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Old 12-19-2018, 02:27 AM   #1
mezziet3
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Default Huge food stash

My hammy has got a huge food stash in his nest. He normally stashes a bit in there but its massive now. I presume this is because it is cold and he is preparing to hibernate (although he hasn't yet). The problem is he also keeps pooing in it! I don't want to remove it all in case he does hibernate and he seems stressed when I touch his stash. On the other hand I don't want him having poo in his food. Any suggestions?
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Old 12-19-2018, 02:37 AM   #2
cypher
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Default Re: Huge food stash

Hamsters don't hibernate, if they get too cold they can go into a state of torpor & if not woken & warmed up will die. Make sure the room stays around 18-20C day & night to avoid any problems like that.
A larger than normal food stash in winter is just natural behaviour, even when the room is warm they respond to the change in daylight hours & know it's winter, poo in the stash is ok, they eat some of that anyway, it's only if they pee on it you need to remove & replace it really.
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Old 12-19-2018, 05:54 AM   #3
flowerfairy
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Default Re: Huge food stash

I regularly remove my hamster's food stashes and always put a little bit of new food instead so that they dont feel deprived.
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Old 12-31-2018, 02:40 AM   #4
mezziet3
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Default Re: Huge food stash

Thank you ��
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Old 12-31-2018, 03:29 AM   #5
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Huge food stash

He is hoarding his poos which is quite normal! Their poo isn't dirty or smelly - they are like little hard seeds and they sometimes eat them for extra nutrients - they have two stomachs and can redigest vitamins etc from their poos. They sometimes hoard some as an emergency thing in case there is ever a food shortage.

If the hoard isn't peed on I would leave it. Dry food is fine left for some time and hamsters do get very anxious about their hoards being removed. If and when it gets really too large (starts taking over the bottom of the cage) then you could prune it down next time you are doing a substrate clean. But I would never remove all of it at once, and if you do remove some, always put some new food back to replace it in exactly the same place.
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