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Why does my hamster fill his wheel with sawdust2007-11-24 22:19:22

My hamster has a couple or more times filled his wheel with the sawdust from his cage floor...litterally crammed in top to bottom!! (He has a modular 'cage' with a solid external wheel and tubes all over the place). This activity has kept him awake for hours after he would normally go to sleep. Why is he doing it?? I have seen hamsters fill tubes before, perhaps if it is cold and they want to try to hibernate, but nothing like this!! Any answers?

Answers:

He is simply turning the wheel into a den. By packing it full, he can then hollow out a tiny hole for himself to curl up and sleep in.

Do you have any other sleeping places for him? Even if you did, he may still choose the wheel as his favorite. My hamster loved to make a nest UNDER his wheel. He would pack it as tight as it would go and then sleep mashed between the shavings and the underside of the wheel. He had 2 other wooden sleeping huts to choose from and he preferred the wheel.

Not all hamsters are the same but many tend to have strange behaviors like this that cant really be explained, only understood. He has decided that he likes that wheel to sleep in. Simple as that.

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Your hamster is doing that because he thinks that the spinning wheel is the most safest place. Hamsters pick a safest place and then takes woodshavings and brings them to the safest place. I put a small little hut that is can be attached to the cage and they love it! But instead of bringing woodshavings I put some fluff and then my hamsters just go and get food and put it at the bottom of their fluff. They hide it so no one would see it. well that's all I know! Hopefully that should help!