Soil Substrate

[kelly1234]

Hello,

I am using 6 inches of organic soil that I sterilized in the freezer for 48hrs as my substrate. I put some carefresh on top of the soil and also made a sand corner of the same depth with some bendy bridges. I am a new hamster owner and my hamster seems really thrilled with her cage.

However, shortly after she got settles she dug into the soil under her house and was in there for 30 minutes digging around. Things got quiet and I figured she was asleep. Then I got a little worried and so I dug her out, and she was about 4 inches deep with no apparent tunnels down there. She popped out and cleaned herself in the sand and went about eating and running on the wheel, and she seemed fine.

My question is, is it possible that she could dig herself to a point where she is stuck or couldn't breath? Does anyone else have experience using mostly soil as a substrate? I want to make sure she is safe as well as happy!

Thanks!

[Drago]

Hello and welcome to HC!

I don't think 6 inches of soil is enough to collapse in on them/suffocate them in all honesty. Hamsters are naturally burrowing creatures so they know what they're doing with digging. I personally wouldn't recommend using soil as your full cage substrate. I only section off an area of my cages with soil for digging. What species do you have? I would recommend replacing most of the soil with just plain bedding (the amount you should add depends upon species). If you have any other questions, please ask

[cypher]

Soil isn't suitable as a main substrate at all, it's fine if you want to put some in a smaller area or digging box of some kind as Drago said but you need to use something else like carefresh, wood shavings or a paper based substrate (which you can use will depend on where you are?) as well as the possible dangers of soil it's not ideal for burrowing (you can't mimic the soil they dig in in the wild in a cage) & would be virtually impossible to keep clean.

[kelly1234]

Thanks for the advice I changed most of the soil to carefresh and I'll switch to a mix of carefresh and shavings when I clean the cage, with maybe a small digging section. Any advice on other good burrowing substrates? My hamster loves to dig!

Also, I have a female Syrian hamster.

[Pebbles82]

I think some people use a mix of two or three substrates to help tunnels hold their shape. eg Carefresh, aspen and cardboard.

[AmityvilleHams]

Carefresh on its own should have no trouble holding burrows.Any sort of wood however tends to be quite poor at holding burrows You could add Carefresh Crinkles if possible if you really wanted to,but it wouldn't be necessary(although these tend to boost burrow stability just a tiny bit extra in my experience plus they're good to hide bits of food in if you scrunch them into a ball with your hands!).