Cleaning 1/3 of the cage

[Moni72mm]

So cleaning the cage. I’ve watched feels like 100 videos and I still don’t feel 100% comfortable that I know what to do.
So here’s my problem. Oreo has several tunnels which is good except for the
Pee situation. He does not pee in his sandbox. Sometimes in his wheel which is simple to clean. So after a month I think ok I have to figure out where else he pees. Started on the right hand corner of his cage, just digging a bit down and found it removed and added some bedding. Next week check same spot. Not there. Eventually I dug up about 1/8th of the bedding but all the way down and found it but well removing Oreo came out of that tunnel and wasn’t impressed. I suspect he moved out of that area.
I put a small litter in that corner but no pee.
Sometimes I wish I had a small scope with cameras surgeons have to go through his tunnels.
Several weeks later I suspect he’s moved again. This time total left side where the multiple chamber is. I was curious if he did move so I checked under the sand shelf and his former hole was gone. I was curious to see and I dug where it used to be. Found what I suspect was some of his old stash but got caught again by Oreo while putting new bedding and a clean stash. Gave him a treat but don’t think he was impressed. He shunned me a week.

So what do I do? I technically have only cleaned maybe a quarter of his cage. I have not touched the multi chamber at all except lift the cover. There’s only one entrance and when he gets mad at me he covers it slightly. So i’ve made sure I only give him his snacks for the top hole or the side entrance.

 

[Maz]

Hi there. It's very difficult if you don't know where they are peeing so you can spot clean, but I wouldn't worry too much as they don't pee very much if you can't smell it. Rather than trying to spot clean, maybe you can just do a "third clean" every month or something? Eg divide the cage into thirds - like a bar of chocolate broken into three pieces lengthwise And do a clean of one third one month and so on. Their pee area is usually somewhere near the nesting area and hoarding area, but he may have more than one hoard. I know some people use some kind of ultra violet light that shows up the substrate with pee on

If that's what you're doing already, then apologies. But with a lot of deep bedding, it won't cause much issue if you don't find it, as it'll just get soaked up.

Do you have a photo of his set up? When one of my Syrians was like this, I made a few tweaks that encouraged him to move his sleeping area and hoard into his multiroom house and he also pee'd in there as well, so then I always knew the pee area was at that end of the cage. Although it was quite difficult to spot clean without taking the house out! Eventually he started using his sand bath on top of the house as a toilet.

Do you have a photo of his set up? I think he has some kind of house with a hole on top - from some recent photos. At a guess I'd think he was peeing under that, right at the bottom of the cage.

It's probably best not to keep destroying his tunnels regularly in various different places, but to stick to a routine of doing a third cage clean if you can't find the pee. He will probably be tunnelling all over the cage but his sleep and pee area will be on one place. With mine it was right in the middle of the cage, at the back and right at the bottom Until I encouraged him to move into/under his multiroom house.

 

[Moni72mm]

 

[Maz]

Ah very difficult to spot clean pee if you don't know where it is in that lovely setup, but at a guess I'd say it's under the house on the left with the hole in the roof - right down at the bottom.

 

[Moni72mm]

Hi Maz, I just went down and took some recent pictures. It wa due anyway. I haven’t done one full third yet.

At first he was pee’ng. In the right hand corner of the wall. That’s the first place I found and I could just spot clean. There is currently a pink litter now in that corner. Then he moved to the left of that corner and that one I dug up before I found it. So if you look at my pictures if you made a square the size of the litter box width and went straight to the sandbox all that got cleaned on that day. But not the middle or the dig box area.

A few weeks go by and he seems to be coming out of the multi chamber all the way to the left of his cage under the wheel. So I look under the sand box where he was coming out of and yes he blocked all the left side and I clean under the sand box and found part of his old hide. He caught me again and filled up the tube leading to the multi chamber.

Now i’d love to check the corner of the multi chambers but I’ll wait.

We also removed the shelf on the front left with the pumpkin he never used no matter what substrate he has in there. He now has a new hideout the mushroom one we bought at Christmas and he seems to like that one.

I bought more wood therefore I can finish the top of the multi chamber properly.

That shelf I took out I’m going to make higher legs and put it under that litter box is.

 

[Maz]

Maybe only check once a week or so or he could get a bit stressed if his sleeping area is disturbed and too much poking around