In northern ireland, the pet store Jollyes always have chinese hamsters in stock for some reason. I recently bought a little chinese female only to find out that her top tooth had curled around and that it was growing into her top gum and she had a bottom tooth missing. She cant really eat normal food and her teeth must have been overgrown and causing her pain for quite some time. I dread to think who is breeding these hamsters, as I know that a responsible breeder would have given their babies a health check before letting them go. Im only glad that candy ended up with me and not as a childs pet as they probably wouldnt have noticed and she may have starved to death and would have been in so much pain. She still has to get her teeth clipped as they grow at an angle and are very deformed, she tolerates it very well. This is one of my reasons why I wont be buying rodents from petstores any more as they really dont seem to care about the welfare of their animals and obviously dont check their health before selling them. I would advise people to check the teeth of a hamster before buying it, although if I had have checked and seen candys teeth I probaby would have taken her anyway just so that she wooldnt end up suffering. I was horrified when I first saw her teeth!
|