As a hamster owner, you may be worried if your hamster has red eyes. In this blog post, let’s find out why a hamster has red eyes, the health concerns associated with red eyes, and how to care for a hamster with red eyes properly.
Reasons behind hamsters’ red eyes
1. Injury
Injury is one of the most common reasons a hamster’s eyes suddenly turn red. Hamsters have poor eyesight. They can only see a couple of inches past their nose. So, your hamster can injure his eye if he bumps against any object or wall. If that happens, his eye might become red and even bulge, depending on the severity of the injury. At times, blood might even ooze out of his eyes.
Injury can also occur if you house multiple hamsters and they fight amongst each other.
What should you do?
If your hamster’s eyes suddenly become red, you can monitor your hamster for a day or two. If the redness disappears on its own, you don’t have anything to worry about. However, if your hamster’s eyes start to swell or if blood starts to ooze out of his eyes, you should immediately take him to a vet. The vet might prescribe a steroid drop. Eventually, the swelling will go away, and the blood might also get reabsorbed (Source: Hamster Central).
If you have multiple hamsters and notice one of them getting beaten up or abused, separate that hamster and put him in a different cage.
2. Allergy or Irritation
If your hamster roams freely in your house and if your house is not clean, he might get dust irritation. Dust irritation can also be caused by some types of bedding. If that’s the case, your hamster might scratch his eyes due to the irritation, causing it to become red.
What should you do?
If you suspect that your hamster is allergic to bedding, try changing to a different bedding and observe your hamster’s health condition and behavior over the next few weeks. Does his eye become normal again? Does his scratching reduce?
I had the same experience. When I first brought my hamster home from the pet shop, I had highly absorbent wooden bedding as the bottom layer and Linen bedding as the upper layer of bedding. But Linen was too costly. So, one month later, I bought hay, which was very cheap. Around the same time, I stopped keeping hamster food in the food bowl and instead started sprinkling the food around the cage.
Hay was very dusty. So, my hamster Hum (That’s how we call him. ‘Hum’ means ‘I am a part of the ultimate being or the entire universe’ in Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages in the world) started sneezing a lot and also started scratching himself a lot. That’s the first time he got red eyes.
However, the redness went away within a day or two.
So, eventually, I replaced the hay bedding with Linen bedding and also started keeping the food in the food bowl again. Now, my hamster sneezes and scratches himself only occasionally. The redness (in his eyes) still comes and goes, but not as frequently as before. I think there is some other reason behind the redness. I will have to research about it more.
08.09.2023 – I finally found out why my hamster’s eye (only the right eye) appears red at times. It wasn’t because of the bedding or injury. It was because of my hamster’s genetics, which makes his eyes appear red in bright light (at a certain angle). Now, I can finally stop worrying about him because it is only normal for a hamster to have red eyes (because of genetics).
But if your hamster’s eyes weren’t red all the time but suddenly became red, and you suspect that your hamster gets irritated by the dust in the bedding, try changing the bedding. Paper-based bedding is the optimal solution in this case.
When your hamster forages for food, the small pieces of bedding (at least in the Linen bedding I use) might irritate him. So, if you are sprinkling the food around the cage, stop it and instead start keeping the food in your hamster’s food bowl or only in specific places. This might reduce your hamster’s allergy and dust irritation significantly. It reduced my hamster’s sneezing and scratching tremendously.
3. Infection
Infection can also be the reason behind a hamster’s red eyes.
Hamsters love to bathe in sand. When a tiny particle of sand gets into a hamster’s eye, he might start scratching it due to the resulting itching. Then, his eye can get injured, and due to the injury, harmful pathogens can easily enter his eye and infect it, making it appear red.
Injury and constant scratching of the eye can also cause corneal ulcers, which can make the eye appear red.
An unhygienic cage can also house harmful pathogens that may enter your hamster’s eyes and infect them.
If your hamster’s eye is infected, you may be able to notice some of the below symptoms as well:
- Bulging eyes
- Sticky eyes
- Watery eyes
- Pus (Green or Yellow in color) oozing out of the eyes
- Hamster scratching his eyes or pawing at his face constantly
What should you do?
If you notice any of these symptoms, take your hamster to a veterinary doctor as soon as possible. The vet will first clean the infection. Then, they may prescribe antibiotics or some other oral medication. In case of ulcers, the vet might prescribe eye drops or ointment.
4. Genetics
Some hamsters may have red eyes because of a genetic mutation passed on from their parents. A mutation is a change in the DNA sequence of an organism that can be passed down through generations. For more information, read my blog post on hamster genetics.
This particular genetic mutation affects the amount of melanin in a hamster’s body. Melanin is the dark brown to black pigment that gives color to the skin, hair, and eyes of humans and other animals. So, without enough melanin to give their eyes the black color, the underlying blood vessels become visible, making a hamster’s eyes appear red or pink. Due to the lack of melanin, their fur may appear white too.
What should you do?
If your hamster has red eyes due to his genes, you should care for him the same as you would have cared for an ordinary hamster. However, red-eyed hamsters are prone to certain health issues. So they may need extra care. Keep reading to find out what these health issues are and how to take care of your red-eyed hamster properly.
