View Single Post
Old 10-23-2020, 07:22 AM  
Pebbles82
Hamster Antics
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
Default Re: Marty is always buried in fluff

My experience of hamsters is they bury themselves if a) the substrate is deep enough and b) there isn't a nice big house to mimic a burrow Without seeing your cage set up it's hard to suggest much. But generally one larger cage works much better than a smaller one with an add-on bin. So they have uninterrupted floorspace and can designate areas - for nesting, hoarding, wheel, foraging, hidey places etc. It allows them to have more normal behaviours.

With one larger space you could fit in a nice big house/nesting box that's dark inside. A shoebox house is ideal - cut the base out and keep the lid as a lift off roof. And sit it on top of the substrate so it's open underneath (that way they can burrow down in their nest and bury hoards under their nest).

For a door, cut a hole at one end of one of the long sides (the other end is then darker and that's the end they choose to nest). If you put a bendy stick bridge over the door as well, that makes it dark inside and gives a tunnel entrance, which they like, plus makes a ramp onto the house roof so you could put a food bowl on there eg.

Your hamster will probably move in straight away and stop burying himself. Although it helps to put a smelly treat inside the house to tempt them in to check it out. Usually they move in within a day or two if it's large and dark inside. It mimics a burrow so they have no need to dig one.

Some hamsters are diggers and tunnellers more than others - your hamster may still dig himelf in and out of the house but usually they;re happy with a big dark house as plenty of space to build a large nest for winter and they can bury their hoards under the nest in the substrate below.

They also need a fair bit of overhead cover - so a shelf or platform is a good idea - they can sit under it and like to have something to climb onto as well. Plus various hidey places at floor level, hides and tunnels/tubes etc. So they don't feel too exposed from above when moving around the cage (being prey animals).

Feeling exposed is another reason they bury themselves away. Some hamsters aren't actually enjoying doing that - some will enjoy digging and tunneling and be very active little things. Others bury themselves away because they feel insecure.

I found that when changing a layout in our first hamster's cage. I gave him a small house and a lot of substrate and he decided it wasn't big enought for a nest, so dug a burrow with two tunnels. Great I thought - he's doing normal hamster things - but he didn't look happy and would come up with his ears flat, plus it got stinky and messy and needed spot cleaning a lot so it would collapse. So I gave him a bigger house and he was very happy with that!

They do vary in personality but most like a big dark nesting box.
Pebbles82 is offline   Reply With Quote