A pet owner in Japan caught on film his pet hamster cramming five baby carrots into its mouth. Although the video is cute, some people are concerned that it's dangerous. However, such is not the case. Food hoarding is a behavioral characteristic of hamsters. They would stuff and carry raw food in their spacious cheek pouches which they would then carry to their underground storage chambers. With their cheeks full, their heads can double or even triple in size.
Here's a photo of a dissected hamster showing the huge pouches in its mouth which allows it to store raw food.
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Thilo Parg / Wikimedia Commons, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 |