My 6 month old hamster won't drink

[huckleberry]

My 6 month old hamster had some sort of accident 3 weeks ago with his mouth bleeding. It recovered quickly and eats normally but won't drink water at all. We even changed his bottle. We tried to wet his mouth with water from a spoon and he turns away. We feed him cucumbers and apples to keep him hydrated since the accident. Anyone with similar experience or help?

thank you

[Crystalroborovski]

How do you know he isn't drinking from his bottle? Hamsters don't drink very much, and sometimes we can't tell if the water in their water bottle has gone down. To monitor if my hams are drinking, I like to stick a piece of scotch tape colored with a non toxic marker on my bottle at the top of the water level. Have you been checking the water bottle spout to see if it's working? Sometimes water bottles can malfunction and stop working.

My hamsters couldn't figure out how to drink from their water bottle so I put a tiny bit of peanut butter on the spout (not the ball part. It will get rolled into the inside of the spout and grow bacteria). This attracted my hamsters because they could smell it, so they licked it and licked the water on the metal ball as well. Maybe if you use this method it could get your ham to drink again.

A simple way to do a dehydration test is to pinch the skin on your hamster's scruff (on his back, where his neck should be). If the skin just snaps back into place he isn't dehydrated but if it stays up and takes awhile to go back into place he is really dehydrated. If he was dehydrated it would be a good idea to get him to a vet where they will administer IV fluids to get him dehydrated.

If he still isn't drinking consult an exotic vet. Good luck, if you have any more questions just ask

[cypher]

Are you sure he's not drinking at all? Best way is to actually weigh the bottle before putting it in then again after 24 hrs to see what the difference is.
If he really isn't drinking at all then I would take him to the vet & get his mouth checked out, meanwhile you could try offering a small shallow bowl & see if he will drink from that.

[Hamsterita]

MmmmmMmm I've never heard of the dehydration test. Thanks Crystal! That's very interesting!

As Cypher and Crystal told you, hamsters don't drink very much, so sometimes it's hard to tell if they're drinking or not, but if he isn't drinking you should go with him to the vet and figure out why

[Thin Lizzy]

Mine doesn't drink much either because he gets various veggies everyday. You could put in a slice of cucumber or apple.