She's pouching everything! xD

[Winterwhitelilo]

Lilo has emptied her food bowl twice now and shoved it all in her pouches and either eats it all or hoards it in her "food storage", (her nest is in a different spot). I put her in her playpen just now and was worried when she got really quiet, but it turns out she was in a tunnel shoving treats into her pouches xD She always ignores the pellets, though. Anything else is fair game. Is this pouching normal? She hasn't done it before...

[DrKMcK]

Yes, it's normal...for hamsters of course. LOL. She sounds like a real fun little girl. :-D

[Winterwhitelilo]

Okay, it was a little worrying since I had her out playing and her pouches were huge :D I let her in her cage where she emptied it all in her nest and then wanted to come back out. It's good seeing her confidence slowly build up :)

[caro317]

How funny that she hasn't done this up to now, I wonder if she just didn't realise she had this amazing skill?? My Popcorn will even stuff bits of bedding into his cheeks to move them to his favourite new spot. I just love seeing them with their faces stuffed, it's so funny :)

[Winterwhitelilo]

She probably did just find out she could do that :D I haven't caught her with any bedding yet but I'm sure she'll figure that out too haha

[hamsterheart2013]

pancake always shoves everything into his cheeks. i have to be careful about toilet roll near the bars on his cage. he is so funny sometimes. yes pouching is very normal.

[Syrian Hammy]

My hybrid girl went to the vets yesterday with full pouches lol.

[Anthorn]

Mine does it too. You could have a go at minimising pouching and storing by placing the main food source (bowl) closer to the nest. In that case the hamster could stop pouching and storing so much and just come out of the nest to get more food when needed. But not guaranteed.

[dwarfessy]

Hehe yes this is very very normal. I am always amazed just how much essy(Ww/hybrid) can pouch with no issues and still go about as if perfectly normal. She only seems to pouch "dry foods" though like different types of seeds and pellets. She won't pouch fresh food, although she can eat unseasoned clean edemame beans incredibly quickly.

[caro317]

My hybrid girl went to the vets yesterday with full pouches lol.

Made me giggle :)

[PinkyDinkyDoo]

I came on here worrying because Elmo has just pouched a load of bedding, and moved it...I dont know how he fits in his bed as I already put a lot of bedding there lol

[Vonni911]

I have found that my newest hamster, Precious (RC), also pouches close to everything she puts in her mouth. Niblet didn't start doing it until I brought Precious home, now she walks around with pouches full and tends to spit it all out when I take her out of the cage to play with Precious. Precious will promptly relocate all of Niblet's food into her own mouth! LOL I guess that is why Precious is twice the size of Niblet!
(Niblet is not undernourished, she is just smaller than Precious and I think she is a bit younger as well. Despite Precious eating her food, Niblet still gets plenty to eat when she is in her own cage and not socializing!)