Depression in hamster after a death

Question
I've read through the questions trying to find an answer but this looks like my only option. I had two male winter white dwarf hamsters in a cage together.(Marshy and Boots) About a week ago Marshy die on me. I'm not well of in the money department so I couldn't take him to a vet to get looked at. Boots was acting the same for a few days. Running on his wheel and chewing on the bars and just very active. I noticed yesterday that he is now very lazy and doesn't run on his wheel. He's now not eating or drinking a lot. I was wondering if you had any advice about what I can do to get my little Boots back up and happy again. Anything will help. I'm really worried about him.

Answer
Dear Tiffani,
thank you for your questions.
It's possible that Boots is missing Marshy. The problem is that dwarf hamsters do live as breeding pairs in the wild and in captivity, pairs of siblings occasionally get along. Mostly, they start fighting after a few months, though. Introducing a new hamster is very risky and I don't recommend it, it very rarely works out. Try to keep Boots busy: scatter his food in the bedding so that he has to spend time searching for it, hide food in cardboard boxes, wrap it in paper ect. Switch out some of the furniture, one piece a week to keep the cage interesting (the house and wheel should always stay the same and in the same place, though).

It may also be a good idea to see a vet with Boots to make sure that he is healthy. Lack of appetite and activity may well be signs of illness. You can find good rodent vets here:
http://www.gerbils.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gerbils/vets.htm#UK
http://gerbilforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=vet
www.rmca.org/Vets
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer