If there’s one thing that new hamster owners from California to New York can agree on, it’s that hamsters poop a lot. Especially if you’ve never had a hamster before, it can be shocking to see how much they actually poop. Is it even normal?
Hamsters poop so much because they’re constantly eating and have a fast digestive system, so excessive hamster poop is perfectly normal. Food for hamsters is also high in fiber. And if you’re feeding lots of fresh produce, you’re also offering fluids, which lubricate the intestines as fiber does.
Here are some explanations on how much hamsters poop and how to know when you should be concerned.
Why Hamsters Poop a Lot
For the most part, hamsters naturally poop a lot; it’s a part of their rodent biology. But there could be instances where your hamster is defecating even more than usual. The trick is figuring out how much poop is too much.
First, let’s check out the reasons (both normal and abnormal) your hamster may be pooping often:
- Constant eating
- Fast digestive system
- High-fiber diet
- High fresh food diet
- Stress
You can also interpret these factors as food, digestion, and stress.
Food and Digestion
Hamsters share these traits with the rest of the rodent family. They’re adapted to chew all the time and have rapid heart and digestive systems.
They need to chew rough food to keep their constantly growing teeth trimmed, and animals that stay in a constant forage mode have fast-moving body systems.
Fruits and vegetables also have high water content. The combination of water and fiber helps poop move along.
They’re also tiny animals, so whatever they eat doesn’t have far to go before getting out. This short exposure to nutrition would be a problem for small animals if they didn’t stay awake more than most animals to eat all the time.
If you watch your hamster at night, you may notice that they poop more than during the day, which is also typical for many rodents. They’re nocturnal (active at night). They’re also crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk).
Since these are their natural activity periods, they’ll eat and poop more during these times.
Hamster poop also retains lots of nutrients because of the digestion speed, so don’t be surprised if your hamster eats its poop. It’s another common rodent trait that lets them make full use of their foraging efforts. This habit is called coprophagy.
Hamsters even know which pellets have the most nutrients or have specific ones they need. They’ll eat those and ignore the rest. Some scientists believe that the poop has extra vitamins B and K.
Hamsters deficient in B will eat and drink less, while those short on K will have brittle bones because K helps calcium absorption.
They’ll usually eat their poop at night immediately after they pass it. At that point, the pellets have healthy bacteria while harmful germs enter after the poop has sat around exposed for a bit.
Read How To Play With a Hamster
Stress
The rapidity of their biology also makes hamsters more susceptible to stress. And when it comes to poop, stress tends to make things run extra fast.
Sometimes it only makes the hamster poop more in a shorter amount of time, but in more significant stress situations, they may experience diarrhea.
Stress for hamsters will include situations like the following:
- A cramped cage
- A cage that hasn’t been cleaned
- Lots of loud noises
- Excessive heat
- A new location
- Poor sleep hygiene
Hamsters also instinctively understand that cats are predators. So if a cat likes to gaze upon the hamster cage, even if the