Hamster biting at dig box - is this normal or a concern?

[Angel's Teddybear]

Angel has recently gotten a new dig box, (she has a sand bath and has exhibited behaviors like this before) but she has been biting the bottom and digging where there is no coco fibers. She also will lick it. I know the picture doesn’t show much, but hopefully it can help show it a little.

 

[Socks Mum]

Hamster burrows in the wild can be a few metres deep. Males are often a bit more lazy, but female hamsters have potential pups to think of, so have an instinctive urge to dig deep tunnels. If she can't get past an obstacle with her paws, she will try her teeth and even try to lick at it to "soften" it, but plastic is not like plants and cannot be bitten or licked through (unless you are a gerbil). I'm not sure what the solution is. Other girl hamster custodians might have solutions for digging and biting.

 

[Maz]

Don't worry. It's fairly common behaviour in a dig box. They dig out of instinct and it's always to see if they can get further down (or escape!). And then find there's a bottom that goes nowhere! Most usually just give up at that point and look slightly disappointed maybe Some will try and get past the barrier.

I think it's sometimes better to just have the deep substrate rather than a dig box then they can dig a bit further. But they often have the same issue in a sand bath. She's probably just testing it out. However female syrians can try and chew through things and if that was a wood dig box she may well have just chewed a hole in it!

I think it's tricky when people recommend different textures and substrates as they need to be contained in something that has limited depth. It might just be a one off if she's just testing it. But if she keeps doing it I'd consider replacing the plastic dig box with something else. For the texture you could just spread cork granules on top of one area of the bedding maybe. To the hamster, it's soil so it should be bottomless!

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

Ok, thank you so much! I think I’ll keep them in, since she loves them, but I might try sprinkling a different substrate on a different area!

 

[Tulsi]

I heard of someone the other day who kept hamsters and who gave them a massive container filled with earth as their free range digging time. I am not suggesting that earth is a good idea but I loved the thought of them digging deep tunnels as their enrichment activity. Apparently they would dig down and then pop up again a few feet away!

 

[Angel's Teddybear]

That’s an amazing idea!! Thank you so much for sharing it with me!