Preventing Hamster Illnesses!

Hi again!
Nibbles here(:


Today I'll be doing Part 2 to a series of posts on the topic Hamster Sicknesses.
Today's topic - Preventing hamster illnesses!


 A good way to combat hamster illnesses is to prevent it from happening in the first place. With just a bit of preventative care, it can help you keep your hamster healthy for much less than it would cost if your hamster actually gets sick. Here are a few hamster carerecommendation that will go a long way in the health of your hamsters and hopefully save you a trip to the vet.

Healthy Diet to Prevent Illnesses

A well rounded diet will encourage strong bones and a healthy immune. If your hamster community tends to have a shorter lifespan than what should be expected and it’s not due to any visible illnesses, try changing the hamster food. Your hamsters can be suffering from a vitamin deficiency.

Prevent Hamster Dehydration

Water is another vital part of keeping a healthy hamster. This is especially the case for females that are nursing and young baby hamsters. If these newborns don’t get enough water, their growth can become stunted and won’t be as healthy when they mature. You can provide young hamsters with food that has a high concentration of water like pieces of fruit. It’s also important to make sure the hamster water bottle is within their reach.

A Comfy Habitat Reduces Illness

• Avoid choosing a hamster cage location that would cause any cold drafts from windows or air-conditioning units. If a hamster get the chills, it can lead to a weaker immune system.
• Keep the humidity and dampness to a minimum inside your hamster’s cage. In the wild, hamsters live in low humidity locations.
• Provide plenty of hiding places for your hamsters to hide in. This will reduce stress and increase their comfort level. A happy hamster is a healthy hamster.
• Make sure the toys you provide are hamster friendly. It’s important to know if a hamster chews and swallows bits of its toys that it won’t get ill from it.
• Provide plenty of space for your hamsters to spread out to avoid physical confrontations that can lead to open wounds or hamster abscesses that don’t heal.
• It’s important to place plenty of exercise options inside your hamster’s habitat. If your hamster is in shape and not bored it will decrease the risk of odd hamster behaviors.
• Setup your hamster habitat in a way that will keep your hamsters from falling, getting stuck or being cut by any of their hamster accessories.

Sanitation:

Wash all of the hamster bowls,dishes, plates or anything else that you place food inside of or on top of, at least once a week. 

This process can include the hamster water bottles as well, however you must be certain not to leave behind any detergent residue on the inside of the bottle.  However, at the very least, you should rinse your water bottles with a mild solution of warm water. Put the cap on, hold your finger over the nozzle opening and shake vigorously. This will help to dislodge any stubborn algae that may be clinging to the inside surface. It will also help clean the inside surface of the nozzle. Rinse thoroughly in warm water, forcing the rinse water through both ends of the nozzle.

FOOD PREPARATION:

It's important to remember that kitchen counter or stove top surfaces can easily become contaminated from cooking spills or exposure to meats or veggies that may carry harmful bacteria. Or, quite simply from typical spills that weren't properly removed from the surface. Therefore, you'll want to remain vigilant in your determination to protect the health of your defenseless little pet by making certain that you always provide a clean, germ-free surface for preparing treats, snacks or meals.

FOOD STORAGE:

Store your hamster's food products in clean, dry and sealed containers, especially when purchasing in bulk. . Fortunately, there's now an abundance of practically any size and quality of storage container that anyone could possibly imagine. Additionally, while it's really important to keep dry products, such as grains and seeds, away from high humidity and dampness, it's also essential to store the containers in an area away from direct sunlight and in an area where the temperature is moderate to cool. These precautions will help prevent the growth of dangerous molds and other microbes, as well as, extending the shelf life seeds, nuts or grains before becoming rancid. Many of the commercial hamster pellets come in plastic bags with zip lock closure seals, therefore freshness is not typically a concern with those products. However, when a larger volume is purchased, I'll transfer a week's supply into a sealed container for daily feeding. This makes it unnecessary to continuously open the larger bag, day after day, exposing the contents to more and more freshness stealing air and humidity.

That's all this post!

Hope you enjoyed.

Nibbles♥

Sources - http://www.howtotakecareofahamster.net

http://waltek.hubpages.com/hub/Prevention-Can-Help-You-Avoid-Most-Hamster-Illnesses