[racinghamster]

Hi MammE. It`s good to have their teeth checked because the first sign of weight loss can usually be a problem with either teeth that have over-grown or a tooth being broken or even lost. Hamsters also have back teeth. The last time I seen my vet with my Russian dwarf he shone a bright torch inside his mouth to check the back teeth and the mouth generally, but my hamster had very short upper teeth and longer lower incisors. I was feeding him crushed and softened food at the time though and wanted him to be eating normally. Which he found difficult not having his front teeth meet properly.

Sadly, he also had a tumour in his older age and the vet suggested to keep doing what I was doing and didn`t bother trimming his lower teeth, which I thought personally may have helped with his eating? But as it was, I carried on feeding him crushed/mashed and food that was the consistency of a soft marshmallow rolled into small, soft balls. He ate it, but I wasn`t happy he was not eating `normally` if you know what I mean.

He lived for a good two months after this but the tumour was the cause of death. But if it had been his teeth alone that was stopping him from getting the best nutrients, I don`t suppose the vet done very much to help in that respect, which was always a frustration for me.

Keeping two hamsters in the same cage can also mean that one of the hamsters is `bullied` away from the food, so scatter feeding around the cage can help with this.