I am so mad right now!
I bought Romeo a new, smaller sippy bottle a few Weeks ago. There was nothing wrong with the old one, it was just way too big for him and i was afraid it would fall in him.
I have had a sore throat for about a week now, so i haven't been able to handle him. Had noticed however that his food bowl didn't seem to empty at the same speed lately.
Yesterday i felt the penicillin had worked enough for me to handle him and he was BONY THIN!
I weighed him straight away, 115 grams! He is a small syrian, so his normal weight is 133 grams.
I couldn't even scruff him, couldn't get ahold og enough skin!
I checked his waterbottle to see if it could be a problem with that and once i pushed it he drank for 10 minutes!
My best bet is that there is a fault in the new bottle that makes it so that getting water out requires just slightly more pressured than a hamster can apply, but No problem for a human.
I have him a waterbowl last night and today he is at 120 grams! I am so furious right now! If i had the moment and the energy i would sue the company or something, but i'm just glad he survived!
Unfortunately dehydration is almost never expected,and you often don't notice until it's either very obvious or too late Luckily,however,it is a very simple condition to solve if you act quickly as you have and although it is a very serious problem it isn't an automatic death sentence if you do what is necessary to solve the problem.
I think there are many water bottles that just stop working on the market,but I've always heard bad things about the Sippy in particular.There are so many things that can make a bottle stop working as well,aside from manufacturing issues,whereas an appropriate bowl(shallow,no holes as I've seen some bowls with random holes on the side that could cause injury,safe materials,etc)will have no problems as long as it's set up in the right way and maintained appropriately.
So sorry you had to go through that and I'm glad Romeo is ok! Tell him to get well soon from me. It's because I am terrified of something like this happening, that Mushu has two water bottles in his cage. That way, if one stops working and I don't notice, he will still have a second one.
It's funny, i took a video a few days ago and if you don't know, you wouldn't noticed, but when you do know he looks so incredibly skinny when he stretches! He has always been more long than other hamsters in shape.
Sorry to hear you and poor Romeo had to experience that
I had a similar experience with my old hamster, Chance. I left him alone for a weekend as most hamsters are just fine to be left that long, but he decided to tear down his water bottle and it soaked his bedding, and left him with no water! When I got back and saw this, I refilled it and he drank for so long (like how Romeo did) and I felt so bad for the poor little guy. I gave him a bowl from then on, and it solved all the issues
Sippy bottle
Re: Sippy bottle
Luckily,however,it is a very simple condition to solve if you act quickly as you have and although it is a very serious problem it isn't an automatic death sentence if you do what is necessary to solve the problem.
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