Dwarf Winter White Hamster

Question
Hi Jennifer,

I acquired a young dwarf hamster and i am noticing that he urinates into the food bowl, spoiling the food inside.

I tried to re-locate the food bowl to different places in the cage but he keeps doing this all the time.  I also tried changing the food bowl but still the same result.

Any suggestion what i can do to maybe stop this... ?

i thank you in advance.

rgds
Jeffrey
Malta

Answer
Dear Jeffrey,
thank you for your question.
I would recommend just scattering the food in the bedding and offering the food bowl as a toilet instead, filled with chinchilla sand, in addition to the chinchilla sand the hamster needs for bathing anyway.
Dwarf hamsters are usually very clean and it's possible that he sees the bowl as a good place to use as a toilet - after all, it gets cleaned daily and he won't soil the bedding.
If you scatter his food, he also has more to do, hamsters spend a lot of their time searching for food in the wild and just sitting in front of a filled bowl is boring for them. Make him work a bit for his food, that will keep him entertained and it also keeps him from becoming overweight.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer