Hamster with wet fur

Question
My son's hamster has had wet fur for the past couple of days. She has taken to sleeping in a small plastic enclosure in her habitrail cage set up. The thing has condensation all over the inside and the hamster's fur is wet. The temp where she is kept is about 22C (72F) with heat coming from a woodstove in the same room. She does not appear sick - nose eyes and ears are all clear and she has no signs of wet tail at all. She is eating, drinking, going to the bathroom and playing as normal. If it normal for a hamster to be this hot that she could produce this kind of condensation? I have been moving her bedding to another spot and changing it every day but she just hauls it through the tubes and goes back to her bed. Is this normal? I would think that if she was hot she would go to another area of the cage but I don't know if hamsters are that smart :)  

Answer
Hi Liz,

This is a fairly common problem; hamsters like to sleep in small, enclosed spaces, and oftentimes these enclosed spaces don't have enough ventilation, especially if they're plastic like Habitrail cages.  Humid enclosed spaces aren't good for hamsters.  If it's possible, remove the small enclosure, or block it off.  Or, you can poke plenty of small holes into the top of the enclosure, to allow for more ventilation.  I've had to do this before, as sometimes the plastic enclosures just don't have enough ventilation.  Adding more ventilation by poking holes is a good, effective solution, providing you don't make the holes too big.  Also, make sure there are no jagged edges around the holes.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Kelly