Hamster not drinking from water tube

Question
Recently I bought 2 Syrian Hamsters. They have adjusted well to the new cage and the props (house, food dish, wheel...etc) inside the cage, however they still do not go to the water tube to drink.
I am now feeding them small little pieces of fresh cucumber so they do get some water. I also manually feed them water by holding them near the water tube so they would gently drink from it.
I have not faced this problem before with any of my hamster pets I had before.

Answer
Hi

You could try putting a drop or two of blackcurrant juice in their water and on the drinking part of the bottle.  They tend to like the sweetness and this might persuade them to drink out of it.  If this doesn't work, try something else just for a day or two until they realize that they're meant to drink out of this bottle.  Once they get the hang of it they will remember each time.  Hamsters don't drink a huge amount anyway, if there is major water consumption it usually means the hamster has diabetes, a tumor or kidney problem.  

One thing I wanted to check, though - is that as these are Syrians you are keeping them in separate cages??  Syrians are solitary hamsters and will fight if they are together.  Dwarf Russians can live together in colonies most of the time, but Syrians will eventually fight (sometimes causing very serious injuries) - usually any time after 6 weeks of age - so if they are together, you really ought to get them their own cages as soon as possible.

Good luck with this.

Regards