It’s a hamster that runs during the day and at night and in the middle of the night.
Why do hamsters like running wheels so much?
Because of nature.
Rodents just love to run, and running is one of their foraging behaviors. Wild hamsters run about 8 kilometers a day, up to 10 kilometers or more.
Rodents spend most of their time digging holes, finding food, hiding from predators, and mating. Hamsters continue to inherit this nature even after they become pets.
Even if there is no shortage of food, they still find a way to find it, and the way to find it is: running.
Run around if you have a place to run around, run the wheel if you don’t.
An experiment was once done where a running cage was placed in the wild and wild animals were allowed to volunteer to come and run.
The result of the test was that a lot of animals came up to the running wheel, but rats had the highest preference for the running cage. Rats made up 88% of the animals that came up to the running wheel, spending between 1 and 18 minutes each on the wheel.
It is evident that they do like to run and some times they run with a purpose.
You can observe your hamster, it sometimes doesn’t actually run again all the time all the time, but it runs for a while and then comes down to hunt for something and then goes up to run again.
This is because in the hamster’s undeveloped little brain it thinks that if you just keep running you’ll find food, and if you just keep running you’ll get out of the place you’re in right now.
Rats without running wheels are depressed, and they will release their energy elsewhere, such as chewing on their cages.
And not enough exercise can also cause hamster obesity, running wheel remember to buy a larger, larger running wheel can it stretch the body.
END
This is the end of this issue of science, I am a pet knowledge explainer, an account that wants you to raise pets scientifically, any pet ownership concerns, welcome to leave a comment at the bottom of the article.
Original article by KPTer, if reproduced, please cite the source: https://www.kaipet.com/en/hamsters-run-wheels