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enigma82 · 10-19-2009, 03:21 AM

We've just got our first hamster, we have had her for about a week. She has a Rotastack round cage, which has a wheel and a tube that goes up to a bedding area. Her food and water are in this cage. We bought her another bigger cage for a play area, which we attached to the first cage with some tubes. When we first got it she had a bit of a sniff around, played abit, then the next morning we found she had taken all her sawdust from the first cage and just blocked the tube between the 2 cages. I unblocked the tube and she just put it back.

We wondered if it was a smell issue or something, so we cleaned out both cages but fresh sawdust in etc and cleared out the blockage again. She then went into the new cage, had another sniff around, sat in there for a while. Then next morning we found she had again completely filled her tube with sawdust, and then when that ran out, put all her food in there as well!

I've seen allot of articles saying its normal for hamsters to do this, they like to block of the entrance to their burrow etc, which is fine but what I don't know is if I should keep unblocking the tube when she blocks it and replace her sawdust, or should I leave it blocked, and just empty it when I clean her out, or just remove the new cage altogther and block of the tube, and give up on using that cage? I'd really like her to get used to the new cage, as it gives her a lot more room.

10-19-2009, 03:21 AM
enigma82 Newborn Pup Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 2	Blocking Tubes to larger cage We've just got our first hamster, we have had her for about a week. She has a Rotastack round cage, which has a wheel and a tube that goes up to a bedding area. Her food and water are in this cage. We bought her another bigger cage for a play area, which we attached to the first cage with some tubes. When we first got it she had a bit of a sniff around, played abit, then the next morning we found she had taken all her sawdust from the first cage and just blocked the tube between the 2 cages. I unblocked the tube and she just put it back. We wondered if it was a smell issue or something, so we cleaned out both cages but fresh sawdust in etc and cleared out the blockage again. She then went into the new cage, had another sniff around, sat in there for a while. Then next morning we found she had again completely filled her tube with sawdust, and then when that ran out, put all her food in there as well! I've seen allot of articles saying its normal for hamsters to do this, they like to block of the entrance to their burrow etc, which is fine but what I don't know is if I should keep unblocking the tube when she blocks it and replace her sawdust, or should I leave it blocked, and just empty it when I clean her out, or just remove the new cage altogther and block of the tube, and give up on using that cage? I'd really like her to get used to the new cage, as it gives her a lot more room.