_extracted · 2w ago
Worth auditing the cage even with a healthy hamster, because a lot of breathing irritation starts there. Dusty or scented bedding is the main one, so dust-extracted unscented paper. Cedar and pine shavings are widely advised against for small rodents because of the aromatic oils.
Then ammonia from the pee corner, which needs spot-cleaning more often than the rest of the cage, and anything scented in the room: air freshener, candles, cleaning spray.
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