What Kind of Water Do Hamsters Drink?

It’s safe for Hamsters to drink tap water. They do require room temperature water for better consumption and digestion. Like any other creature, hamsters are also restricted to certain drinks.

They can’t consume everything, or they might puke or face indigestion. Liquids that hamsters’ digestive system cannot break down can make them sick.

In this article, let’s have a look at what kind of water do hamsters drink.

Table of Contents

How Much Water Should Hamsters Drink?

Hamsters require consistent access to water. Their water intake does not depend on timings. Hamsters should have water available to them at all hours. Their water should also be replaced with a new batch every few hours to ensure they’re drinking water that’s free of bacteria.

What Kind of Water Do Hamsters Drink?

Tap Water

Tap water is the best source of fluid you can provide to your hamster. Ensure your tap water does not have too many minerals since that can be harmful to your pet. As long as your tap water is not contaminated or polluted, you can feed that to your hamster.

Distilled Water

Distilled water can also be served. Distilled water is essentially what you end up with: the steam you’ve gathered from boiling water. Steam is collected after boiling water and cooled in order to bring it back to its form.

Distilled water is the cleanest water your hamster can get because it’s formed from vapors achieved after boiling water.

You can do this to ensure and stay at peace, knowing that you’ve cleansed out all impurities.

If you’re unsure of your normal water’s purity, boiling it to attain distilled water is a doable idea. Distilled water is not contaminated or polluted, nor does it have any impurities because the heat would have killed all residual germs and bacteria.

Room Temperature

Speaking of distilled water, your hamster cannot drink hot or cold water. You will have to ensure that it’s room temperature. Hamsters only drink water at room temperature or warm water.

With room temperature water, hamsters will not feel congested, heavy, bloated, or experience a burning sensation. Especially after they have eaten food, they need water that can flow effortlessly through peristalsis.

Room temperature water works perfectly for absorption and equal distribution around the body. It also does not affect any of their organs, so that’s really the best choice you can go with.

A hamster has delicate organs. If they ingest hot or extremely cold water, their cells and organs can experience aches and pains. This may lead to your hamster getting sick and, in worst-case scenarios, even dying.

Soft Water

Soft water is great for hamsters. Soft water is water that has low mineral content. Additionally, your hamster requires low mineral water, notes petsgal.

A great example of this would be rainwater. You will have to be careful in this case, though, because rainwater can be salty.

In this case, vets suggest feeding your hamster filtered or bottled water.

Rainwater can be good for consumption for hamsters, but you will have to ensure mineral content. If you cannot be sure of it, then don’t feed them rainwater. However, you ought to ensure that you provide them with soft water. It can be of any kind, as long as it is not contaminated and has less mineral concentration.

Soft water is a good lead for hamster owners because it will give them an understanding of what they should go for. Knowing that less mineral content and no polluted water are two major angles and conditions to keep in mind is a helpful strategy for hamster owners because then they can differentiate between what they should and shouldn’t opt for.

Bottled Water

You can give your hamster bottled water only after ensuring it has less mineral concentration. Bottled water works well with hamsters because it is convenient for hamsters to suck from a bottle.

Read: Can I Put My Hamster Cage on the Floor? [10 Reasons]

What Kind of Water Should Hamsters Not Drink?

Raw Water

Don’t feed your hamster raw water. Raw water, as the name itself suggests, is raw. That means it is not filtered. This, in turn, means water that is not rid of impurities. With raw water, you can never be sure how clean it is. You can also never know how safe it is for consumption.

There are several microorganisms that reside in raw water. It is important to boil it to attain a temperature that can kill them in the heat. The issue with even taking a risk here is that we can never be sure of the microorganisms present in raw water. This means we cannot know the effects our pet hamsters may face.

How Much Water Should My Hamster Drink?

According to the Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals: Fourth Revised Edition, 1995, from the National Library of Medicine, male and female golden hamsters require about 8.5ML of water. This is approximately 100 grams.

Male hamsters, according to research conducted by Fitts and St. Dennis, 1981 in the book mentioned above, ingested 5ML water, although female hamsters consumed 14ML.

Though Thompson 1971 noted that Chinese male hamsters have relatively more consumption. Chinese male hamsters consumed 11.4 ML, whereas females consumed 12.9 ML.

Male golden hamsters consumed 4.5ML of water every day, while the figure for females was 13.6ML.

How Often Should I Change My Hamster’s Water?

Change your hamster’s water daily if you want to avoid any algae developing on it. Water is something hamsters need on a constant basis. You should change their water at least once daily to ensure purity and lack of bacteria.

If your hamster’s water develops algae, it misses your eye, and they end up consuming that water and may get really sick. The source of your hamster’s water should also be washed and cleaned twice in three days; recommended on your pet.

Animals also require access to clean food and drinks. Just because they’re animals, it does not mean that they’re immune to diseases. With hamsters in consideration, it’s incredibly important to ensure the water you’re feeding them is not contaminated or that the temperature is not too extreme.

A hamster is a small and weak animal. As a small-sized animal, a hamster’s body will react faster to any foreign feeling or substance than a big-sized animal.

This means that you may risk your pet’s health before you can get them treated because a hamster’s tissues and organs will react immediately since they’re fragile and delicate.

What you feed your hamster needs to be double-checked because their health depends on the amount of cleanliness you maintain. Change your hamster’s water daily and more than once every day to ensure clean feeding.

Check: Can I put a heating pad under my hamster’s cage?

How To Feed Your Hamster Water?

Your hamster will feel comfortable drinking water from a bottle. They’ll have to suck on it and end their thirst! You can also feed them in a bowl. That bowl can be metal or ceramic. Hamsters are born with the chewing trait. If you choose a plastic bowl, they will chew it!

Dust can settle on the inner base of a ceramic bowl or any other of its kind if it’s not washed for more than a day. This can impact the health of your hamster. As long as it is cleaned every day, it should be okay.

Although you will have to take into consideration that your hamster can conveniently knock over the bowl, notes on your pet. Using filtered water is really the best option because it will be clean and pure, and your pet hamster will not make a mess.

You can place a vacuum-action inverted water bottle for your hamster next to their home. There are multiple benefits to this water bottle.

The water bottle will only let out water or flow it when your pet makes an attempt to drink from it. The touch of your hamster’s mouth will automatically acknowledge the need for a drink, so the water bottle is latched out.

When your hamster is done drinking, they just have to pull its mouth away. The bottle can be incredibly convenient for the hamster.

Your hamster can face dehydration, so you ought to ensure that they are not left thirsty for a maximum of a day.

Takeaway

In the end, it is important to understand that every hamster is different. While there are some baseline necessities to keep in mind, it is also important to know that age and weight play a role. Does your hamster have any disease? Are they going through something physically?

All of the above are important considerations to look into when selecting the right type of water for your pet hamster. Not only that, age plays a massive role in their intake. Some hamsters are born with deficiencies, so you ought to ensure that you know your pet hamster’s biological arrangement before you set out their water quality and intake.