Syrian, two years old. For about a week she has been making a small squeak when she bites into her hard pellets. Not every mouthful, but often. She is still eating, still stuffing her cheeks, still awful to me at four in the morning.
I cannot tell whether that is her objecting to being watched or her teeth. Is there anything I can check at home before I book a vet, and is a week already too long to be waiting?
Weigh her tonight on a gram kitchen scale and again in three days, and count the droppings while you are there. A hamster that is eating less shows it in the weight and in fewer, smaller droppings before it shows anything else.
Also look at both cheeks from the front. One side staying swollen when the other has emptied, or a lopsided face, is a pouch problem rather than a tooth one, and sharp or sticky food is usually how that starts.
Worth putting your ear near the cage first. Crunching hard pellets makes clicky noises that are not vocal at all.
The harmless versions, for completeness, because they do exist. Startled mid-meal, since they are prey animals and a hand appearing over the cage while they are concentrating gets a squeak. And guarding food, which they are famously serious about.
The difference is whether it happens when nothing is happening. Reach toward the bowl and get a squeak, that is her telling you off. Squeak on the bite with nobody near her, that is her mouth.
@lift_the_lip · 2w ago · 3 replies
Eating is the one activity where mouth pain shows up first, so a squeak tied specifically to biting hard food is the version worth taking seriously rather than the version to shrug at.
Hamster front teeth grow continuously and are kept short by chewing. If they get too long, grow crooked or break, biting hurts. The pattern to look for alongside the squeak: dropping food, picking something up and putting it down again, going for soft things and leaving the pellets, a wet chin, and weight coming off.
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@squeak_at_dinner · 2w ago
She has been leaving the hard pellets and eating the soft bits out of the mix, now that you say it.
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@lift_the_lip · 2w ago
Then book the vet rather than carrying on checking. Selectively avoiding hard food plus a squeak on biting is close to a diagnosis in a two year old hamster, and a tooth trim is a straightforward job. Leaving it is where it stops being straightforward.
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