taking in a three legged hamster.

[pleasemarrymejane]

A friend of mine is giving me her hamster, her kids got bored with her of course so i offered to give the poor thing a home. The only problem is shes missing a front leg. And shes super fat because shes in one of those small crappy plastic hamster houses with no room to get around.

anyway, is there anything a handicapped hamster needs differently than a normal hamster? Can she still use a wheel? Or is there any other way for her to exercise?

ive never had a special needs pet so this is new to me.

[Majikkani_Hand]

The three-legged hamsters I've seen seemed to get around as well as the others, but they weren't obese. My concern would be the weight (spherical hammies have trouble getting around sometimes even with four legs, and she's missing one!) If they have her on a seed-mix diet, I'd watch her really carefully and make sure she's eating a decent mixture--and if it's one with a lot of sunflower seeds (or just lots of seeds in general), switch her off it entirely (waaaay too high in fat). All-pelleted diets are usually the best (especially in the case of already-tubby hamsters), supplemented with occasional fresh food, but sometimes the hammies don't want 'em.

[Teaquick]

Name her tripod.