i think you have shot yourself in the foot by using fur. usually its applied in composititng. I'm not sure if you know how to use shake or not, but if you dont and you just render out the fur and model from maya it will take a loooong time for a 1-2 min animation.

If it was me i would ditch the fur and work on the model more. A bald hamster could be very scary too

I know its late in the day for this, but its just a thought. It would save you so much bother towards the end of the project.

As for the fur issue, i think GecT was on the money when she said paint fur attributes.
could you show us the UV layout, because you need good UVs for fur.