Cage Cleaning Help

[Rain12]

Hi! I recently adopted Ted, a Syrian hamster, and need some advice on cage cleaning. How often should I clean if it means destroying burrows?

I have had Ted for a little over 2 weeks now. I have a sand bath for him, but I do not think he pees in it because I have never seen any clumped sand. He did have a few days of peeing in his wheel and I tried putting some of that pee into the sand bath to see if he would use it but he did not.

Recently he has not been peeing on the wheel and when I do my daily spot cleaning, I cannot see any pee on the surface. I do know that he has peed near his food hoard and in his burrows around that because I have seen some soiled bedding in that area pushed up against the side of the cage or pushed to the surface once when he had been constructing his burrows.

About a week into having him I removed his multi chamber hide and cleaned out the soiled bedding that I could find. In the process this destroyed some of his burrows.

I do not want to stress him about by cleaning under the surface of the bedding too often. I have read that some people wait to clean the cage until they can smell pee if the hamster pees under the surface. I have never smelled pee in his cage, but I also don’t want to wait too long to clean his pee out and risk causing health issues.

When I did clean his pee out of his burrow, none of it was wet, which I have seen is one of the main concerns with pee build up, so I do not know if I did it too soon.

I have also seen that some people with new hamsters will wait one month to clean under the surface of the bedding to see for sure where the hamster is peeing to make future cleanings easier and less stressful.

How often should I disturb his burrow to clean pee out if I know he is peeing down there?

 

[A And Aspen]

Don't disturb any of his burrows yet. Since you've had him for 2 weeks you can start to spot clean the surface. I think it would be best to clean a section of his enclosure every couple months so only a small part of his burrows are destroyed and it doesn't stress him out too much.

Hamster cage cleaning

Tips on how to clean your hamster cage and avoid causing stress to your hamster. It's best to have plenty of depth of substrate and mainly spot clean your hamster cage. Avoid disturbing your hamster's nest and hoard.

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[Maz]

Hi and welcome @A And Aspen has kindly linked our cage cleaning guide which might help It sounds really positive that he has been pushing the smelly stuff up to the surface Some hamsters are quite clever like that - my Syrian does that too - chucks a big pile of smelly bedding out for me to take away. They do vary. Assume he's a baby hamster? They often do pee in their sleeping area and on their hoards until they get into slightly better habits. I would just gauge it for now and see if he keeps pushing it to the top. If you do it too often he'll pee on his hoard more to "guard it". I would give it another week and then have a feel around and see if you can spot clean any damp bedding without destroying his tunnels. It's difficult when it makes their burrow collapse. If your worried about it now and can see an area you could try putting a hand under the bedding in that area and removing a handful or two from that area and the pee'd on hoard, but if you do, I would then put another small handful of new food back in the same area so he doesn't stress about his hoard being stolen Does he pee in his sand bath at all?

One option I think people could consider, in this situation, is placing a small underground hide or platform next to the burrow area, with a corner sand toilet under it - ie the platform or hide keeps a space above it. Hamsters generally use a sand toilet if it's near where they are sleeping. But of course sometimes they move and sleep somewhere else! In that situation it would still be difficult to empty the sand toilet without something collapsing, but at least you'd know where it was and could keep to one small area.

 

[Rain12]

Hi and welcome @A And Aspen has kindly linked our cage cleaning guide which might help It sounds really positive that he has been pushing the smelly stuff up to the surface Some hamsters are quite clever like that - my Syrian does that too - chucks a big pile of smelly bedding out for me to take away. They do vary. Assume he's a baby hamster? They often do pee in their sleeping area and on their hoards until they get into slightly better habits. I would just gauge it for now and see if he keeps pushing it to the top. If you do it too often he'll pee on his hoard more to "guard it". I would give it another week and then have a feel around and see if you can spot clean any damp bedding without destroying his tunnels. It's difficult when it makes their burrow collapse. If your worried about it now and can see an area you could try putting a hand under the bedding in that area and removing a handful or two from that area and the pee'd on hoard, but if you do, I would then put another small handful of new food back in the same area so he doesn't stress about his hoard being stolen Does he pee in his sand bath at all?

One option I think people could consider, in this situation, is placing a small underground hide or platform next to the burrow area, with a corner sand toilet under it - ie the platform or hide keeps a space above it. Hamsters generally use a sand toilet if it's near where they are sleeping. But of course sometimes they move and sleep somewhere else! In that situation it would still be difficult to empty the sand toilet without something collapsing, but at least you'd know where it was and could keep to one small area.

Thanks for your reply. He is not a baby but I am not sure how old he is. He was rehomed to me from someone who had him for 3 months that got him from a pet store.

I do not think he has been peeing in his sand bath because I have never seen any clumps in the sand when spot cleaning. His sand bath is on the opposite side of the cage from where I think he has been sleeping so I might try to rearrange things.

I am not sure if he was truly pushing the soiled bedding to the surface or if it just got moved around when he was burrowing. I will try to wait and see if it happens again and maybe wait another couple weeks to clean one third and then rotate sections each month unless it gets smelly.