Hamster with a bald nose

My children's' nursery have a couple of hamsters. They used to get on okay, but boys will be boys, and now they have to be separated. The staff were concerned as one of them has developed a bald patch just behind his nose. With small kids in the nursery, it's very important to keep an eye out for anything that could be contagious.

Hamsters are still a bit of a novelty for me, as they aren't kept as pets in NZ, where I'm from, but this is quite a common problem so I was able to reassure the nursery that it wasn't anything nasty.

Hammy is kept in a wire cage and spends a fair amount of time trying to chew his way out. In doing so, he rubs against the bars and so has worn some fur away.

I advised them to put a few more cardboard boxes and tubes in his cage for him to chew and destroy and hopefully he'll cease his nose-rubbing & allow the fur to grow back.