behaviour norms

Question
i have just bought my dwarf hamster, i put her in a normal wire cage with the plastic base, the pet shop recommended it, i feed her the mix from the pet shop, although she only eats the peanuts and sunflower seeds, nothing else. in her cage iv given her a wheel which she doesn't use and toilet roles which she loves. My concern is that she frantically digs and scratches the corners of the cage, is that normal? I thought maybe she wants to come out but shes not tame enough yet to pick up. What should i do?

Answer
Dear Aimee,
thank you for your question.

It's possible that the cage is too small, corner digging is often a sign of boredom and lack of space (and can turn into stereotypical behaviour quickly). For a dwarf hamster, the minimum size should be 30x10x10 inches long wide and high. Old tanks make great and cheap hamster homes, as do rubbermaid containers. A mesh wire lid will keep the hamster from climbing out - hamster are escape artists.

It also sounds like the food the pet shop recommended is too fatty and too big for a dwarf hamster. They should have a diet of small seeds mainly, with some grains mixed in. Peanuts and sunflower seeds can be given as a treat (one per day), but not in the main diet. You can make your own food by mixing parakeet seeds with canary seeds 1:1. Add 1 part of a grain mixture (wheat, oats, barley, maybe other grains - check health food shops for such mixtures) to 2 parts of the seed mixture.
They also need animal protein, insects would be best, one mealworm/cricket/silkworm per day. If you don't want to handle live insects, you can buy them dried, most hamsters will accept those readily.

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer