Glossary · 🏠 Housing & setup
Deep bedding (burrowing substrate)
Deep bedding is a thick layer of safe substrate that lets burrowing small pets (hamsters, gerbils, mice) dig tunnels — a core welfare need, not decoration, and far deeper than pet-shop cages provide.
Gerbils in particular need around 20–30 cm to build stable burrows; hamsters need enough to dig into. A shallow scatter of bedding denies them a fundamental natural behaviour.