sharma & foxxy, iceberg lettuce has way too much water content in it. a steady diet of this will eventually cause diahrrea and a something called "intussusception" which is when the intestines literally turn in on themselves. there is no cure, and it's fatal.
remember that in the wild, hamsters eat only [mostly] dry grasses (like timothy-hay dry). their stomachs are not meant to handle really watery foods & this is why it will make them very sick.
Intussusception is "a rare blockage or twisting of the intestine, which can be life threatening." One of the causes is believed to be long-term diarrhea. (Source).
Including this lettuce as the bulk of your hamster's diet can also pose further problems as it is low in fibre.
a hamster's digestive tract NEEDS high-fiber foods for the best functioning...
but low-fiber foods such as iceberg are digested immediately in
the hamster's digestive tract, requiring little work. over time, this reduces the amount of "good" digestive bacteria in the hamster's
intestines, and this eventually causes diarrhea, sometimes chronic.
on the other hand, high-fiber greens ...(along with dry timothy hay, which is as good as those fresh greens),
require more time for the hamster to digest, and stay in the digestive
tract longer. this creates more "good" digestive bacteria. that's why these are better!
While a few pieces of iceberg lettuce will not do severe harm to your hamster, it is still not a nutritional fresh food, some better ideas are dark greens such as spinach, arugula, kale, dandelion. More information on safe and unsafe foods can be found here: Hamster Food List.
A common misconception whenever diarrhea is mentioned is that any hamsters with diarrhea has or will catch wet tail. This is not the case.
Iceberg lettuce doesn't cause wet tail (nor do other greens). Wet tail is a bacterial disease, it is caused by the Lawsonia intracellularis bacteria or the Campylobacter bacteria. Wet tail is treated with antibiotics. How would antibiotics cure wet tail if it was caused by the high concentration of water in lettuce? If you google the scientific name of wet tail (proliferative ileitis), you can find a lot more information about it.
Too many greens CAN cause regular diarrhea, but as always, moderation is the key. If your hamster isn't used to greens, feeding them a whole leaf of lettuce may cause them problems (more so than other greens because of the water value), but nothing a strict diet can't solve!
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