You are encouraged to do the following on a daily basis, whenever you handle your hamster.
It would be good to be mindful of their weight as decrease in eating is typically the first obvious symptoms in hamsters. They go downhill really easily thereon. At Eldduc, we perform such checks and tracks them on a daily basis.
As a guide, an adult Syrian hamster could vary up to 10 grams in weight before and after eating/peeing/pooping. Elderly Syrians also tend to lose weight in terms of fat/muscles as they age. However, there should not be a sudden decrease of more than 20% of their usual body weight. An example, a hamster is 200 grams and suddenly it is 160 grams. In this scenario, you should bring your hamster to a hamster savvy vet immediately.
We have listed the main checks to perform in our infographic below:
Further checks:
Stroke the ears; are they smooth and clean?
Do they have all their toes and nails? Are they clean and not overgrown?
Feel the body. Is it fat enough? It should not feel bloated or bony.
Do the legs move freely with no staggering or stiffness?
Is underneath the tail clean?
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