Cleaning schedule

[clerbird321]

Hello hello!!

I’ve had my Syrian boy Bernard for a little over a week now, and I love him so much. He’s my first hamster as an adult and thanks to you guys + some Facebook groups, he has a great life lol.

I am a bit confused on cleaning though. I know to do spot cleans every day or so, things like the sand, wheel, surface urine, etc. But I’m not sure when to go in for burrow cleans. It seems like he pretty much just pees on his wheel and in his burrow.

I’ve been getting mixed messages from my research. Some do burrow cleans every 2-4wks, some every 4-6wks. I went in this weekend (8 days after we got him) and did the first burrow clean and had a lot of trouble telling what bedding to remove as almost all of it smelled like urine, and I couldn’t see any color difference even though I’m using white paper with a bit of aspen bedding. I ended up removing about 1/6 of the entire enclosure’s bedding. I just bought a UV flashlight to see if that helps me next time.

So what does a typical cleaning schedule look like for a Syrian in a 100cm Bucatstate enclosure?

 

[Maz]

It can be vary hard to find where a hamster is peeing in deep substrate - as babies it’s quite common for them to pee in the area where they sleep but as they get a bit older they often keep the toilet area separate from the food and sleeping area and some will mainly use the sand bath.

Personally I don’t think there needs to be a regular schedule as such and if you start to smell pee you can investigate. However I sometimes find the strongest pee smell is straight after cleaning out the pee area. It’s as if they do it more to get things back how they were! Then it settles down again over a few days.

If you get to know where he does it you could try and spot clean that area without disturbing all his tunnels.

I tend to do a one third cage clean about every 3 months - sometimes a bit longer - which spot cleaning in between.

 

[clerbird321]

It can be vary hard to find where a hamster is peeing in deep substrate - as babies it’s quite common for them to pee in the area where they sleep but as they get a bit older they often keep the toilet area separate from the food and sleeping area and some will mainly use the sand bath.

Personally I don’t think there needs to be a regular schedule as such and if you start to smell pee you can investigate. However I sometimes find the strongest pee smell is straight after cleaning out the pee area. It’s as if they do it more to get things back how they were! Then it settles down again over a few days.

If you get to know where he does it you could try and spot clean that area without disturbing all his tunnels.

I tend to do a one third cage clean about every 3 months - sometimes a bit longer - which spot cleaning in between.

Gotcha, thanks!!

My problem is I have a very strong sniffer, so I started smelling pee the first day he was in there lol so that’s not a great indicator for me. I’m hoping the UV flashlight helps me next time so I don’t take out as much bedding as I did this time.

I also found I couldn’t follow the burrow very well. Even though I packed the bedding down, the tunnels just collapsed when I started digging so everything just came together and that made it even more confusing.

Maybe for now I’ll stick with burrow cleaning every 3-4wks?

This is so stressful!

 

[Maz]

Ha ha. Don't worry. It took me ages to find where one of my Syrians was peeing under the bedding. And to be honest, with that much bedding it just gets soaked up and doesn't do any harm if missed for a bit. Within reason obviously. It's the wet nappy smell you start to notice! They do get very upset when their burrows collapse during cleaning, but with syrians, the pee is generally just in one location, so once you find that .....

I do think it's harder when they have very deep bedding. Until a few years ago, 6" of bedding was seen as fine and my hamsters all slept in their multiroom house (maybe burrowed down a bit but not a lot) and used a litter tray inside the multiroom house. You could try putting on in a multiroom house, as they sometimes use it then as even if they are burrowed down somewhere else they seem to like peeing in a private enclosed area and often use the house as a porch/entrance and exit.

 

[clerbird321]

Ha ha. Don't worry. It took me ages to find where one of my Syrians was peeing under the bedding. And to be honest, with that much bedding it just gets soaked up and doesn't do any harm if missed for a bit. Within reason obviously. It's the wet nappy smell you start to notice! They do get very upset when their burrows collapse during cleaning, but with syrians, the pee is generally just in one location, so once you find that .....

I do think it's harder when they have very deep bedding. Until a few years ago, 6" of bedding was seen as fine and my hamsters all slept in their multiroom house (maybe burrowed down a bit but not a lot) and used a litter tray inside the multiroom house. You could try putting on in a multiroom house, as they sometimes use it then as even if they are burrowed down somewhere else they seem to like peeing in a private enclosed area and often use the house as a porch/entrance and exit.

