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Old 11-06-2019, 04:23 AM   #1
peridotgreen
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Default Syrian older hamster not eating much- Selective pellets reviews?

Hi all, my hamster is losing weight she is at 116g at the moment.

Iv'e bought some selective pellets as suggested by the research I found saying that they are good because you can mush them up, but also noticed on the front of the packet it says 'ideal for dwarf hamsters'
& on the back it says to give 10g for an adult hamster, would these measurements be the same as a Syrian? & are these pellets still suitable for syrians?
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Old 11-06-2019, 04:51 AM   #2
Shannonmcn
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Default Re: Syrian older hamster not eating much- Selective pellets reviews?

If your ham is losing weight I think you should give her as much as she'll eat really.

Is it the Supreme Science Selective you mean? It is suitable for all hamsters but a syrian will need more than a dwarf. Double it at a guess but in your case really, as much as she will eat.

The science selective has good nutritional levels in general but if you're wanting to put weight on her you'd be better focusing on high fat foods. More calories per gram. Nuts are a good one, they have protein too and most hams enjoy them. Pecans are the highest calorie nut and also delicious so try her with those? Cheese also has decent calories and protein.

Is she having problems with her teeth? Is that why you are wanting to make a pellet mash?
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Old 11-06-2019, 05:02 AM   #3
AprilPearl
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Default Re: Syrian older hamster not eating much- Selective pellets reviews?

Hi, I am going through the same thing with my hamster and thought I’d share what has helped me.

My hamster (Quigley) will be 2 years and 6 months old tomorrow. He used to be about 205g but over the past few months ago he has stopped eating his mix and dropped to 165g.

We found that he will still happily eat softer foods such as baby food and someone on here recommended crushing up his food and mixing it with water. This worked a treat! Quigley has Harry Hamster food and I have been crushing up a tablespoon of this with a pestle and mortar every day and mixing it with water. He has been enthusiastically eating this so that usually almost all of it gets eaten.

The Harry Hamster takes a bit of effort to crush up. You do need a pestle and mortar and you do have to remove the sweet corn, sunflower seeds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds before you start crushing as those won’t crush. I just give Quigley the seeds and peanuts whole as treats separately since he is still eating these (or at least he’s taking them).

I tried giving Quigley some of the science selective pellets crushed up with water. They are perfectly fine for Syrians. As for the portion sizes, I’d say that a tablespoon is right for a Syrian which is probably about 10g. I think people usually say to give a hamster a tablespoon of food every day regardless of what species they are or what food it is - dwarfs will just eat less of it.

Quigley didn’t like the selective science pellets much and left most of them even after I crushed them up and mixed them with water so I went back to the crushed up Harry Hamster which he eats almost all of.

I still give Quigley a tablespoon of uncrushed Harry Hamster every day in addition to the crushed up stuff and he is still mostly ignoring this but he does take some of it occasionally.

So, crushing up food and mixing with water to get a porridge like consistency is very useful. But if your hammie is anything like mine you may have better luck getting them to eat crushed up Harry Hamster.

You may also want to try giving your hamster some porridge oats mixed with water, some babyfood, some egg - soft foods like those.

Have you had your hamster’s teeth checked by a vet to see if they are overgrown? That can be a cause of them not eating. It wasn’t the problem in my hamster’s case though, so age is also a factor.

I’d also recommend weighing your hamster once a week if you don’t already - that way you can keep track of how she is doing. Since I have been getting more food into Quigley I can see that he’s managed to largely maintain his weight although unfortunately he has lost a little bit more recently so I need to keep an eye on that.

You’ll also want to make sure that your hamster’s teeth don’t end up over growing as a result of having softer foods. Make sure she has things to chew on such as whimzees and give her any hard foods which she will still eat such as peanuts, Brazil nuts, maybe even the occasional banana chip. Also don’t stop offering her uncrushed hamster food every day in addition to the mushed up stuff just in case she wants to take it.

ETA: has your hamster stopped eating her mix? If she has, then that’s probably why she’s losing weight and the above measures may help. But if she’s still eating her mix but is losing weight regardless there are probably deeper issues which simply crushing up her food isn’t going to help with.
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Last edited by AprilPearl; 11-06-2019 at 09:12 AM.
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Old 11-06-2019, 03:53 PM   #4
peridotgreen
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Default Re: Syrian older hamster not eating much- Selective pellets reviews?

I don't think there is anything wrong with her teeth as the vet has checked them before.

She has been having skin issues for awhile which caused her to bleed, so I am now having to apply gel to her skin twice a day.


I was also given Sulfatrim to help her skin.


Before the Sulfatrim she seemed to be going off her normal harry hamster mix and only selectively eating ( or atleast taking it) but i think sulfatrim made her weight issues worse so I have been advised to stop by the vet (i was going to stop anyway but wanted to make sure)

So now i'm debating wether or not to just stick to once at night to give her put on the gel, as I was having to wake her up in the morning to give the gel, im thinking that might not also be helping her weight issues due to stress etc
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Old 11-06-2019, 04:02 PM   #5
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Syrian older hamster not eating much- Selective pellets reviews?

I would keep giving the Harry Hamster and add a bit of Science Selective to it. Then if she's selective feeding a bit, she'll get all the nutrients needed from the science selective but still have variety and enjoy picking out the favourite bits. The sulfatrim may well have affected her appetite. To help with weight gain you could give her a nut 2 or 3 times a week as a treat - eg pecan nuts (shelled) are very high in healthy fats so help weight gain. Most nuts are but pecans have the highest. But I'd only give a pecan once a week and maybe half a brazil nut in between. (All shelled nuts I mean).

Hemp seeds can also help with weight gain and contain most vitamins and minerals needed. I put a little pinch of them on a separate dish and they get licked up - I think they taste a bit nutty. I got the Linwoods shelled hemp seeds from Holland and Barrett originally but got my last packet of hemp seeds from sainsburys (healthy food to put on hooman's cereals!).
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Old 11-06-2019, 04:15 PM   #6
peridotgreen
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Default Re: Syrian older hamster not eating much- Selective pellets reviews?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000 View Post
I would keep giving the Harry Hamster and add a bit of Science Selective to it. Then if she's selective feeding a bit, she'll get all the nutrients needed from the science selective but still have variety and enjoy picking out the favourite bits. The sulfatrim may well have affected her appetite. To help with weight gain you could give her a nut 2 or 3 times a week as a treat - eg pecan nuts (shelled) are very high in healthy fats so help weight gain. Most nuts are but pecans have the highest. But I'd only give a pecan once a week and maybe half a brazil nut in between. (All shelled nuts I mean).

Hemp seeds can also help with weight gain and contain most vitamins and minerals needed. I put a little pinch of them on a separate dish and they get licked up - I think they taste a bit nutty. I got the Linwoods shelled hemp seeds from Holland and Barrett originally but got my last packet of hemp seeds from sainsburys (healthy food to put on hooman's cereals!).

Wont shelled pecans be too tough for my hamster to crack into?

Ive also tryed her on dried mealworms (gross!) not sure shes too keen atm
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Old 11-06-2019, 06:19 PM   #7
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Syrian older hamster not eating much- Selective pellets reviews?

Sorry - by shelled I meant without shells
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