Freela
Senior Guinea Pig
I'm concerned about my daughter's Syrian hamster, Carmen. She is about 2 years old, so getting up there for a hamster. I noticed this week that her front teeth are worn unevenly... the top ones are definitely worn at an angle. She has a wood chew hanging in her cage where she always climbs the bars and chews on the metal clip at the top rather than the wood part made for chewing- I wonder if she has worn her teeth down unevenly on that? It's very hard to tell how well she's eating, as she typically doesn't eat where we can see her. She just pouches her food in her cheeks and then eats it in her hidey. I gave her some apple today to try to assess her chewing (she cant pouch a whole apple!) and she did appear to be gnawing on it okay. She does seem to have slimmed down a bit lately, but I had checked it up to aging, she is now 2 and is getting that 'older hamster' look where she has less muscle mass and her fur doesn't lay as smooth... now I'm wondering if her teeth need work. I checked her against our other Syrian hamster's teeth and the other hamster's teeth are definitely more even, but she is also a whole lot younger and I'm not sure how maloccluded they have to look at the front to be a problem. Just looking for some feedback- I will probably take her to the vet anyhow, as I may have to take Hadley in as she's limping on her back foot and I might as well take them both, but just wondering if anyone has any advice.