A key aspect of pet care is ensuring that your pet has enough food and water. With smaller pets like hamsters, their drinking processes must be carefully watched to ensure that they get the amount of water that they need. So, how often should my hamster drink water?
Your hamster should be drinking water in small amounts throughout the day. Depending on the individual hamster, this can be anywhere from a few to 10 or more trips to their drinking area. How often your hamster drinks water depends on how much water it takes in each sip and its activity levels.
In this article, I’ll cover how often hamsters should be drinking, their drinking habits, and what to do if you believe they’ve stopped drinking their water.
Should My Hamster Be Drinking Water Frequently?
Like any other pet, hamsters need a good amount of water to survive and live comfortably. They don’t have to drink constantly, though they should still drink enough times to fully quench their thirst.
Your hamster should drink at various points in the day regardless of breed, size, and age. While some hamsters may consume more or less than others, they should drink from their supplemented bottles or containers periodically.
While hamsters do drink throughout the day, they usually drink more in the evening or at night, as they’re primarily nocturnal. Therefore, if you don’t see your hamster get up and drink during the day, it’s not usually a cause for concern unless they don’t drink at night at all.
Because hamsters are tiny rodents, their bodies can only handle a bit of water at a time, which explains why they take so many trips to their water container throughout the day, and usually only for a short amount of time.
Hamsters may also drink from their water containers more often if they’ve just completed something that requires a lot of activity. For example, hamsters that frequently run on their hamster wheels or spend a lot of time hiding food in their bedding may drink more water to replenish themselves.
What Should I Store My Hamster’s Water In?
You can use either an attachable water bottle that clips to their cage or a small water bowl to provide water for your hamster. However, while both options are plentiful, one should consider using a bottle instead of a bowl.
Your typical attachable water bottle comprises a long cylinder bottle with a tube-shaped metal spout that extends outward. The spout goes inside the cage while the main bottle stays outside, away from the hamster. A glass ball or valve within the spout also regulates the water’s overall flow.
These water bottles hold and release the water in small portions as the hamster drinks from the spout. If the hamster isn’t drinking from it, the water stays inside. However, even if the water is encased inside a bottle, there’s still a potential for it to dry up, leak, or cause mold to grow inside if it’s not carefully monitored.
Having a small bowl in your cage is also a good option. However, it’s likely that a hamster may flip or spill the bowl, leaving them with no water until their owner finally notices what has happened. Additionally, your hamster may contaminate a water bowl by dropping food or waste products into it.
Regardless of which item you choose to hold the water, you should still always clean and fill the water back up to its average level at a minimum of once a day. Even if the water looks fine and clean, you must provide changed water, or your hamster may not aspire to drink it.
Additionally, it’s recommended that you get a water bottle or bowl that’s not made of plastic, as plastic breaks down much easier and poses a risk to hamsters who enjoy chewing on things.
How Much Water Should Hamsters Drink a Day?
Hamsters should drink between 8 to 15 ml (0.27 to 0.50 oz) of water every day for the best care and health. However, this also depends on the size and breed of the hamster. Additionally, hamsters won’t always drink the same amount of water every single day.
According to a study conducted on various hamsters, they need this amount to maintain healthy levels that show they’re getting enough beneficial nutrients in their diet. This also ensures they have enough energy to make their ingrained habits like digging and burrowing food for later use.
While hamsters only drink this small amount, they should always have an entire container of water to ensure they have something to drink whenever they get thirsty. Additionally, hamsters should be drinking multiple times a day, not just once.
If your hamster isn’t drinking as much as it should, it might mean that there’s something else going on with its health or that there’s something wrong with the water equipment itself.
Do Hamsters Drink a Lot of Water?
Hamsters do drink a lot of water, at least for their size. However, they’ll only consume enough water to satisfy their thirst, but not so much that they’re sick or bloated.
Because hamsters are usually no bigger than the palm of your hand, they have tiny stomachs and bladders that cannot hold a lot of liquid at once.
Therefore, if a hamster starts to drink more water than usual or to the point where they’re sick, then there may be something else wrong that should be looked at by a veterinarian or animal specialist.
Is Cold Water Good for Hamsters?
Cold water isn’t good for hamsters. Hamsters prefer water that’s closer to warm or room temperature, as cold water can cause them harm. Too cold of water may cause your hamster to go into shock or become overwhelmed.
Giving your hamster water that’s too cold can lower its body temperature, which can lead to other, more severe, issues. This is also why you should avoid putting ice in your hamster’s water container.
How Do You Know if Your Hamster Is Getting Enough Water?
You’ll know your hamster is getting enough water if it’s acting normally and the bottle’s water level reduces frequently. If your hamster isn’t getting enough water, it’ll show symptoms of dehydration, including sleeping more, refusing to eat its food, and not leaving waste around its habitat.
The easiest way to determine if your hamster is getting enough water is to keep track of their water bottle’s water level. However, you can also judge their health and how active they are. A hamster who gets enough water won’t show any adverse health effects.
