Tips for Looking After a Diabetic Hamster

SparkySparky · 08-20-2018, 11:33 AM

Hi. My winter white hamster, who is about three months old, has recently been diagnosed as diabetic. He had extremely high levels of glucose and ketones.

The vet is looking into treatment for him, and we are feeding him a no sugar diet.

Does anybody has some advice, information, or stories about caring for diabetic hamsters that would be helpful?
Thank you.

souffle · 08-20-2018, 02:31 PM

Moderator Vectis has an excellent article on her website here https://vectishams.webs.com/diabetesinhamsters.htm

Sasha04 · 08-26-2018, 12:50 PM

I personally don’t have any experience with a diabetic hamster but the thread that Souffle shown is very good! I hope your ham is going to be all right!

Fluffagrams · 08-27-2018, 01:57 AM

I've got two diabetic Chinese at the moment. One is a younger lad and the other is an older girl and the younger lad is worse off than the older girl with ketones in his urine as well as the glucose.

I won't repeat everything Vectis has said but I give them a larger water bottle than the rest of my Chinese as they can drink significantly more and I will check this frequently to make sure that it is working and has plenty of water left in it. You'll notice that the cage will also need cleaning out more frequently but both of my diabetics have wet spots which I spot clean in between a complete clean out.

SparkySparky · 08-27-2018, 03:31 AM

Thank you for the advice. We have given him two bottles so he can always get to one.
Also, we have been feeding him fenugreek seeds as suggested in the article, and they have brought his glucose down a little bit, so thank you for that at well!
He also still acts like a happy, healthy hamster which is good.