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Hamster Teeth Care
The hamster’s teeth are his greatest weakness. They break off, acquire cavities, and are subject to decay. However, hamsters do have one advantage over us poor humans, their teeth keep growing. That is why it is wise to keep a branch or hardwood like oak or walnut in their cage to keep the teeth worn down.
Broken teeth resulting from falls or biting wire can result in an inability to eat and malnutrition if not outright starvation. If this happens, adjacent teeth should be clipped with heavy duty nail clippers so that they mesh easily with broken teeth and enable the animal to eat
Examine your hamster’s teeth regularly for cavities or signs of unusual discoloration, wearing gloves, of course. If a tooth is loose, you can probably pull it out with your fingers, staunching the blood with a bit of gauze held firmly. If a tooth is in bad shape but not loose, let a veterinary pull it.
Many times a hamster’s dental problems can be solved by adding more milk to his diet. This can be fed in his water dispenser or by feeding bread and milk, or, and preferably using dry milk. Care must be taken that the milk does not go sour, and that milk-soaked bread is not hoarded.
Source: Basic Book of Hamsters
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 1:18 pmand is filed under Hamster Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.