Some new-hamster-mom-concerns!

[dwarfhamstersmom]

Hello!
Bobi has been with us for about 3 months now and has gained quite a lot of weight, about 10-12 grams depending on the scale, which we know is a lot. We are taking her to the vet for a stye and they are treating her and obviously weighing her and scolding us a bit. The thing is that the exotic vet (and all the vets in Spain, I think) recommend feeding hamsters with pellets, in fact we used to give her one that had a mixture of pellets and seeds and they told us that it should only be pellets (like these: https://www.beaphar.co.uk/product/18417-beaphar-care-food-for-dwarf-hamsters) so that she wouldn't choose to eat the seeds (which are more fattening). We said yes, but at home what we give her is the Rodipet hybrid junior seed mix because we know that it makes sense for her to eat seeds. She also has sprays in her cage for enrichment such as flax, sudan grass (brown and black), millet and amaranth.
We think she gained a lot of weight because we were feeding her quite a lot of sunflower seeds and mealworms which we thought were not so fattening but the vet told us they were, as well as wallnuts, so the latter we have totally eliminated from the diet as well as fruit (although the vet said there was no problem). As for vegetables, lately he only eats broccoli and cucumber.

Rodipet recommends giving each hamster a daily spoonful of his food (measured in its spoon included) but we are giving her less because of the overweight issue, half or less, besides the only treats we give her are vegetables. But at the same time we also think that she stores a lot of seeds in her multichamber and it doesn't make much sense that there are some days that we haven't given her anything if she has so much stored, as well as the sprays, and she can eat them whenever she wants.

She runs quite a lot on her wheel and we do playpen time where she also runs and exercises. Any other recommendations? We want to get her back to 36-38 grams.
Thank you!

 

[Maz]

Do you have a photo of her? She might not be overweight if she's a large dwarf hamster. But if the vet thinks she is then perhaps she is.

I would stick to using the Rodipet dwarf hybrid mix and still give her a scoop each day. And still give the daily veg. Sunflower seeds are one of the most fattening things really, but don't pick them out of the food mix, I'd just stop giving them as treats. It could take time for her weight to gradually reduce though. I think pumpkin seeds aren't that high calorie (sunflower seeds are very high calorie). You can get the white ones with the shells on (the green pumpkin seed is inside the white shell). That will keep her occupied cracking the shells open and they love doing that.

If she has a load of sunflower seeds in her hoard then it might take some time to gradually reduce, but I wouldn't worry too much, and just stick to her daily mix and veg, and the occasional pumpkin seed. I would recommend not giving fruit due to the sugars.

 

[dwarfhamstersmom]

Do you have a photo of her? She might not be overweight if she's a large dwarf hamster. But if the vet thinks she is then perhaps she is.

I would stick to using the Rodipet dwarf hybrid mix and still give her a scoop each day. And still give the daily veg. Sunflower seeds are one of the most fattening things really, but don't pick them out of the food mix, I'd just stop giving them as treats. It could take time for her weight to gradually reduce though. I think pumpkin seeds aren't that high calorie (sunflower seeds are very high calorie). You can get the white ones with the shells on (the green pumpkin seed is inside the white shell). That will keep her occupied cracking the shells open and they love doing that.

If she has a load of sunflower seeds in her hoard then it might take some time to gradually reduce, but I wouldn't worry too much, and just stick to her daily mix and veg, and the occasional pumpkin seed. I would recommend not giving fruit due to the sugars.

She doesn’t have sunflower seeds hoarded because she eats them very fast when we give her lol. She only hoards the Rodipet seeds.

This pic is from this morning.

 

[Maz]

The Rodipet food mix is forming her nutritional balance so it's fine if she eats that - just cut back on the treats/sunflower seeds. And maybe don't replace the flax sprays too often.

She looks fine to me on that photo but it's hard to tell from that angle. If she's still very young then her weight will increase gradually anyway until she's fully grown - that can carry on until they're 6 to 9 months sometimes. They are also supposed to be quite rounded. So I wouldn't put her on a diet as such - it's important she gets enough protein and nutrition in her first year. Just cut back on the sunflower seed treats.

 

[dwarfhamstersmom]

The Rodipet food mix is forming her nutritional balance so it's fine if she eats that - just cut back on the treats/sunflower seeds. And maybe don't replace the flax sprays too often.

She looks fine to me on that photo but it's hard to tell from that angle. If she's still very young then her weight will increase gradually anyway until she's fully grown - that can carry on until they're 6 to 9 months sometimes. They are also supposed to be quite rounded. So I wouldn't put her on a diet as such - it's important she gets enough protein and nutrition in her first year. Just cut back on the sunflower seed treats.

The vet told us in July she’s fully grown We are going to give her just the Rodipet mix and using vegetables and food such as boiled eggs as a treat, thanks

 

[Maz]

You say you've had her about 3 months. Do you know how old she was when you got her? Still a baby about 6 weeks old? Although they have done a lot of their growing by 5.5 months (which she might be now) they can still keep growing for a bit longer until full adult weight

 

[dwarfhamstersmom]

You say you've had her about 3 months. Do you know how old she was when you got her? Still a baby about 6 weeks old? Although they have done a lot of their growing by 5.5 months (which she might be now) they can still keep growing for a bit longer until full adult weight

The person who got her before is told us she was born on April or May, we took her a the end of June

 

[Maz]

So she was just a baby. She's probably still growing a bit and it's normal to keep gaining a bit of weight. She should stabilise in the next couple of months. She doesn't look overweight to me.