Stereotyped behavior
Everyone is familiar with stereotypical behavior of hamsters. Unfortunately, many hamster owners don’t understand why their hamster shows this behavior. Any stereotypical behavior is the cause of an underlying problem for the hamster. The size or the layout of the accommodation is often the cause of the problem.
What is meant by stereotyped behavior?
When I talk about stereotypical behavior, I mainly mean the following:
- Gnawing bars;
- Licking the enclosure;
- Climbing in the bars;
- Extremely gnawing stuff;
- Obsessively demanding attention;
- Obsessive running in his wheel / on the flying soucer.
Some people believe that stereotypical behavior is just part of the hamster’s behavior or that the hamster likes to do it. This gives you misconceptions such as that hamsters love to climb, while they are not naturally climbing animals at all. Hamsters see no depth and just drop when they hang on the bars in the top of the cage, life threatening!
It is therefore a task as a hamster owner to closely monitor and recognize stereotyped behavior. This is how a hamster tells you something is wrong. This can usually be solved by changing the setup of the enclosure (if it’s the minimum size.
). If that really does not help, your hamster is probably ready for a enclosure that is even bigger.
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2 Comments
kelly
Hello!! I have 4 hamsters. Pumpkin and Boots, (robo dwarf hamsters), and Benji and Ginger, (long haired syrians). They’ve all had ikea detolfs for quite a while, and Benji and Ginger are showing really concerning behavior. At night they will climb on the water bottle, lick at the glass, chew the metal framing, and I don’t know what I am doing wrong. I am working on making the cage less plain, and putting more to do, but I am still so worried. They are on the second floor in a separate room (with the door closed), and I still have found Ginger on the first floor 4 times. The only way he could’ve gotten down there was by falling 15 feet down the banister. And, he has gotten out a total of 11 times since July. I am seriously scared for their health, so if you have any tips please let me know!! And also, I was wondering where you got some of your stuff for your cages? I would love to make their cages like that and hopefully stop the urge to escape!!
hamsterscape
I can imagine that you are worried! I would love to help you but giving advice without an image of the cage setup that’s difficult. I get most of my stuff at http://www.drdknaagdierwinkel.nl
Just make sure they have lost of bedding, shelter, hides and things that keeps them busy like hide snacks or food, toys and chews.
Hamsterscape