How much should a hamster eat

[Owlet]

I work in a petstore and we recently acquired a sick winter white dwarf hamster. We are trying to get her into the vet so we can get a diagnosis and medicine. She's not eating the pelleted food or veggies. I offered her some critical care last night and she seemed to take to it well and I left a bowl of it with her which it looked like she ate a bit of. She was 14 grams last night and 16 grams this morning. She's still pretty weak and looks really rough. I tried syringe feeding her some more critical care and she took about 1cc of it before losing interest. I left the remainder in a bowl with her. She also seems to be drinking water normally. She doesn't appear to be defecating much though. We put her in our sick room about 12pm yesterday and I cleaned her cage at roughly 8am today and only found a couple poops.

I am off the next 2 days but I want to leave my coworkers with ample instructions on how to best help her. Right now I have it written to give her fresh critical care AM and PM. I would also like to push for them to offer her some from a syringe so we can monitor her intake a little more. They should be weighing her every AM too.

Is 1cc a normal amount for them to eat in one sitting? She's very thin.

Here's a picture of her, I'm going to provide it in link format as I don't want to trigger anyone. She is in rough condition and we think she may have been attacked before we could separate her from cage mates.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1130992085349175428/1135635963142488074/SPOILER_20230731_104910.jpg

 

[Maz]

She does look quite poorly. I think until she's seen the vet you won't know how to manage her other than what you're doing now. You could see if she'd be interested in eating some baby food. It's good she is drinking water.

 

[Member ID2]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

This hamster needs to be seen by a vet urgently. She looks like she's in pain and needs medical help.

I think that you are doing everything you can already. I really don't know if 1cc is a normal amount for a sick hamster but i would carry on with what you are doing and let her have what she can manage to eat. Someone else with more experience may be able to advise.

Do you know how old she is?
They can only be kept in the same cage if they are from the same litter and babies. Once they mature they are likely to fight.

I really hope that she pulls through.

 

[elusive]

Hi & welcome to the forum

She really does look very unwell although from the photo it does look as though she is trying to take some food & showing some interest in it.
I don’t know what would be the normal dose of critical care either & I think until she’s seen a vet then all you can do is encourage her to eat what she will. She may be tempted by some baby food as Maz suggesteed (under 4 months is usually the safest) it might also be worth trying her with some porridge/oatmeal, sick hamsters will often eat that if they can & it might help keep her going until the vet has advised you what to do for her.
I hope the vet can help & she has a chance of recovery, it certainly sounds as though you are doing your best for her.

 

[Owlet]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

This hamster needs to be seen by a vet urgently. She looks like she's in pain and needs medical help.

I think that you are doing everything you can already. I really don't know if 1cc is a normal amount for a sick hamster but i would carry on with what you are doing and let her have what she can manage to eat. Someone else with more experience may be able to advise.

Do you know how old she is?
They can only be kept in the same cage if they are from the same litter and babies. Once they mature they are likely to fight.

I really hope that she pulls through.

I think she's fairly young, I will have to double check if they gave us her birthdate and there's no way for us to verify if they were actual littermates or not. It's a crappy set up and I hate it. We are given so little information and frequently not healthy animals.

I will pester my manager more about setting up a vet appointment. If they haven't already (my coworker was the one that found her and usually they set up vet appointments but I can't find it listed anywhere and they don't work today)

She's definitely in pain and not feeling well. I'm just glad she's drinking and making some effort to eat.

 

[RainbowBrite]

Hello and welcome to the forum. It really is so lovely you have joined the forum to help this little hamster.

Is the critical care the one that is hay based? If so then I do not think this will be helpful for her as hamsters struggle to digest hay. The baby food sounds much more suitable for her.

I really hope she gets to see a vet soon. I understand what a difficult situation you are in. It must be so hard for you.

 

[Member ID2]

I don't know which country you are in but it is the same here in the UK.

It must be so so difficult and disheartening for someone who cares about animal welfare to work in a pet shop. You can only do your best to help them which is what you are doing already.

I think pain relief could perk her up and maybe encourage her to eat as well. I've seen that happen in my own hamsters when they took ill.

 

[Owlet]

Hello and welcome to the forum. It really is so lovely you have joined the forum to help this little hamster.

Is the critical care the one that is hay based? If so then I do not think this will be helpful for her as hamsters struggle to digest hay. The baby food sounds much more suitable for her.

I really hope she gets to see a vet soon. I understand what a difficult situation you are in. It must be so hard for you.

It's the omnivore critical care which I don't believe is hay based but I could be wrong. Just tried to call the vet but of course they aren't taking calls 1-2pm (now) so I left myself an alarm to call before I leave.

 

[RainbowBrite]

It's the omnivore critical care which I don't believe is hay based but I could be wrong. Just tried to call the vet but of course they aren't taking calls 1-2pm (now) so I left myself an alarm to call before I leave.

I wish you all the best with getting an appointment.

 

[Maz]

I looked it up and it doesn't seem to be hay based. I would think she needs antibiotics and loxicom (metacam). In case there is any infection and to relieve pain and I think you can only get those from a vet. Hope you manage to get something sorted. Good luck. It sounds a difficult situation.

 

[Owlet]

Vet made for early tomorrow.

 

[RainbowBrite]

That is brilliant. Please keep us updated on how the appointment goes.

 

[Owlet]

I likely won't know until Thursday, I may stop in on Wednesdays but unsure. I'm hoping for the best. I checked on her again before leaving and it looks like she had eaten a bit of the critical care again.

The vet will likely prescribed metacam along with an antibiotic of something. Thats what they usually do for us. Hopefully she will easily take the meds for us since she's taking the CC nicely from a syringe. I'd hate to have to manhandle her and stress her out to get meds into her... she lets me pick her up and will sit in my hand but I'm gonna go ahead and assume that's because she's very sick.

We've named her Lucy.

 

[Maz]

She'll probably take the metacam from a Syringe but the antibiotic tastes bitter. Sucking a bit of runny honey up in the syringe with it can help them take it from the syringe.

 

[Frida]

I really hope and pray that little Lucy gets well soon. Please keep us updated.

 

[RainbowBrite]

How is Lucy doing?