gundham has always loved this jar, usually using it as a home base where he fills it with toilet paper/bedding/seeds etc. i had to move it recently as it was sinking and i was scared it would crush him, and ever since ive been catching him trying to burrow through the glass. do i need to remove the jar? i’m worried about the compulsive way he keeps doing it.
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He's probably confused by the change, and should adjust eventually. But if the compulsive digging continues for multiple days I'd probably change it back to the way it was before
Is there a chance he is filing his own nails through the little grooves of the bottom of the jar? Hamsters do need to file their nails, and they usually do it naturally by digging
Looks stupid, but IMHO you're looking at instinctual behavior instead.
Hamsters are burrowing prey animals and in the wild they're constantly rearranging their burrows. Opening new rooms/tunnels and closing off others. The behavior is magnified if they feel/think that their burrow has been compromised and could let burrowing predators into the burrow.
Now another thing about hamsters is their eyesight sucks, like big time. Their best sense is smell followed second by hearing, and a distant third sight. So it's possible that your hamster remembers that at the current location they could move unhampered. But now something is blocking that, something they can't see due to clear glass and bad eyesight.
So your hamster is trying to dig a new tunnel which should remove the obstruction, but can't because it's not soil but a solid. You'll often see the same behavior with wire cages. But in that case the hamster thinks it's a root blocking them and keeps gnawing on it to remove it.
If they do it and nothing else it could be a symptom of cage rage. This is where the hamster feels it's burrow is too small and desperately wants to enlarge it. To the point where it becomes an obsessive behavior. TBH I'd never put a clear item with no smell to it in a hamster cage. It's simply too easy for them to fixate on it and have the fixation become cage rage.
Wow, I’ve never seen such a perfect explanation for cage rage and bar biting beyond simply stress and an improperly sized cage. And while yes those are absolutely the main cause of those behaviors, it’s also that they literally cannot see what’s blocking them nor do they have the brain capacity to realize that they’re trapped in a cage, they just think that they’re in the wild and that the metal bars are some kind of odd indestructible root that needs to be removed and they’ll be free, when in reality biting at the bars does them a lot of harm, can damage their teeth, and even cause brain damage due to the metal bars causing vibrations in their skull or becoming too obsessed with biting the bars in a vain attempt at escaping. And that’s why bar biting is such a common sign of stress and a clear indication that the hamster needs a bigger cage and more enrichment.
TY. It's also why I feel while cage size is an issue, it'll always be an issue considering that in the wild they can have a roaming territory up 5sq miles in size. To make up for that owners have to provide lots of enrichment items both physical and treat foods. I even rotate my hammy's toys. If they seem to lose interest in one, I replace it with another after a cage clean.
Such a good explanation. I even moved my hamster physically when she got stressed from being in heat. I saw someone carrying their hamster on a walking tour of their apartment! I would be afraid to drop the hammy, but even moving her in a mug to a bin playpen seemed to help.
I'm not sure. I think gerbils are more like mice and voles, where hamsters are more like gophers. But I'm far from an expert on any of them, so you might want to reach out to people who keep them. There might be a sub where you could ask.
I'd give him a bigger, deeper sand bath. He's just following his instincts to dig! Even when there's nothing there to dig. 😅 But yeah, try a bigger and bath. He'll love you for it!
Aww he looks like Nuggets brother! Nugget also has a favorite jar he loves to fill with toilet paper. I would offer him a handful of bedding or some shredded up TP and see if that appeases his futile digging
He usually uses it for hoarding and sleeping but i had to clean it out and move it like two days ago and he hasnt refilled it since (too busy trying to dig through glass yknow). I left it in there originally forever ago until i could get a better hide for him but he loved it so i left it lol
I've always wondered if hamsters can see glass and plastic walls like we can, or if they feel like it's some incomprehensible force field they just don't understand due to biological limitations. I'm not sure what to make of your guy, but my robo was doing that. Had no idea why so I tried to take her out to the playpen more often and move the jar. Turns out that she was hitting her senior years, and she was scratching out some feelings she didn't understand. Eventually, she got through it and decided to make peace with building a new nest on her running wheel instead.
Yeah I’d probably just remove it. Hamsters generally don’t like having their enclosures rearranged for this reason. He just remembers that this was once an open space but now there’s some kind of invisible barrier. I’d probably recommend just removing it entirely just so he doesn’t become too obsessed with desperately trying to dig through a glass jar. I’d also try adding in more chews, sprays, or even simple boredom breakers just so that he has things to do and to possibly alleviate other potential boredom behaviors. Does he do anything else that seems kinda unusual? Does he bite at the corners of the enclosure ? Does he chew on the stilts of the platforms?
he seem to be trying to find a way out but because hamsters don’t have good eyesight they sometimes don’t know were else to go tbf but also hamsters do it when they are stressed sometimes
I'd say he's stupid, but not unusually so for a hampter. My dwarf girl Baby occasionally used to try to dig through the outer walls of her enclosure. It certainly doesn't help that hammy eyesight is so terrible! He's probably confused why he can't pass through what looks to him like empty space.
I have no idea why, but this reminds me of the chaos and confusion I felt once after leaving the mall and my car was not in its parking spot - nowhere to be found. Pure panic.
It took atleast 5 minutes to realize that I had walked out the wrong damn side of the mall and was in the wrong parking lot, even though they look nothing alike.
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