Teeth check and weight?

CCarriere · 10-15-2015, 01:41 PM

Hey everyone!

I am new to the forum.. waited quite awhile for the activation code.

Anyway, I have 5 hamsters. I actually have a blog about them.

www.hamstertales.blog.com.

Anyway, I know I need to check there teeth soon. Is there anyway of doing this properly? My hamsters are very tame, but I don't think they are tame enough to be flipped upside down and have my fingers touching there mouth! I was just wondering if I can get some advice on how to do the teeth check?

I am actually quite experienced with Hamster Behavior, just not health care.

I have 4 Syrians, and 1 dwarf.

I was also wondering about weight. I want to get a small scale and weigh them.. but I don't know how many ounzes Syrains and dwarfs are suppose to be to be considered healthy.

Any feedback about anything I asked would be good..

Thanks everyone!

cypher · 10-15-2015, 10:50 PM

Hi & welcome to the forum
Hamster weight varies a lot with all species so what you want to look for when weighing them is a steady weight unless they are still growing, you can often tell more just by look & feel if they are over or under weight, keeping a record of their weight is still a good idea as it can alert you to possible problems if it does change.
If you have a look through this thread it will give you an idea of how much other peoples hams weigh & just how much it varies!
Hamster weigh-in thread
I don't have any experience with syrians but with dwarfs the easiest way to check teeth is just to scruff them & then gently flip them onto their back so you can get a good look, done properly it shouldn't stress them out.
Hope that helps.

ETA I just had a quick look at your blog & wanted to say please be careful with a cat around your hams, having a cat in the same room as a ham in a cage can be very stressful for them but having the ham in an open playpen with the cat around is a huge risk.
We hear of so many accidents happening it really isn't worth that risk even if you believe your cat wouldn't hurt a fly, a cat is a predator & a ham is prey.

Bertiebobbins · 10-16-2015, 12:04 AM

I just read your blog too. You put two Syrians together to see what happened?! Wow.

virtualkeith · 10-16-2015, 01:44 AM

Hi CCarriere, It looks like you got some advise for checking teeth above. I got this scale from amazon. http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-D...+kitchen+scale

I weighed my hamster carrier, and weighed it again with him in it. I did it a few times and it seems accurate. The scale gives you the choice of grams or ounces.

CCarriere · 10-16-2015, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bertiebobbins

I just read your blog too. You put two Syrians together to see what happened?! Wow.

yes.. because I was on another forum on another site and people were telling me that if there siblings they can be together.. why do u think I went to another site and another forum such as this?

CCarriere · 10-16-2015, 04:12 PM

Thank you Cypher for answering my question.

I understand your concern.. but I assure you Pretty isn't a problem.

**DrKMcK** · 10-16-2015, 09:39 PM

Hello CCarriere. There are a number of scales you can ge. I personally like the one shown below. I found that my hams would scurry off the flat scale I had. And it fits dwarf and Syrian hams.

CCarriere · 10-17-2015, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrKMcK

Hello CCarriere. There are a number of scales you can ge. I personally like the one shown below. I found that my hams would scurry off the flat scale I had. And it fits dwarf and Syrian hams.

Oh my goodness! Look how cute those scales are! lol. Thank you so much.. I will defiantly look into those!