dotty hamster

[cook1254]

My daughter has a hamster who started off filling one of the tubes of her house with the sawdust from the floor. Now she has filled up her wheel with the sawdust. she pushes it all back into the wheel with her back paws,then compacts it in with her bottom. Anyone have any ideas why it is doing this ? We know she is not pregnant so she is not making a nest.

[dot.hawkes]

maybe she is bored. You can imagine her saying over to herself s she does this, 'so little time and so much to do!'

[gilby]

thing is, if you take it out and spread the sawdust around it'll only go and put it all back again. mine was the same only he would post it out of his cage and onto my floor!!

[little coojy]

sounds like she's bored like dot.hawkes says. ask your pet shop if they stock any types of toys for hamsters, when my kids have had hamsters before i've found they love any kind of tube, we used to collect loads of loo rolls and kitchen paper rolls and make up little mazes for them, also the balls you can get for them to run around inside of are great.

[cook1254]

Thank you all for your replys. Every time I see her now all I can think of is what you said dot. Yes I believe she may well be bored and we will be getting her some toys over the Easter hols.We have a ball for her little coojy, which is a good job too as she can't run around in her wheel.lol. Thanks again for all your help.

[Cheekystar]

sounds like she's nest making -to stop her I'd remove the wheel (and tube if possible) this will make her stop and hopefully she'll then remove the nest back to where it should be!

Boredom breakers for hamsters can be really cheap, tie some treats up using string, get some small pieces of wood, and hide treats under them, Wilkensons do really cheap and cheerful stuff for as little as 50p, or look on e-bay for see-saws, cubes etc.

Try handling her, you can get small brushes which my hamster Mrs Doyle loves

[Cheekystar]

didn't see the last bit - she could be making her own next to sleep in

[squirtle]

My hamster has a plastic cave type bed and i fill it full of soft bedding for him, he still manages to push all the shavings from the cage floor up and around the outside of his house. Also i scatter food about the cage and hide it under the shavings so he has to search for it, but every morning its all in the food dish. I have even put one of those treat sticks in there but on the floor as opposed to hanging them on the bars and he picks that up and trys to position that in the dish too, he's very tidy. The reason i don't hang it on the bar is because he strips it all in an evening then leaves it all in his bed!! Hopefully he's not too bored as he always gets about an hour of an evening in his ball running around the floor, annoying my boyfriend who can't hear the tv because the ball keeps crashing into the table and the tv stand etc. Ha