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Old 09-30-2019, 08:06 PM  
10Minutes
Hamster Pup
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 187
Default Re: Soil in enclosure?

Not sure about clay itself causing intestinal blockages, but would it be possible to have hookworms in the soil (and one of the issues caused by hookworms are intestinal blockages)? There's this article on hamster vaccines that explains how hookworms can be found in soil, and different articles on soil-transmitted infections are also found in the linked references at the bottom: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/a...l.pntd.0007345

In terms of ingestion, maybe it depends on the hamster. One of mine loves to roll around in her sandbath like a normal ham, the other seems to eat it (the sand bath level drops drastically in a short time period) instead of bathing in it. Both are Robos, so I thought they would instinctively know that sand isn't meant to be eaten... but nope.

As I was a bit concerned about whether it is safe to ingest Chinchilla sand in massive amounts, I have removed the sandbath from the sand-eater's cage. I'll probably just offer it to her once in while, though she really doesn't show interest in bathing.
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