Habitat includes friable sandy or silty soils in areas with no to moderate shrub cover and scattered herbaceous plants: sparsely vegetated alkali sink communities where soils are generally sandy or silty; valley grassland; saltbush and sink scrub. The species does not tolerate irrigation or cultivation but may reinvade fields no longer under cultivation.

Habitats in order of decreasing favourability: (1) level to gently sloping areas with sparse to moderate shrub cover in alkali desert scrub and valley grassland, (2) ridge tops and steep slopes with sandy, friable soils and scattered shrubs in alkali desert scrub and valley grassland, (3) sandy arroyos and dry stream beds in above associations, and (4) arid annual grasslands with alkaline, friable soils.

When inactive, it occupies underground burrows; burrows in hummocks (e.g., around base of shrub); burrow systems are shallow but often extensive. Young are born in underground burrows. Breeding season is reported to be December-August or throughout the year (Best 1991). Reproductive activity starts in late February and continues until September, with a peak in April. Gestation lasts 31-35 days. Litter size is 1-3, usually two. Young leave nest at about three weeks. Females will have up to three litters per year.

Feeds on seeds (e.g., those of erodium, capsella bursapastoris, and atriplex). Also consumes some insects and green vegetation in the spring. May cache seeds in small pits in the walls of the burrow system.

The range of this species encompasses part of the San Joaquin Valley and adjacent valleys, in California in the United States, from the valley floor in Merced County, south of the Merced and San Joaquin rivers, to the southern edge of the valley, and the Panoche Valley (eastern San Benito County), the Carrizo Plain (San Luis Obispo County), and the upper Cuyama Valley (San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties), at elevations of 50-800 m (Best 1991, Williams et al. 1993).

This rodent occurs in several protected areas (D. Tirira pers. comm).