Stop or allow?

[Teddy001]

This is a first. lol today, I found Teddy sleeping in her sand area, in a jar with sand for bathing- she moved a good amount of substrate into the jar, and put it on top of the sand. I'm not sure why she did this. It must have taken her a while and lots of work, to carry the amount of substrate that was in the jar. The jar is in an area with only sand, substrate is a good distance from the sand area. She normally sleeps in her house. I've noticed recently she's stuffing ALL of her chew toys and chew sticks in her house, which isn't really the best thing, due to there's too many things she puts in her house , and maybe there wasn't room for her to fit?
Any suggestions/advice? I did remove all but a few smaller chew toys from her cage, and emptied out the substrate in the jar. Should I just leave it if she does it again? She also takes treats into the sand jar- mostly peanuts- eats them in there? Could this be harmful if she ate a little of the sand along with the peanut? Thanks for your input.

[souffle]

The sand jar isn't an ideal home It gets all stuffy and condensed up in there and they can get chest infections. I'd take it out for now and use a flat tray sand bath till she sets up nest in a more suitable location
They do tend to hide things in enclosed houses so could you try just a cardboard box for a while and see if she will use that?

[Teddy001]

Okay, thank you Soufflé. I'll change the jar to a flat open container- and switch her house- cardboard box, would a tissue box work?

[Munchalot]

She may be hot. Is it really warm where you are at the moment? The sand is probably nice and cool so she is trying to sleep on that instead of in her house, where it's probably too warm and stuffy. I noticed last summer that my hams were sat in their sand a lot of the time, and my big fluffy boy Finley, who was really struggling with the heat, moved some of his bedding to the sand and slept there. His sand was in a jar too, and it was always nice and cold, which is probably why he wa sin there.

Maybe try putting something cool under her house, like a saucer thats chilled in the fridge? Might be worth a shot.

[Teddy001]

Ah.. Yes, it is very hot and humid where I live. My house does have air conditioning. The temp is set at 73 degrees. Is the temp too hot? I can lower the temp on the air conditioner-The room my hams are in gets direct sun, most of the day. I do have window blinds closed at all times, and curtains over the blinds. She's also has long hair, and is good size at 191g- and very active- so, that could very well be the case, she's getting over heated, hot. The room has a ceiling fan, which is turned on all the time to keep the air circulated- I added a desk fan, and have it turned on as well. I've noticed she's in the sand area, constantly, lately which is more than usual. I do have square pieces of tile and marble, that I can cool in the freg, then place under her house- there's no floor attached to her house, so do I put the tile under substrate ? She's had the sand area for a month and just last night started sleeping in the sand jar. Do you think turning the air conditioner to down, and what temp would be ideal? Thank you

[DrKMcK]

73 degrees is not too hot Teddy. But what I would do is give her several places where she can go to be cool and to be at regular temperature. I set a house on a Chinchilla stone and one on regular substrate for the hams. This way they have a choice. I keep my house at around 70-75 degrees with humidity as low as I can get it. I make sure that they have fresh water daily in hot weather (2 days at most). It sounds as if you are doing fine temperature wise, although having the sand jar out until she sets up a nest in a better spot does need to be done. You can use ceramic plates instead of the chichilla stones and refrigerate them as you planned. In the wild, most small animals will go underground in pretty deep, coolish tunnels during the heat of the day, so moving onto sand will come naturally to them. In human households we have to give them other options.

[Teddy001]

Thanks, Dr.K. I noticed something, when she was in the beach tank, a few hours ago. She had been running for a while on the saucer, and when I came back to check on the hams, I have a piece of tile under her water bottle/holder. She was sitting on the little piece of tile that was not covered by the bottle holder, which at first, I couldn't figure out why she was sitting in that spot, in the back end of the tank between the saucer and water bottle. Now it makes sense- she was on as much if the tile as she could be. too cool down. With the water, the hams get bottled water from the freg., which I change every day. Just OCD about changing their water every day-

[DrKMcK]

My dogs have always discovered that in hot weather it pays to go in the bathroom and lie against the toilet. Between the tiles on the floor and the cold ceramic of the toilet, they were nice and cool. Animals know what's what!

[Teddy001]

Yes, I agree. It's natural for them to know what to do. My dogs dig a deep hole in the yard, under a shady tree to keep cool.! I'll make adjustments with the sand jar( replacing with a open flat container) and place cool tile in her cage, and under her house, and add an tissue box, as well. See how that goes.
BTW- my German Shepard, keeps cool by laying directly on an air vent-- she knows, cold air shoots up from those vents on the floor. lol.

[Teddy001]

Okay, I made the adjustments to Teddy's cages. I added a cardboard house, and put a teracotta saucer in it, added a tile piece on her platform, took out the jar with sand, and replaced it with a box, open top.
I put a tile piece in her beach tank, in a grass hut- ( it's a new hut) and put a ceramic dish on her platform, took out the jar with sand and replaced it with a empty tissue box, that I DIY'd, so it's open top. She's sleeping in her house, and of course, had to put the 2 chew toys in it, before going inside to sleep! Lol. At least it's not cramped inside, since I took out the other chew toys, for now.