Drinking his own pee?

[PrehistoricGirl]

So I just found Peanut standing with his head inside the hole/hideout in his waterbottle. The waterbottle holder is kinda small, so I have put it on an ceramic bowl, so that he can reach better. Usually he lies in there, but today he only had his head in - I found that a bit weird so I lifted the waterbottle holder up, and saw that he had peed in there. I went to get some paper to clean it and when I came back I saw that he was drinking from his own pee :s

He normally uses his sandbath to pee in, where I remove the peed sand several times a day. Before putting in the ceramic bowl, I had a small cardboard box there, which I had to remove as he had peed on it as well. I first noticed it 2 weeks ago on the cardboard box, which had been there for maybe 2-3 weeks without being peed on but it is starting to happen more frequently, maybe once a day now.

He is a hybrid, so I'm worried that he is diabetic and that it might be the reason.

Has anyone experienced this or know why he does it?

[Pebbles82]

I don't know much about what hybrids do if they are diabetic, but it sounds like he maybe couldn't get any water out of his bottle maybe. They do the same with food - ours would only poo in his food bowl if it was empty to make sure he had reserves. Maybe check his water bottle is flowing freely. I'm paranoid about water bottles letting water out and would rather it drip than not let water out.

Sorry if you have already checked this and it's not the reason.

[cypher]

I haven't come across a ham drinking it's own pee tbh so not sure about that but it does sound as though he may be peeing quite a lot, have you checked to see how much he's actually drinking?
If you are worried about diabetes it's best to get some test strips just to check his urine for glucose & ketones. You can get them from a chemist or online.

[PrehistoricGirl]

He is drinking from his waterbottle right now, he does sit there for a long time, not sure if he is just really thirsty or he is having a hard time getting the water out, then I guess it is easier to just drink from a surface even if it is pee.. Though I can see that he does get water from his water bottle as it is half empty when I change the water in the evening and in the morning

[cypher]

Depends on the size of the bottle of course but half empty sounds like a lot of water so it may well be a good idea to check his pee.

[Pebbles82]

Sometimes the bottle can be quite empty if it has leaked out. What kind of water bottle do you have and what's underneath it? But as Cypher says, it would be a good idea to check for diabetes even if it's just to rule it out. You can tell if he's getting water out when he's drinking as you should see small bubbles going to the top of the water level in the bottle. I've found my bottle lets water out more if I don't completely fill the bottle and just fill it about 2/3 and don't screw the cap too tight - then I check it by tapping my finger under it and seeing if it gets wet and how wet.

[PrehistoricGirl]

The water bottle contains 80ml, and he drinks maybe 50-70ml in 24 hours - is that a lot. I was worried when I first got him, as I thought he was drinking a lot but I didn't have anything to compare to and most sites just said to see if he was drinking more than usual. Then he started drinking less so I put it down to him just being a bit stressed when I first got him. Then he started drinking a lot again but I put this down to the heat we were having but now it is not that warm anymore. Then again I don't know how much is normal for a dwarf hamster to drink.

Do you know what kind of test strips I will need? I have been looking online earlier but I couldn't really find anything.

[PrehistoricGirl]

I don't think it is leaking as he has a bin cage and the carefresh around it is not wet, only inside the hideout, where I am pretty sure it is pee.

This is the type of waterbottle he has: 2-i-1 Water Bottle Holder med Hus til hamstere (tilfældig farve) - USD $ 17.19 (http://m.miniinthebox.com/da/2-i-1-water-bottle-holder-med-hus-til-hamstere-tilfaeldig-farve_p1270599.html)

[cypher]

Unless your bottle leaks a lot that is too much for him to be drinking, diabetes isn't the only reason they can drink a lot but it's worth checking that out first. Just do a search for urine analysis strips, here's an example (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=urine+dip+tests&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=28710842408&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10638999397158487866&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_37vt0qr194_b)of what you would find on Amazon here, if you're not sure just ask in a chemist shop & they should be able to help you.

[PrehistoricGirl]

I will definitely buy one of those! Will it be a problem to treat a hamster as if it has diabetes if it doesn't? I'm thinking I would starting that until the test gets here.

[cypher]

What do you mean by treat as if he has diabetes? If you just mean feeding an appropriate diet that's fine, I do that with all mine anyway as they all have the potential to develop diabetes but I wouldn't do anything else until you know for sure.

[PrehistoricGirl]

Yes, I mean with the diet, I found a site about it from Vectis Hamstery and I can see that I am actually already doing the right think with the diet. I did not like the prognoses part og the site though :( I hope he doesn't have it..

[cypher]

I hope not too, fingers crossed.
Let us know how it goes when you get the test strips.

[PrehistoricGirl]

Will do.

I have now ordered the test strips, and is waiting on them being delivered.

Just so that I can know in the future, what amount of water does a normal dwarf hamster drink each day?

[cypher]

In a healthy hamster it should really only be a very small amount, I did read somewhere about 10ml per 100g of body weight per day, I don't know how accurate that is but my two that don't have problems in that department probably only drink about 5-15ml at most depending on how warm it is. I doubt an average day is more than 10ml but they do get a little fresh veg daily too which accounts for some of their water needs. I really hardly see the water go down at all in their bottles even though I know they do drink!