do all hamsters stash?

[daffee]

My OH and I have recently acquired our first hamsters, a pair of female robos. We have been feeding them by the scatter method which seems to be going down well.

We have been feeding a very small handful every other day and keeping an eye on how much food is still lying about the cage each day. They aren't stashing anything (except millet which we keep finding everywhere). Does this suggest that we should be feeding them more or do some hamsters not stash?

My OH is sure he heard once that if a hamster feels secure about their food then they won't bother hiding/storing it up. I just want to make sure as I don't want them going hungry.

[souffle]

If they are young animals they will be growing so I would say the amout you are feding is not enough for them. Increase it a bit and watch if they store any. Dwarf hamsters do not seem to store as much as syrians we find. Syrians do store quite a lot though we have had the odd one who does ot bother. Be sure to give them tiny bits of protein too like chicken, tofu, or egg and some fresh veg like broccolli.

[daffee]

Thanks. That's what I thought. It's difficult because we don't use a food bowl. There always seems to be some food left on the floor of the cage. We will start giving them a bit more though to make sure. Now we've had them a few dys we are starting to introduce fresh foods. We didn't want to give them to much too soon. They had their first bit of carrot last night and will start giving them bits of egg/tofu etc when we give it to our rats.

[babyboos]

Roborovski don't hoard in the same way as Syrians
sound sperfectly natural normal behaviour to me