Symptoms that often signal that your hamster isn’t getting enough water and is very dehydrated include:
- Your hamster refuses food, including snacks or treats.
- Your hamster sleeps all day and night.
- There’s no waste around the habitat, including feces.
- Your hamster is panting or appears out of breath.
- There’s vomit in the habitat, or your hamster dry heaves.
Additionally, if the water level hasn’t gone down, there’s a high chance that your hamster isn’t drinking. There will typically be some water level change due to the water drying up through evaporation.
However, this is minimal and still makes the bottle appear as if it’s full. Drinking the water will drastically change the level and make it very apparent whether your hamster is drinking.
If you also don’t see or hear your hamster actually get up and visit their water bottle or bowl, it’s likely that it’s not drinking water as it should. While hamsters are more active in the evening or at night when you sleep, you should still hear them taking sips or moving the ball or valve in the water bottle to drink during the day.
Why Isn’t My Hamster Drinking?
Your hamster may not be drinking due to the following reasons:
- Health issues
- Broken water storage or equipment
- Something is blocking their access to the water container
In most cases, the problem of not drinking involves the water or equipment and not some type of health issue. For example, with an item like a water bottle, the spout may stop working in a way that doesn’t allow water to spew from it. If this occurrence happens, the hamster will try using the bottle but find it won’t release water.
Additionally, bowls can cause problems such as flipping or spilling. When this happens, the water will soak up into the bedding and leave the hamster with nothing. Even if all the water doesn’t spill out, there’s a possibility that the leftover water isn’t enough to satisfy the thirst of your hamster.
You’ll need to fix the items in these scenarios to resolve the problems. While it usually only takes a quick adjustment to put the spout or bowl back into place, you may need to replace the item entirely instead.
If it’s not the equipment, there’s a possibility that the problem is instead a result of the location of the water. Hamsters are tiny and may struggle to climb or get around large items. If you keep the water in a place that’s hard for the hamster to reach, they may need help to get close enough to the water.
Examples of this include:
- The water is placed behind large items like wheels.
- The spout of the water bottles is too high to reach
- Another item covers a bowl in the cage.
Always ensure that hamsters have a clear and visible path to their water. If not, they may suffer from dehydration because of it.
Additionally, ensure you’re changing your hamster’s water at least once or twice a day. Hamsters must drink fresh water that hasn’t been contaminated, as dirty water can leave them sick.
Due to the water and equipment causing issues, your hamster may not be drinking due to a health issue. Most of the time, it’s something like dehydration that can easily be treated. Yet, hamsters who aren’t drinking may also suffer from problems with their digestive tract.
How Do You Hydrate a Hamster?
Having a hamster that’s dehydrated or not drinking water is a very worrying problem to encounter. However, there are a variety of options that can help ensure your hamster gets back to drinking regularly.
You can hydrate a hamster by ensuring they have access to their water at all times and always ensuring they have uncontaminated water. Additionally, you can give your hamster more water by serving some produce-based snacks.
The most important thing is ensuring a hamster can get water without hassle. This includes ensuring their water bottle or bowl is set up right and accessible to the hamster. Additionally, you must change out the water frequently to ensure that there’s enough clean, drinkable water.
If you perform these actions and your hamster still struggles to get water, you can hydrate them by giving them an increase of water-based produce snacks. These snacks include:
- Cucumbers
- Apples
- Potatoes
- Strawberries
All these fruits and vegetables contain a decent amount of water to help replenish your thirsty hamster. However, these foods aren’t substitutes for water as a whole. Therefore, water should always stay in the enclosure when these snacks are served. Additionally, make sure that the hamster is eating these snacks and not just storing them for later.
Will Hamsters Find Their Water?
Hamsters will always be able to find their water as long as nothing is blocking their path to it and it’s set up in the correct container or bottle. Additionally, it’s best to leave the water in the same area every day, as they’ll be able to find it much easier.
Hamsters aren’t like other pets who can see clearly at all times. Their vision is decent but not very strong, so they need to use other senses to navigate around their enclosure. To provide the best accessibility to your hamster, keep its water container somewhere that’s open and free of other items.
If you use a bottle, ensure the spout is low, so the hamster has to do minimal climbing to reach it. Additionally, remove any wheels, beds, or items away from it to ensure that nothing is blocking it from your hamster.
If you decide to use a bowl instead, make sure nothing is blocking it or covering the top of it. You should also monitor closely to ensure the hamster doesn’t flip the bowl upside down or on its side when left unattended.
Final Thoughts
Hamsters don’t need much water due to their small size, yet they still need to drink pretty frequently. To ensure that your hamster gets enough water, ensure they have clean water and functional water bottles or bowls.
It’s important that there are no obstacles in the way of your hamster’s water source, as this is a common reason why many people’s hamsters don’t drink enough water. Keeping the water in an easily accessible location every day, and changing it once or twice a day, is ideal.