I have a Syrian hamster in a regular cage, and every time I put food in his ceramic bowl, he grabs it and scatters it all over the cage floor. I don't know if he's playing, if the bowl bothers him or what. Is this normal behavior or is there something I can do about it?
Don't worry, it's completely normal - Syrian hamsters have that instinct to scatter food and stash it all over the cage, like they're out in nature looking for places to hide their supplies. What you can do is put the food bowl in a different spot each day or use a heavier one that they can't tip over as easily, though honestly most hamsters are going to keep moving the food around anyway, so the best thing is just to accept that they're going to leave crumbs everywhere and clean the cage regularly. If you want to cut down on the mess, try giving them smaller portions or putting the food straight on the cage floor in a corner, because some hamsters respect designated spaces like that more.
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