Panda hamster overactivity

Question
We have a panda hamster who's a year and a half old. He lives alone in a large tank with the extra-story cage mounted on top -- plenty of climbing opportunities and lots of ventilation. However, for the past week he's been emerging at night and runs endlessly around his house, and we're fairly certain he's losing weight as a result. This is the first time he's ever displayed this behavior, with no changes in routine whatsoever. What in the world?

Answer
Hi Alejandro

This is a real mystery!  I honestly don't know why your hamster is behaving like this.  Logically, hamsters of this age tend to start slowing down a bit.

Apart from this, how is he?  Is he eating the same as usual?  Has there been any change at all? Are you feeding him the same food?  When he runs round, is he just being busy or is he in a real panic?  Sometimes they can get very panicky and run around a lot, but I've only really seen this in younger ones who have slightly hyper personalities from the start, and definitely not in an older hamster.  Has anything changed in his cage, or cage location that might have stressed him?

In relation to humans who suddenly become very energetic, this is often down to over active thyroid or some other medical condition.  

I'm sorry I can't shed any light on this.  I will ask around and see if anyone else has come across this type of behavior before and will get back to you if I discover anything.

Regards