Hamsters are native to grasslands and meadows.
Due to their cute and amusing appearance, many people desire them as a pet. However, they’re known for throwing their poop, which is often red and smelly.
So, why do hamsters throw their poop? Hamsters are capable of throwing their poop around for a variety of reasons.
One reason is that they like to make a nice nest of poop somewhere in their cage, and they just toss it all over the place when they’re done. However, some hamsters will purposely throw their poop around in order to mark their territory.
This can serve several different purposes. Since hamsters are social animals that live in groups, they need to establish dominance hierarchies within those groups.
These hierarchies are established based on where the hamsters were born and raised and which hamsters are currently dominant and submissive in the group. When hamsters have a dominant hamster in their group, they will defecate in their litter area in order to show that they are dominant and scent-mark.
Why Do Hamsters Throw Their Poop?
Contents
You may have observed that your hamster throws his/her poop after he/she did its thing in the cage.
This seems to be a trait of the feisty little critters that (most of the time) gets pretty annoying in the long run – especially in your soil.
They consume cecotropes, which are basically dried balls of fecal matter that are collected in their feces after they eat it.
Boredom
Hamsters need enrichment activities in their cages to keep them happy and active – and entertained.
Without it, individuals are at higher risk of becoming stressed and bored, which can lead to a variety of behavior issues.
Throwing feces is one common behavior that can arise with bored hamsters.
While this behavior is mostly unexplored and hence a cause of much debate, researchers are still trying to discover why hamsters behave the way they do.
The finest type of hamster runs are those that are enclosed in small houses having a dirt patch and bedding.
To gratify their natural inclinations, hamsters need objects that they can hide in, dig under, climb over, or burrow in.
Many hamsters will not begin such gnawing until the cage is full of trash; however when this happens, they are in need of more space and a larger habitat.
Giving your hamster these items and toys is a good start but it won’t solve the problem entirely for long because of the fact that your hamster is bored and needs to be entertained more.
Cleaning Cage
Hamsters dislike living in close proximity to humans, especially in the dark.
They want their cage to smell clean because a clean cage smells better than a non-kept cage.
As a result, hamsters like dirt more than normal pets do and always try to hoard it in one corner of their cage.
When they have adequate capacity to excavate subterranean tunnels, they generally try to keep the majority of their sleeping, nesting and burrowing area underground.
Even hamsters that don’t have enough bedding material to scratch up underneath their cages will dig out more during the day if they aren’t given enough bedding material at night.
As a consequence, they increase their examination time and spend very little time asleep.
Cleaning your hamster’s cage on a daily or even weekly basis will help reduce the number of times you’ll need to do it; but if your hamster’s cage has a wire floor, you should either use a plastic scoop for cleaning or regularly take the entire cage and its contents outside and scrape out the dirt daily.
Marking Territory
Pet hamsters are unaware that humans are watching them carrying out these behaviors.
In their minds, another hamster or animal is trying to invade their territory and the only way that they can defend it is to leave a message that tells any intruder in their territory to get lost.
Throwing dung about the cage promotes that message.
Odor-elicited scent marking is frequent in mammals, and hamsters are no exception.
Similarly, if you put multiple hamsters in the one cage, the odor-elicited marking may become more pronounced or may even begin taking place in the open areas of the cage.
This is a behavior inherent to the hamster’s behavior pattern; and hamsters will generally do it even if they are kept alone.
Hamsters are lonely animals that do not have many people they can depend on to be with them or take care of them on a daily basis.
Pure Campbell’s dwarf hamsters are nocturnal animals, which means that they are most active during the night and for the most part sleep during the day.
How to Stop Hamster From Throwing Its Poop
Increase the Size of the Cage
You should raise the size if your cage so that your hamster has more space and can stop throwing his poop all over the place.
Purchasing a new hamster cage is an expensive affair and most people end up keeping their hamster in the same old cage for far too long without any real thought being put into it.
This may also help the hamster maintain his natural instinct of where to poop and where not to poop.
In general, a two-tiered cage is better for your hamster since there are more areas to explore, and the hamster will be less likely to throw its poop about even if it is unhappy.
This is an arrangement that will let a hamster run around without being too bothered by the presence of other hamsters at the same time.
This is not only a prudent investment to prevent your hamster from throwing its poop around, it will also be an investment in the happiness and comfort of your hamster.
Don’t underestimate the importance of quality bedding for your hamster.
Keep the Bedding Safe.
The bedding will really be a huge benefit to your hamster, and it is important for you, as the owner, to make sure that the bedding is of good quality.
Make sure the bedding isn’t too dusty or coarse and that the hamster is comfortable in using it.
Most hamsters will have established habits when it comes to sleeping and eating and these habits will be difficult to break even if the cage is of better quality or more attractive.
Otherwise, the hamster will seek out the bedding that he feels most comfortable in and will use the bedding as its very own home.
This might involve excrement flinging and feces throwing.
You’re going to have a much happier hamster if you make sure about the safety and cleanliness of the bedding for it to only use the bedding as a sleeping place and eating area.
Making a little enclosed space will be the best decision in making sure that the bedding is hygienic and clean for your hamster to use and doesn’t throw its excrement everywhere.
Observe the Hamster’s Behavior
The answer isn’t always obvious, and you’ll need to analyze the habits that the hamster has first before you make a decision on what to do.
You must devote time to observe the behavior of the hamster so you can catch him in action and be able to determine his habits in using the cage.
This entails concentrating on monitoring the hamster’s movements throughout the day and night and you’ll also need to take note of his feeding and eating times.
The advantages include the ability to recognize how the hamster spends its day, how much time it spends eating or sleeping and how much time it spends out of the cage.
You won’t know which issue has to corrected first or what has to be done to help the hamster if the behavior isn’t observed first before anything else.
Select a Barless Enclosure
Poop flinging may be difficult in barred enclosures since the openings between the bars are too big for the hamsters’ tiny size.
You could even believe it’s safe to have a barred enclosure as it looks safe to enclose the hamster within a box, but hamsters are intelligent animals.
Poop will stay in the cage if you choose a cage with bars as items could get stuck in the bars instead of falling to the ground.
While throwing excrement may seem unclean, it is a natural behavior for hamsters and they do toss poop in this manner.
Make Use of a Poop Scooper.
This is an excellent solution to stop your hamster from throwing its poop in a cage as it can collect the excrement and dispose of it in a manner away from the living area.
The idea is to have the feces collected in a container away from the sleeping area so there won’t be more mess to deal with.
You will maintain the hamster cage clean as it won’t be necessary to clean up the poop every day.
This will help reduce the hamster’s stress level.
Keep the poop scooper ready to use anytime the hamster decides to start tossing poop out of the cage.
Any other approach will simply not suffice in stopping your hamster from throwing its poop inside the cage.
This is when they begin to get stressed and stressed hamsters tend to become ill easily so it’s important to stop it right away before it gets worse.
Also Read: Why Is Hamster Sleeping Without Bedding?
Conclusion
If it’s as easy as boredom, then why doesn’t my house rabbit use its litter box.
This sort of conduct cannot be tolerated in a hamster’s cage because cleaning up the mess on a daily basis can become time-consuming.
As a consequence, the best remedy to stop the hamster from tossing its poop inside its cage would be to purchase a Poop Scooper to collect the feces.
