Need help!

[kazsiane]

Hi, i need help. My winter white is getting thinner.. I dont see him eating anymore. He refuses to eat too even if I try to feed him myself. His food includes sunflower seeds, corn, pellets. I dont know what to do. I dont know what else i can feed him. Whats wrong with him? His coat is also not as shiny as before. But i dont think he lacks energy cuz he still runs around. I need help bad. Thanks for responding guys.

[peasypea]

Have you tried different foods? I know lots of people recommend scrambled egg, plain chicken, baby food, porridge etc as an alternative - might be worth trying him on a few different things.

Are you absolutely sure he isn't eating? He might just not eat in front of you. My hamster takes everything into her 'bedroom' and only eats it during the daytime when she wakes up, I hear her nibbling during the day in her house sometimes.

How old is he? Lots of other users here use the foods I listed above for older hams. It is probably also worth having a look at his teeth because if they are overgrown he will struggle to eat. I would definitely try him on some of those softer foods I mentioned above, or even cheese as that is high in fat and he may like that.

Hope that helps a bit, let us know how you get on

[cypher]

I just checked out your other thread & I'm assuming this is the same ham you've only had a few weeks?
He may still be settling in so not eating when you're around just yet, can you tell if any food has gone or been hoarded somewhere?
Are you feeding the same food as he has before you got him? If you change the food it can take a while for them to adjust.
When you say he's getting thinner have you weighed him or are you going by how he looks?
It's always worth checking their teeth regularly to make sure there are no problems as some can have problems even from a very young age & need their teeth clipped at the vet.
If he really isn't eating offering soft foods is a good idea but only as a temporary measure, he will need to eat his normal foods long term so if you are really worried & don't know for sure what the problem is it would be worth getting a vet to check him out.

[Pebbles82]

If he's not an old hamster then getting thin isn't so good. Are you using a hamster food mix or just giving him the ingredients? I think most dwarf hamster owners recommend using a specific dwarf hamster mix, but also a lot of us supplement our hammies diets as well - I give a bit of fresh veg every day (thumbnail sized piece) - either broccoli, carrot, cauliflower or cucumber I tend to use, and try and do a different one each day for variety/balance. I also give him an 'extra' each day varying between a piece of cheese, half a brazil nut, a healthy hamster treat, a monkey nut. Again thumbnail sized pieces. And he always has a healthy chew stick to gnaw on (I get the Rosewood herbal ones).

They nearly always eat fresh food, and sometimes straight away rather than hoarding it, as it's tasty! So you could try, as the others say, giving a bit of cooked porridge or scrambled egg on the end of a teaspoon - he'll eat it off the teaspoon if you hold it out. And a bit of fresh chicken (if you're having it yourself) but plain cooked, not gravy or sauces etc.

As Cypher says it might be worth a vet check - especially if he's not interested in the fresh food. It is common to not see them eating (ours takes everything to his house and eats it there usually, and normally at night) but if he's getting thin it needs keeping an eye on over the next couple of days. He doesn't sound like he is acting unwell though, so it could just be a case of tempting him with the right food and using a good hamster mix.

You did say he won't eat even if you feed him yourself. Do you mean he won't eat from your hand or he won't eat off a teaspoon? Ours sometimes won't take something from my hand but will eat it if it's put down near him! Which country are you from? So we can recommend good hamster mixes. I think Harry or Hazel Hamster is sold in most places and you can't go wrong with that, plus hams usually like it.

[racinghamster]

It would help to say where you are (UK)? The foods available are hit and miss depending on where you are located, but you want to be feeding a dwarf hamster a seed mix that has millet seeds like Burgess Dwarf food. If you can access Zooplus and can afford to spend £15 a time to qualify for their courier delivery at around £2.99p, you could order four bags of their JR Farm Dwarf hamster food as it`s a good one and full of variety.

Some hamster foods have extruded biscuits which usually require breaking up or the hamster won`t nibble on them. Many don`t eat them anyway as they are poor nutritionally and have raising agents in them and little else. Use a pestle & mortar to break up anything large within the mix. If the mix is poor and only had three or four ingredients, look for a few you can combine to give your hamster the best variety.

Read through some of the forum threads regarding food and diet to get more feedback. Supreme Science Selective is also a nice complete food to have in. It is in biscuit form and is very useful for feeding on it`s own, combining or softening. x

[Bertiebobbins]

I agree weighing is the best way to see if they actually are losing weight or just growing - they tend to grow longer then fatter in my experience. I kept track of my baby ham's weight each week so I knew he was gaining weight even if sometimes he looked thinner because he had a growth spurt. Now he's pretty much done growing he's chubbed out and looks like a little pudding!

It's totally normal for a ham not to want to eat in front of you, even if they know you well - mine are totally tame but they still prefer to eat their pickings in their nests, and actually they do this more with the food they like the most I.e. The odd treat, their morning porridge, chicken or scrambled egg if they're having some, and their evening veg. Their mix they don't tend to hoard or they treat the bowl as their hoard and don't really move the contents about the cage much.

[cypher]

RH where did you get the bit about biscuit bits in mixes being nutritionally poor? Isn't your favourite science selective a biscuit?! They often contain healthy ingredients & are sometimes used to put the vitamins in the mix. I find the grass pellets tend to get ignored if they're in a mix but nothing in the mix should be considered unessential really as without it you have no idea what the actual GA will be.
I do agree that some need a bit of breaking up sometimes though to encourage smaller hams to eat them.