If you've ever owned a hamster as a pet before, then you may have observed them stuffing pouches inside of their faces with more food than you could ever imagine.
As it turns out, hamsters can hold nearly 20% of their body weight inside of these storage pouches, and they developed this storage technique for their own survival in the wild.
Hamsters eat very frequently; almost once every two hours. That said, it wouldn't make much sense to look for food, go back home, and then go back out looking for more food a little while later. Instead, hamsters make extended foraging trips to limit their presence out in the open, as it reduces their chances of being targeted by predators.
Hamsters' pouches contain dedicated muscles that help facilitate food movement toward the back; this is why you sometimes see the foodstuffs rotating while inside the pouch.
When the pouch is full, the hamster returns to its burrow to expel the pouch's contents for safe-keeping.
