Malnurished Hamster

Question
My dwarf hamster escaped at least five days ago. We found it last night alive and being played with by the cats. I gave it fresh water and access to normal hamster food. It still looks raggedy and skinny, but I found it running in it wheel earlier. What should I do now?

Answer
Hi Sai

I'm glad you managed to catch your hamster.  

You could try feeding some baby food - if you buy the powdered types, such as creamy porridge oats, and mix a little with water and give this every day.  This will give him extra nutrients and should help fatten him up. Also make sure he has his usual hamster mix as he needs to be able to chew food too.  A small amount of scrambled egg or cheese would be fine too.  Try to give as varied a diet as possible.

If weight loss is his only problem after his adventure, then that is good.  Sometimes they can get hurt or come into contact with poisons.

Hopefully with some extra food he should start to gain some weight fairly quickly.

Good luck with this.

Regards
Sheila