Teddy bear hamster hair loss

Question
Hello,
I'm 13 years old, my name is Katrina, and I have a teddy bear hamster and she has been having hair loss behind her ears and I don't know if this is serious or not, and when I clean out the cage I notice on the wheel in the cage there is hair around the center of the wheel, I don't know if I should remove the wheel for a while to see if the wheel is the problem like maybe it is pulling out the fur or if I shouldn't remove the wheel because that is how she gets her exersize when i'm not home to take her out and play. I'm very scared because I don't know if this is hurting her. I have carefresh bedding and bottled water for her drink and her food is Forti-Diet. Another problem is I can't tell if my hamster is a boy or girl. When I take her out and check sometimes I think I see male parts and other times it isn't there. I'm very sorry if I have to many questions i'm just a worried owner is all. Please get back to me as soon as possible i'm very worried.
Thank you,
Katrina

Answer
Hi Katrina

thanks for your question.

Firstly, what type of wheel do you have?  Some wheels are quite small and a fully grown Syrian barely fits in them.  If you have the standard small wheel I would suggest you change this for a large wheel - this might help.  I have had some longhaired hamsters who have had their fur caught in the wheel, and I have ended up finding a different wheel that doesn't have the mechanism in the centre so they can't get caught up.  Losing some fur isn't a problem but you don't want her trapped in her wheel.

Hamsters do often rub themselves against toys etc. and it could be that she is doing this.  

Does she have an exercise ball to run in?  if not, I would suggest you getting one for her.  make sure you tape over any joins in the ball as they do have a habit of opening if they bang into furniture and some hamsters try to escape.  My hamsters all have a run in their ball in the evenings for about 30 minutes and seem to really enjoy this.  

In terms of sexing her - males are usually pretty easy to sex, especially in the warmer weather as their testicles can be quite prominent.  Females tend to have a more rounded rear end.  If you go onto You Tube there are some videos on how to sex hamsters which might help you, or you can send a photo to me and I'll see if I can identify the sex from that but trying to take a photograph might be tricky.

I hope this helps you.

Regards
Sheila