Weight in grams is the diary's first line
A Campbell's dwarf hamster's weekly diary starts with weight, recorded in grams at roughly the same time of day, using a cup on a digital scale so he walks in rather than being gripped. One number alone means little; the diary's power is the column of numbers building week on week. A Campbell's is a small animal with a fast metabolism, so a slide of a few grams across two or three entries is a real signal, while the same slide in a larger pet would be noise. Beside the weight, note anything that explains it — a food change, a hot week, a new wheel — so future-you reads context, not just digits.
Food: offered, eaten and hoarded are three different facts
A Campbell's diary should record the base mix or pellet, the fresh foods offered that week, and — after a look into his nest and corners during spot-cleaning — what was actually eaten versus pouched away. This species is prone to blood-sugar problems, so keep a specific line for sweet items: fruit, yoghurt drops and honeyed treats, with frequency. A diary that shows sweet food creeping from weekly to daily is catching a habit while it is still easy to reverse. Note water separately: mark the bottle level at the week's start and end, because steady drinking versus a sudden increase is a comparison only a written record can make.
Activity and behaviour from the evening shift
A Campbell's hamster does his living at night, so the diary's behaviour entry belongs to an evening observation, even a brief one. Record whether he was out and busy at his usual hour, how the wheel sounded — a wheel in regular use is audible through a home — and how he moved and handled. Note temperament honestly: a Campbell's can be nippy when woken or startled, and tracking whether defensiveness is growing, steady or easing tells you about pain, stress or simple personality maturing. New behaviours get their own line: bar chewing, frantic digging in one corner, or sleeping out in the open are all entries, not impressions.
Cage events and condition checks
A Campbell's weekly diary should carry the week's husbandry: spot-cleans done, bedding partially changed, water bottle washed and refilled, and anything replaced or removed. Full clean-outs deserve an exact note, because stripping a hamster's scent-marked home is stressful and the diary lets you keep them rare and deliberate. Add a condition line from a gentle weekly look: coat smooth or thinning, eyes bright and open, ears clean, feet sound, and no wetness around the tail. Anything off in that line — wet tail area, closed eye, wobble — is not a diary matter to monitor for weeks; it is a prompt call to an exotics vet.
Keep the entries for his whole life
A Campbell's diary is worth keeping complete, from the first week to the last, rather than discarding old pages to save space. A dwarf hamster's life is short enough that the entire run fits in one slim file, and its value compounds: the vet investigating a weight slide wants the early baseline, and the normal appetite of his healthy months is recorded in the same pages as any decline. Keep the diary after he is gone, too — if another hamster joins the household, the old diary is your reference for what normal looked like. Filing each week's page into a KinsLe Pet Passport keeps your Campbell's diary as one continuous, portable record instead of a drawer of loose sheets.