Yes. I always felt it was about an ego need to be right for some people. Like I was arguing with dogs who were only interested in marking their territory. I felt afraid to share myself or my pets, for fear of being annihilated since I wasn't following the "one right way." For me, I would just like to set judgments aside and have open-minded friends to talk to about things that matter to me. We can learn so much from each other. Enough about that though.
I think that's what I'm looking for here, is how to balance things like that. A lot of people seem to think that if you get your hamster a huge cage and put some hamster-y stuff in it, then the rest will fall into place and the hamster will be happy. Almost as though the size of the cage is the be-all, end-all of hamster care. Certainly it is a large component, and a certain amount of space is required for well-being, but I am of the stance that how you set up the environment and what you offer the hamster is more important (or at least just as important) than how far apart their walls are. I think using math is a good guideline, but the older I get, the more math seems totally useless to me in accurately assessing a situation as a whole.
That's one thing I don't like about scientific experiments: the variable is the only thing you're studying. It doesn't look at the whole picture. One thing I noted in those cage size experiments was that, no matter the cage size, the hamsters still tried to escape. That tells me that the problem probably isn't cage space. I was actually more intrigued by the deep bedding studies they did. In those circumstances, the hamsters were almost never seen trying to escape. They felt safe; they felt at home. ...And I think there are other ways besides deep substrate to make a hamster feel safe and at home, too.
So, about that study done on bedding depth that I read. In the wild, they found that the average burrow depth was between 7 and 26 inches. In captivity, the hamsters chose to burrow somewhere in between. A person might say that they -need- to be able to burrow that deep, but I disagree. I think a hamster just adapts to its environment and simply does whatever it feels is necessary. In a cage, a hamster doesn't need a deep burrow to get away from predators, so they're just burrowing as far as they can...because they can. In the wild, they have to burrow in order to survive. On the other hand, maybe burrow depth would depend on the hamster. For example, a pregnant female might make a deep, permanent nest and a male might only bother making a shallow, temporary one. Burrow depth could certainly depend on the personality of a hamster and how they're feeling at the time.
There does seem to be a huge difference between Syrians and the other species, and you are right, the problem does seem to be with Syrians. Dwarfs seem easy to please, tend to live more like mice, and want to stay close to or in the burrow. Syrians often seem totally insatiable. Though, one thing I noticed with two of my Syrians is that they seem to just relish coming out of the cage and getting attention. When they were younger, they didn't seem to care as much; they seemed more unsatisfied. My third Syrian is a very insatiable female, she is a chewer, a digger, and she doesn't like to be touched.
I think it would be interesting to look at (maybe start a thread about) hamster behavior in the wild, especially when comparing the species. We have to think about their niche in the world: what they're supposed to be doing and would choose to do in their natural environment. A hamster species that is solitary will have different habits than one who is communal. A species that makes deep, permanent burrows is likely to have different habits and needs than a species who has shallow, temporary burrows. For example, one might move (migrate) around a lot, and another might stay in the same area for its entire life.
I'm going to use other species as an example again: voles. I have a colony of voles from my garden compost heap. We were lucky enough to happen to capture a male and a female at about 6 weeks of age, and now we have 15-20 of them between two large tanks. The heap outside is about 10 x 10 feet if I had to guess, and the voles never leave. They obviously have deep burrows, and they have to, because the humans are always around the garden doing yardwork, turning the compost heap, and adding more.
Inside, I noticed something interesting. They don't ever burrow to the bottom of the tank. They are more concerned with burrowing exactly in the middle point of the substrate. Halfway up, halfway down. They don't seem to care how deep it is, as long as they have enough substrate to construct a burrow. They just do whatever makes sense. They also don't ever try to escape, as long as they have what they need right in front of them. Which, voles seem to have simple values: water/food/heat, stuff to chew on/excavate, and family.
I also noticed that these burrowing animals (and voles are very much so) don't like open spaces. They want to continually be hugged by their tunnels, they live almost exclusively in tunnels, and there is basically no such thing as a "room" in a vole burrow. Only tunnels. Because of this, they very highly value having chewable/edible obstacles throughout the substrate. Space doesn't seem to matter to them, as long as there is enough space and resources for them to be able to carry out a normal vole life. Even though they might choose to occupy a 10 x 10 foot square compost heap in the wild, that doesn't mean that is absolutely what they need to live. I think it's the same for hamsters; they don't have a concept of space, it's about what they're doing in the space.
One more thing I feel is something we never look at is the fact that our hamsters have sex drives. They're rodents, nature's food animal: their life purpose is to reproduce, so it's probably quite fulfilling for them to do so. I've noticed that hamsters seem happier in their cages if they're raising a family. Not that we can give every hamster that, but it is something we don't really seem to consider. One of my Syrians right now is a hamster I allowed to have babies. She seemed to just...calm down and feel right afterwards. I swear the male did, too. I had never really thought about it before. Maybe some hamsters just want some oxytocin?
This made me think of rabbits too, they are pretty obvious about what they want out of life, and as prey, actually seem to enjoy being chased. Lol. Sorry for the long post, I'm sure it's tiring to read. I am just so thankful that this is a safe place to chat. There are so many things I want to talk about.
