The species inhabits different types of sand, however avoids large expanses of open sand dunes. It is also found in sand dunes covered with pine forest and is most abundant in hilly and ridge sands, including those used as pastures. It is often found together with Allactaga spp. It is one of the pioneer species that is occupying new habitats that have emerged as the Aral Sea dries out. In northern parts of the range, it hibernates, while in southern parts it remains active throughout the year with the exception of extremely cold winters. It lives in burrows with length of about 5-6 m and depths up to 3 m, and can also occupy burrows of Meriones major. In spring the species feeds on vegetative parts of grasses and shrubs, and also eats roots and bulbs. When seeds start to ripen it switches its diet to seeds. During the whole year, it takes insects and larvae as a usual part of its diet. The length of the reproductive period differs in northern and southern parts of the range: from 2 - 2.5 months in the north to eight to nine months in the south. The number of litters per year differs correspondingly, from one to four in different parts of the range.

In the European region, this species has a restricted distribution in the southeastern parts of South European Russia (Don River sands, Russian Federation).

Out of the European region, the range extends through deserts and partly in semi-deserts east from the Don River to the cis-Caspian region, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and northern Iran, and through Kazakhstan to the Irtysh River (Tuva, Republic, Siberia), Mongolia and northern China (Shenbrot et al. 1995).

Populations near the Don River are listed in the local Red Data Book. The species is assessed as Vulnerable in the Red Book of the Volgograd region of Russia (Belik et al. 2017). The species occurs in several protected areas.