More about hamsters with red eyes
Just as in humans, there are people with brown iris and those with blue iris; there are also hamsters with red eyes. Other than the fact that red-eyed hamsters may have decreased vision, their health is not affected in any other way.
Where do red-eyed hamsters come from?
A hamster’s natural eye color is determined by his genes. It can vary from black to brown to red.
Black is the most common eye color in the wild. Some wild hamsters do have red eyes (due to the presence of a particular gene). But the chances of such a mutation naturally occurring are very rare.
Red eyes in hamsters are more often the result of a mutation passed down due to breeding in captivity.
As explained above, red-eyed hamsters do not have red eyes; they have transparent eyes, which makes the blood vessels in the eyes visible, giving their eyes the red-colored appearance.
There are different types of red-eyed hamsters:
1. Albino hamsters – Hamsters that have red eyes, white coats, and pale skin due to the presence of the albino gene. These hamsters are called albino hamsters. The albino gene occurs only in one type of hamster – The Campbell’s dwarf hamster. It cannot be found in other dwarf hamster species or Syrian hamsters. Albinism in hamsters affects their survival in the wild. They are completely white. Their white color stands out against the background, which makes them easy targets for predators.
2. Red-eyed hamsters – Hamsters whose eyes are red all the time. They may have white coats.
3. Black-eyed hamsters with a red tint – Hamsters whose eyes are black with a ruby or reddish pink tint in their eyes. Their eyes appear black in normal light. The reddish tint is only visible in bright light (white light). However, the tint darkens with age and will be visible even under normal light when the hamster gets old. I think my hamster belongs to this category.
4. Heterochromia – Hamsters with a rare genetic condition where one eye is black and the other is red or ruby (Source: Pet Keen).
How are red-eyed hamsters different from normal hamsters?
As you already know, red-eyed hamsters have red eyes and white fur. But do you know what health effects this can lead to?
Health problems of red-eyed hamsters
Eyesight
Some red-eyed hamsters may have poor eyesight due to the lack of melanin, i.e., their vision may be blurred (they see less sharply) when compared to hamsters with black eyes.
Black eyes can absorb the light entering the eye more efficiently. So, the light entering the eyes has more chances of getting focused on the best spot for viewing.
However, red-eyed hamsters have transparent eyes. So, the light entering the eyes gets scattered. Hence, it cannot be focused on as efficiently. Therefore, hamsters with red eyes may have poor vision.
Moreover, red-eyed hamsters may take more time to adjust to the dark.
However, this is not a big problem for hamsters because, unlike humans, hamsters don’t rely on their eyesight that much.
Also read:
How good is a hamster’s vision?
How good is a hamster’s sense of smell?
Are hamsters sensitive to sound?
So, even if a hamster’s eyesight worsens, it won’t affect his lifestyle much. However, he might bump into things more often. If that happens, you must change the cage a little bit. Remove sharp, pointed objects from the cage. Also, remove elevated platforms from which your hamster may fall down.
Opt for soft bedding like paper bedding.
Keep enough toys in the cage, as your hamster will need additional stimulation to help him with his vision.
However, even after you take the above-mentioned measures, if your hamster still acts too clumsy, take him to a vet.
Skin & Fur
Besides vision problems, red-eyed hamsters may also be more prone to skin diseases due to the lack of melanin.
So, look for any signs of irritation or infection, such as rashes and bald patches on the fur. If any such symptoms appear, take your hamster to a vet.
Perils of red-eyed hamsters
Red-eyed hamsters are not evil or a symbol of bad luck. Neither do they have extreme health problems that impact their lifespan significantly. Yet, red-eyed hamsters are often wrongly considered aggressive. So, people aren’t as willing to adopt a red-eyed hamster as a black-eyed hamster. So, they take longer to find a home, which is a sad reality that these poor creatures face (Source: Hamster Info Ireland).
For this reason, many ethical breeders choose to avoid breeding hamsters with red eyes.
What are albino hamsters?
Albino hamsters have a gene that makes them totally incapable of making any pigment because they lack an essential enzyme. So, their eyes are red in color (actually transparent), their fur is completely white, and their skin is pale.
This is called true albinism and has been observed only in Campbell’s dwarf hamsters.
If you find a Winter White hamster with red eyes, then it is a result of an unethical crossbreeding somewhere in its lineage because Winter White hamsters do not have red eyes in the wild.
Are all red-eyed hamsters albino hamsters?
No. Albino hamsters have red eyes, but that doesn’t make all red-eyed hamsters albino hamsters. What makes a hamster truly albino is the presence of the albino gene and not just the presence of red eyes.
FAQ
Are hamsters with red eyes blind?
As explained above, hamsters with red eyes have poor eyesight, but they are not blind. However, some red-eyed hamsters, to be more specific, Anopthalmic white hamsters (these hamsters are born deaf and without any eyes due to a wrong genetic pairing – more details about it in my blog post about albino hamsters), are blind.
Are hamsters with red eyes evil?
No, hamsters with red eyes are not evil. Due to the movies about vampires and Dracula, we come to associate red eyes with evil. However, even though hamsters with red eyes (if it is due to genetics) may look different, they can lead normal lives (except Anopthalmic white hamsters – they live only for nine months) and can develop good bonds with their owners.
