teddy bear hamster pouch

Question
Hi,
my hamster has puffed up cheeks all day and i dont know what happend because my hamster never had this before.It looks like he has food in his mouth all day but never spit it out.I feel worried about this is it normal or is some thing wrong with its cheeks?

Thank you,
      Eva

Answer
Hi Eva

Thanks for your question.

Hamsters do like to hoard food and sometimes they will pack their cheek pouches and not empty them.  This is very common, especially with Syrian hamsters.  Occasionally they can get food stuck in their cheeks - if they have been fed hamster sweets such as the 'chocolate' or 'yoghurt' drops which can melt in their cheeks, hence the reason why I never give these.  In these cases a vet might need to help the hamster empty their cheeks.  However, there is probably nothing wrong and for some reason he just decided to pouch his food this time.

If it is still like this in a couple of days, or he starts to smell, then it would be worth getting him checked out, but I suspect there is nothing wrong as such and he will empty his cheeks when he is ready.

I  hope this helps you.

Regards
Sheila