What makes your hamster happy

 

Foraging for food

  • When you feed your hamster, give them a scatter of food in their bedding or hide snacks in various places in their cage

  • In the wild, hamsters spend most of their time foraging for food! They love to find hidden snacks! This is an easy way to brighten their day.

  • Foraging food ideas:

    • Toilet Paper Tube Puzzle

      Toilet paper tube with a few holes cut into it, filled with your hamster’s favorite foods and snacks, and place it in their cage

  • Find many more enrichment ideas here!

 
 

Burrowing in bedding

  • Hamsters love to make tunnels and nests in their bedding!

    • This is a natural behavior for hamsters as they live in burrows

    • Hamsters should have at least 5 inches of bedding in the bottom of their cages and up to 10 inches in burrowing areas

  • In the wild hamsters spend most of their time finding food and bringing it back to the burrow

    • Burrows keep hamsters safe from predators, by providing a great place to hide!

  • Hamsters feel safer when their enclosure smells like them

    • Save some of their used bedding to put back into their cage after you clean it

 
 

Walking on the wheel

  • Wheels keep hamsters from becoming overweight and stressed

    • Wheels can reduce stress after fights with other hamsters (but they still should be housed separately)

    • Prevent hamsters from showing stereotypic behaviors, linked to stress and boredom, like chewing the bars of their cage or bar climbing

  • Hamsters should have a solid plastic or wood wheel like the one on the right

    • Wheels made of metal/plastic/wood bars or mesh will damage their delicate paws

  • The wheel is one of the most important elements to your hamster’s wellbeing

 
 

Tinkering with Toys

  • Hamsters are busy little critters who can get bored easily. When hamsters are bored, they are likely to become stressed

  • Hamsters need a variety of toys and places to hide in their enclosure

  • Toys and hides hamsters love!

    • Cork logs

    • Sandboxes

    • Platforms

    • Huts and houses

    • Plant “sprays” such as millet, oat, flax, and wheat

    • Niteangel products

    • Trixie natural hides

    • Whimzees tiny dog chews for dental health

  • Toys to avoid

    • Kapok bedding

    • Hamster exercise balls - very dangerous and scary to them

    • Tubes and tunnels made of plastic

    • Snak Shaks and other edible hides (avoid products made with sawdust)

    • See a full list here