Fasting triggers many effects including increases in circulating concentrations of ghrelin, a primarily stomachderived orexigenic hormone. Exogenous ghrelin treatment stimulates food intake, implicating it in fasting-induced increases in feeding, a consummatory ingestive behavior. In Siberian hamsters, fasting also stimulates appetitive ingestive behaviors such as foraging and food hoarding. Therefore, we tested whether systemic ghrelin injections (3, 30, and 200 mg/kg) would stimulate these appetitive behaviors using a running wheel-based food delivery system coupled with simulated burrow-housing. We also measured plasma active ghrelin concentrations after exogenous ghrelin treatment and compared them to those associated with fasting. Hamsters had: a) no running wheel access, free food, b) running wheel access, free food or c) foraging requirement (10 revolutions/ pellet), no free food. Ghrelin stimulated foraging at 0-1, 2-4, and 4-24 h post-injection, but failed to affect wheel running activity not coupled to food. Ghrelin stimulated food intake initially (200-350%, first 4 h) across all groups; however, in hamsters with a foraging requirement, ghrelin also stimulated food intake 4-24 h post-injection (200-250%). Ghrelin stimulated food hoarding 2-72 h post-injection (100-300%), most markedly 2-4 h post-injection in animals lacking a foraging requirement (635%). Fasting increased plasma active ghrelin concentrations in a time dependent fashion, with the 3 and 30 mg/kg dose creating concentrations of the peptide comparable to those induced by 24-48 h of fasting. Collectively, these data suggest that exogenous ghrelin, similar to fasting, increases appetitive behaviors (foraging, hoarding) by Siberian hamsters, but dissimilar to fasting in this species, stimulates food intake.