Do hamster forage for winter?

[Rarity]

SO Jade has started to take ALL of her food and hide it in the corners of her home, and theres like a HUGE amount in her pipe, she never used to do this before. Just one day all of her food was gone, and so i filled it up again and in then next couple of days all the food was gone again! I finally figured out why, i heard her spit up all the food in her cheeks onto the plastic. So do hamsters forage for winter or something? Or is it just something hamsters suddenly do when theyre matured? Shes a Winter White

[DrKMcK]

Hello Rarity, and welcome to Hamster Central. The very reason hamsters have cheek pouches is to forage for food and bring it back to their nests. It's instinctive with them. This is a normal part of their lives. If you find very large stashes, just cut back a little bit...not by much though. A hamster should always have some food in their stash. It may be helpful for you to start reading up on the WIKI (Up at the top of the screen you will find the menu for it), and become more familiar on what to expect your hammy to do. It has great advice on food, housing, behavior, etc. Jade is just fine. :-D

[NiceCrocs]

Hamsters instinctively store food, not just for winter, but year round :) some hamsters will stash every piece of food they can find, others will only stash a day or two's-worth. There are some hams who don't do it so much; they'll just eat out of their food bowl like a dog or cat might, but they are by far the exception to the rule.

Like DrK suggests, you can use their stashing habits to gauge how much you feed them; the proper amount should be enough to eat their fill, and still have a little left to hide away :)

[cypher]

As the others have said this is perfectly normal behaviour for any ham, you didn't say how old Jade is or how long you've had her but I've noticed with mine it sometimes takes them a while after they've settled in before they start to stash their food, sometimes they'll make more of a stash if you clean the cage & take out too much of the old one or unsettle them in some way.

[Skeever]

They seem to save the good stuff for later ;) I just gave Zig a cracker and heard him munching on it happily....then it got quiet. Yup, sure enough, there he was tiptoeing across the cage with the rest of the cracker in his mouth, to put it in his favorite vault..... LOL.........

Mine may be storing more with winter coming on , but they always stashed plenty. I think they understand the food dish is the freshest stuff and do eat out of the actual bowl, but its not the only place they eat nor the most popular one ....

[Skeever]

They seem to save the good stuff for later ;) I just gave Zig a cracker and heard him munching on it happily....then it got quiet. Yup, sure enough, there he was tiptoeing across the cage with the rest of the cracker in his mouth, to put it in his favorite vault..... LOL.........

Mine may be storing more with winter coming on , but they always stashed plenty. I think they understand the food dish is the freshest stuff and do eat out of the actual bowl, but its not the only place they eat nor the most popular one ....

[ade]

My old Robo used to store his food in different areas around his cage, and each area was for a certain type of seed/pellet. Very organised.

[Thin Lizzy]

All hamsters like to stash their food, my 2 have a couple of places they stash on their cages, it's always their favourites from their food dish. I do find on the winter months that they stash a bit more than usual, but with the fresh food treats they get daily they're eaten straight away.