A good way to combat hamster illnesses is to prevent it from happening in the first place. With just a bit of preventative care, it can help you keep your pet healthy for much less than it would cost if your hamster actually gets sick. Here are a few hamster care recommendation that will go a long way in the health of your pet and hopefully save you a trip to the vet.
Provide a Healthy Diet
A well rounded diet will encourage strong bones and a healthy immune. If your hamster community tends to have a shorter lifespan than what should be expected and it’s not due to any visible illnesses, try changing their food. Your hamsters can be suffering from a vitamin deficiency.
Avoid Dehydration
Water is another vital part of keeping it healthy. This is especially the case for females that are nursing and young baby hamsters. If these newborns don’t get enough water, their growth can become stunted and won’t be as healthy when they mature. You can provide young hamsters with food that has a high concentration of water like pieces of fruit. It’s also important to make sure the hamster water bottle is within their reach.
A Comfy Habitat Reduces Illness
- Avoid choosing a hamster cage location that would cause any cold drafts from windows or air-conditioning units. If a hamster get the chills, it can lead to a weaker immune system.
- Keep the humidity and dampness to a minimum inside your hamster’s cage. In the wild, hamsters live in low humidity locations.
- Provide plenty of hiding places for your hamsters to hide in. This will reduce stress and increase their comfort level. A happy hamster is a healthy hamster.
- Make sure the toys you provide are hamster friendly. It’s important to know if a hamster chews and swallows bits of its toys that it won’t get ill from it.
- Provide plenty of space for your hamsters to spread out to avoid physical confrontations that can lead to open wounds or hamster abscesses that don’t heal.
- It’s important to place plenty of exercise options inside your hamster’s habitat. If your hamster is in shape and not bored it will decrease the risk of odd hamster behaviors.
- Setup your hamster habitat in a way that will keep your hamsters from falling, getting stuck or being cut by any of their hamster accessories.
Photo by: vargklo
Author: Tim Winter
I read above that I should make sure the hamsters don’t fall. That being said, my hamster climb all over the inside of the cage. They go up the sides and even climb on the ceiling of it. A good portion of the time they just fall off. How serious is this and how can i prevent it?
If you have soft bedding, it might not be a big concern. The only way to stop them from climbing is to have a cage with vertical bars so they have a harder time climbing up. Or you could try a different type of habitat like a glass tank or plastic module one.
My Hamster’s cage is fairly decent, but I’m going to Expand it soon. That lead’s me to Two question’s. When getting another Level of the cage, if there anything else I can use other then the Tube’s, and My Hamster cage has a “Natural nest” (It’s a round shapped nest made from twig’s, and bark, but it latch’s onto the bar’s of the Cage), And I was wondering if that was good for my Hamster?
Other than tubes, you can use ramps but be careful that you don’t leave spaces ope that your hamster can fall off of the ramp or second level. Hamsters don’t have the best depth perception. I think the natural nest is a fine hideout given it’s made out materials that are not toxic to them. Obviously cedar would be bad since it is toxic (not good for bedding either) but also see some of the other woods found on our post on hamster food. best of luck with your hamster cage expansion