Why Do Hamsters Put Food in Their Cheeks: Everything You Need To Know

Hamsters are small, adorable, and relatively easy pets to take care of and aren’t expensive to keep either. They often do bizarre things around their owners, which might seem entertaining, like stuffing their cheeks with food.

But why do hamsters put food in their cheeks? In the simplest terms, they do it to store the food and eat it later simply. This is because their cheeks can actually keep food dry as it doesn’t have many salivary glands, and this prevents the food from rotting inside their mouth as well.

However, there’s much more to it than just that. Today, we’ll be going over all the reasons why hamsters put food inside their cheeks and tons of other questions. Without further ado, let’s get straight into it.

Why Do Hamsters Put Food In Their Cheeks?

Seeing a hamster stuffing his cheeks with food may be bizarre or entertaining, and many wonder “why is my hamster stuffing his cheeks with food.” Well, it can be due to these reasons:

To Store It

As mentioned above, the most common reason hamsters might stuff food inside their cheeks is to store them simply. This is incredibly common for hamsters, and it’s healthy, too, as the food doesn’t rot inside their mouth.

The inside of a hamster’s cheek is incredibly flexible, and they’re basically designed to be able to store food without it rotting. It lacks salivary glands, so the food stays dry, and they generally don’t keep it there for long.

Most of the time, after storing the food inside their cheeks for a while, they put the food safely somewhere in their cage. This is why you should always check your hamster’s cage every now and then to check for any rotten or stale foods. As even if it doesn’t rot in their mouth, it can in their cages.

Instinctively

Wild hamsters always store their food in their mouths to make sure other predators don’t see it. Because of this, a lot of hamsters nowadays have instinctively started storing food in their mouths.

So although most people don’t expect this answer to the question “why is my hamster storing food”, it is quite common.

You can check this article by Petco about the normal and abnormal behaviors of hamsters to check if your hamster is normal or not.

Maintaining The Food

A lot of the time, the food you give to your hamster isn’t always eaten. They eat only a small portion of it, and they store most of it. In fact, most hamsters can store food worth around half of their body size.

It stays fresh in the dry pockets of their cheeks too, so it’s also good to maintain the food.

Should I Let My Hamster Store Food In Their Cheeks?

It’s completely healthy and normal for hamsters to store food inside their cheeks. However, you should keep these things in mind if your hamster is storing food there very often —

Delicate Skin

First of all, you should remember the fact that even if a hamster’s cheek is flexible and basically made in a way so it can store food safely, it’s still incredibly delicate. Even baby hamsters can carry a lot of food, and their cheeks can extend a lot in length, but it’s still very delicate.

So you should make sure that your hamster isn’t carrying a lot of foods that are sharp or rough. If these rub against your hamster’s cheeks too often, they can get cut very easily. This can even lead to infection later on.

If this happens, you should immediately take them to a vet nearby. If you want more information about the medical dangers of a hamster when they cut their cheeks, you should check out this article by TheSprucePets.

Rotten Food

If you ever give food to your hamster which is out of date or stale, it can be incredibly dangerous for your hamster’s health. This is because they generally carry food in their mouth for a relatively long time, and if you give them stale or rotten foods, it can cause an infection inside their cheeks.

These diseases usually will be incredibly painful for your hamster, and they can even lead to their death. So make sure the food you’re feeding your hamster isn’t going out of date in at least a month, as they often eat the foods weeks after storing them in their mouth by keeping them in their cage.

Along with rotten food, some foods are dangerous for hamsters, and if they keep it in their mouth for roo long, they can easily get ill. Because of this, it’s important to know the best foods to feed your hamster. The official PDSA has a guide on it which you can check out.

How Do I Tell If My Hamster Shouldn’t Store Food In Its Mouth?

Although storing food is completely normal for hamsters, you shouldn’t let them store food inside their cheeks if there’s something wrong with their cheeks. This is because hamsters can love eating sharp foods like sunflower seeds, but it can cause their cheeks to get cut and form an abscess.

These are the ways you can find out if your hamster’s cheeks are injured —

1. Your hamster is eating less. This is the easiest way to check if they got an abscess.
2. Their cheeks look swollen or bulged even if they aren’t storing food
3. Your hamster’s cheek is firm or more solid than usual
4. Visible pus inside the hamster’s mouth.
5. They seem uncomfortable eating food.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

So why do hamster store food in their cheeks? They store it to simply eat it later most of the time. But if you have any further confusion about similar topics, you cna check out some of the most frequently asked questions we get —

Conclusion

In short, hamsters put food in the cheeks and stuff them to the brim to simply store and eat them at a later time. They can do this because they lack salivary glands inside their cheeks, so the food stays dry and fresh there.

Often your hamster may eat some of the food while it’s inside its mouth, but most of the time, they just store the food to put it in its cage and eat it later on. Since they don’t store it for long, they’re less likely to rot. However, you should still be careful!