Last week I talked about how to select safe toys for your hamster. I then realized that hamsters would be living very boring lives in such safe enclosures, so this week we’ll be discussing…drumroll please….
How to Select Enriching Hamster Toys
The definition of enrichment is to enhance life (thank you Google dictionary), so let’s learn how to ‘enhance the lives of our hamsters,’ when we pick out or create new accessories for them.
Textures
Textures are probably the most enriching thing you can provide for your hamster. Hamsters have terrible eyesight, and rely primarily on smell, hearing, and touch to navigate their world.
When you’re gazing down the aisles of a pet store looking for something to entertain your hammy, look for toys with texture. Natural toys tend to have more texture than plastic or ceramic accessories.
You can also create a section of the cage with a secondary substrate. A few options are soil, shavings, paper bedding, sand, corn cob bits, wood pellets, or that weird granule substrate. Just make sure your primary substrate can hold burrows.
Chew-ability
Hamsters’ teeth continuously grow, and they need things to chew to keep their teeth short (otherwise they require a vet procedure to trim their teeth).
When selecting toys for your hammy see if they are a safe material to chew, such as wood. You can also provide chew toys, but some hamsters prefer chewing their accessories.
Climb-ability
Some hamsters (namely Syrians) love climbing. Hamsters are not made for climbing. When offering climbing toys to your hammy make sure they are either quite low or have a railing to prevent major, injury-inducing falls.
Lots of these toys have ramps, but if not, make sure they can climb it without too much trouble.
Hide-Ability
Hamsters are prey animals, and they benefit from having easy access to hiding places. They will be more confident when they can hide quickly.
Hidey houses are a great option for this, and provide a safe place to nest as well. Hamster houses come in many sizes, shapes, and designs. Try to avoid transparent plastic houses; hamsters feel safer in opaque accessories.
When selecting a hideout make sure the doorway is (at minimum) 2 inches for dwarfs and 3 inches for Chinese and Syrian hamsters. This will prevent them from getting stuck when their cheek pouches are full. They can also puncture the inside of their cheeks with food if the doorway is too small.
I always like to have at least 3 hidey houses for my hammies so they can choose which they prefer for a nesting place.
Foraging Toys
Foraging toys are wonderful for hamsters. These toys come in many forms, but all usually have the same concept: hiding food.
Most hamsters are highly food-motivated, so hiding their food in a foraging toy is an excellent way to stimulate their little brains. Many foraging toys also involve chewing to free the captive food, so this also provides something to chew.
You can also scatter feed their seed mix, or sprinkle some forage for them to find. Forage usually consists of different hamster-safe leaves and flower petals that they can snack on (you can purchase bags of forage online).
Conclusion
If a hamster toy or accessory does not provide a new texture, somewhere to hide food, something to chew, something to climb on, or something to hide under, it does not really provide any enrichment.
Hamsters do like semi-crowded cages, so you can afford to put in some random, boring toys, but always think safety and enrichment first.
Next week I’ll be sharing how I do Stew’s monthly deep clean, and show you how to apply these principles to his new setup, so if you’d like to see that post be sure to like this post and follow the blog, and I’ll be back on Tuesday with more small pet care, DIYs, recipes, cage setups, stories and more, have a ham-tastic day!
Beanie the Hamster 
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