Q: I got a hamster about a month ago. She has one tooth that is really long and curls back around her top gumline. She has chew toys but I do not think she uses them or because of the tooth may not be able to chew with that one tooth. I don't know if it can be trimmed because of how close it is to the gumline. What should I do?
A: Thanks for contacting us and for being so concerned about your hamster's condition. It is called a malocclusion and it has to be taken care of by your vet.
While rodents love chew toys and should always have access to them to keep their mouths busy, it's a myth that these are the main thing that keep their teeth from growing out of control. In normal rodent mouths, the teeth line up in a way that makes them grind against each other so that they keep themselves sharp and filed down. If one tooth is tilted out of place, it won't be ground down properly and it will grow so large that it can dig into her mouth or chin and cause terrible pain or even starvation if it prevents her from opening her mouth properly.
I'm not sure where you are located, but we have a list of wonderful small animal vets on our website (http://www.raleighrodentrescue.org/). Dr. Kay Bishop is our favorite, at New Hope Animal Hospital, in Durham, but I had a rat with this problem and Dixie Trail Animal Hospital in Raleigh (our other fave) was very helpful. They put her under anesthesia and dremmeled the tooth down so it was a normal length. My rat didn't mind a bit and was happy to be able to eat properly again. :) Thanks for taking good care of your hamster. If you got her from a pet store, you may want to let them know about it so they don't go breeding more animals with tooth problems, but please, don't return her to the store! They will likely just put her down instead of providing proper care. If for some reason you can't keep her, contact us instead. With your vet's help she can live a long and happy life, so don't worry. :)
Note: If the pet store, or someone you know offers to save you money by cutting the teeth off themselves, using clippers or something similar, please turn them down. The risk of the tooth splintering is simply too high and this injury is likely to result in death from starvation as your pet suffers unbearable pain. No amount of money is worth torturing an animal.
