How far does a hamster run each day?

Our little hamster has settled in really well to her new home. She’s now in a Savic Plaza 120 which is 118cm long and 64cm wide. It’s a huge cage and I can tell from her body language that she’s enjoying it as she’s been doing very hamster things like burrowing, foraging, and rolling in the sand bath. She wasn’t able to do any of these things in her old enclosure and I find it interesting how instinctive it is for them to burrow when given the right bedding. She’s never done any burrowing in her life so far but got stuck into it straight away in her new home with us.

I’ve put cardboard around the sides so I can pile the bedding up high without it falling out onto the floor. VikingLaser on Etsy makes acrylic sheets for the Savic Plaza that look nicer than cardboard but are not cheap. We have them on Lucille’s cage and they’re very good.

I’ve got a Niteangel wheel which has an optional pedometer you can attach that counts the number of revolutions per day. I decided to get it and last night it counted 16,669. I’ve calculated this to be just over 8 miles based on a radius of 12.7cm. That’s amazing! Our little hamster ran 8 miles in one night. This would be a big achievement for a human let alone a small hamster on four little legs.