You're right, Racing Hamster. It is possible for owners to test the urine. I test all of my Chinese each month for glucose, especially those who will have/have had children to try and eradicate diabetes from my breeding animals (I'll admit to being a teensy bit paranoid
I wouldn't put any pet Chinese through regular testing unless they showed symptoms). Apologies if my question wasn't clear but I was wondering why you suggested testing specifically for pH. In a potentially diabetic hamster I check the glucose (sugar) and also the ketones (the link I gave above gives information about how I interpret these two results). Sometimes my vet and I have found looking at protein and blood in the urine useful if kidney problems may be the cause of increased urination rather than diabetes but I don't recall any emphasis on pH
Different brands of urine test strips test different things, e.g. Diastix test only glucose, Ketostix test only ketones, Keto-diastix (the ones Snickers linked to) test ketones and glucose and Multistix test ketones, glucose, pH, protein, blood and others. All of these sticks are used in the same way (although it may take different lengths of time between dipping and reading the strip which is why it's important to read the packet).
I would also agree about not feeding any sugar to a dwarf, and I never have though I still have had diabetics. Diabetes in Chinese hamsters has been shown to be hereditary (there are some interesting research articles into this from the 1960s as Chinese hamsters were used as models for human diabetes) so this plays a part too.