How to Keep Hamster Teeth Healthy
Your pet hamster uses his teeth all day long to eat, shred his bedding to make a nest, chew on his toys and even help clean his fur. Keeping your hamster’s teeth healthy is important so they don’t become overgrown or rotten.
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Things You'll Need
- Hamster pellet food
- Wooden bark treats
- Calcium treats
- Mineral blocks
- Fresh hard fruits and vegetables
Instructions
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Instructions:
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Feeding your hamster a pellet diet is important to keep his teeth healthy. Offer your hamster a pre-packaged hard pellet food. Choose a food with hard alfalfa pellets, hard dried carrots, nuts, seeds or other hard food items. The gnawing motion will help keep his teeth filed down. Hamster teeth grow continuously, like your fingernails, so they need to be worn down on a regular basis.
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Offer your hamster chew toys. Wooden bark treats, calcium treats and mineral blocks are all good hard treats that will keep your hamster’s teeth from overgrowing. These treats should be available at all times in your hamster’s cage. You can hang these treats from the side of a wire cage as a toy, or allow your hamster to carry them around the cage and store them.
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Give your hamster hard fresh vegetables and fruits once or twice a week to keep his teeth from getting overgrown. Feed your hamster hard baby carrots, raw kernels of corn and slices of hard apple. Place a special treat bowl in your hamster’s cage, and offer fresh items for a few hours. Once the fresh foods begin to wilt and attract fruit flies, throw them away.
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Look in your hamster’s mouth while you are holding him. You should see straight, pale yellow teeth on the top and bottom of his mouth. If they are noticeably curved, white in color or misaligned, see your veterinarian.
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Chewing on the wire bars of a cage or the metal nozzle on a water bottle are signs that your hamster is bored and in need of more chew toys and treats. To keep your hamster’s teeth healthy, always have a few type of chew items in his cage.
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Tips & Warnings
If your hamster’s teeth do become overgrown, they may grow in a curved shaped, and get lodged into the roof of his mouth. This can be very painful for the hamster, and he won’t be able to eat. The teeth can be trimmed by a veterinarian, depending on how far they have grown.
Do not feed your hamster cookies or other sugary human treats. This will rot his teeth.