Yeah I guess I’ll learn more the longer I have him! I’ll go into his burrows again 3wks from now and maybe it’ll be easier that time around. What kind of litter trays do you mean?

 

[Maz]

I use corner litter trays with sand in - like this one. Some hamsters use their sand bath as a toilet as well but they will sometimes use a litter tray if it's inside a house and they are nesting in or under the house

Do you have a multiroom house? If not you could put it near where you think his burrow is, on the top. But they can sometimes just not use them if it means coming above ground (a house gives shelter).


Hamster potty/litter tray

 

[clerbird321]

I use corner litter trays with sand in - like this one. Some hamsters use their sand bath as a toilet as well but they will sometimes use a litter tray if it's inside a house and they are nesting in or under the house

Do you have a multiroom house? If not you could put it near where you think his burrow is, on the top. But they can sometimes just not use them if it means coming above ground (a house gives shelter).


Hamster potty/litter tray

I only have two 2 chamber houses, one that is below the bedding and the other above, he is burrowing in the one that is above. Not sure where I’d fit the potty tray since it’s already pretty full hahaha.

Thank you so much for your help, as always! Fair warning I’m probably going to make another post regarding taming and bonding lol.

 

[Maz]

Post away It'll be lovely to hear his progress Maybe you'd like to start a thread for him in the Syrian section - some of us have a hamster's own thread/diary for posting photos, videos and updates of their progress

Syrian Hamsters

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[clerbird321]

Post away It'll be lovely to hear his progress Maybe you'd like to start a thread for him in the Syrian section - some of us have a hamster's own thread/diary for posting photos, videos and updates of their progress

Syrian Hamsters

www.thehamsterforum.com

Aw that is so fun!! Do I just start that like any other thread?

 

[Maz]

Yes

 

[clerbird321]

Yes

Excellent! Also, this is completely off topic but can young (guessing 4-6 months old) Syrian hamsters have shelled nuts? I just gave Bernard a hazelnut and he was so excited, but my overthinking boyfriend asks AFTER I give it to him “can they have those when they’re still young?”

 

[Maz]

Hazelnuts are fine Half a shelled walnut is very popular and maybe easier to eat They also like Monkey nuts (peanuts) in the shell. It helps to make a little hole in the top of the shell first with your fingernail to get them started, then they love cracking it open and finding the peanuts inside.

 

[Hammy Chum]

Chumley loves a monkey nut. Im mean and dont make a hole though i make him work for it haha. With Chum we do a bedding change every 3 months or so - he mostly has a wee in his sand bath and the last few times we cleaned him out it was only just starting to smell a little and he hates being cleaned out, so that works for us. I saw a lot of advice when we first got him saying every 2 weeks or so, but for us now he just doesnt need it. I pick out dried poo (the joys!) and remove the wee from his sand bath daily

 

[Maz]

Nice to hear about Chumley!

 

[clerbird321]

Nice to hear about Chumley!

Hi again! I’ve seen mixed opinions on this so I’m a bit worried..is it normal to be able to smell urine and just general “hamster smell” when near the cage? My boyfriend doesn’t notice it and I have an abnormally strong sense of smell, but of course I’m worrying lol. He’s created a new burrow since I cleaned his last one, and I was planning on doing another burrow clean next week, which will be 3wks after the last one

 

[Magpie]

Sometimes I can smell Mr Maggie's cage (its right next to my spot on the sofa!) Its not exactly an unpleasant smell- just 'hamster-y?!'

Some days It can smell a little like pee when I open the front window- but his sand is right at the front and that's where he pees, so once I've sifted the sand it usually sorts that.

I'm sure he must still pee in his burrows too though as he only ever pees in his sand overnight while he's up and about. (I could be wrong of course) But I'm trying not to think about it too much. He has had a lot of upheaval recently with vet trips so I have had to dig him up and wreck his tunnels/nest several times already in a short space of time and I want to leave him in peace as long as possible now.

I find it hard to resist as instinct is to clean too much/too often but I'm determined to sit on my hands for at least another month or 2 before I deep clean his 'deep end' where he burrows. (its now been 3 weeks since his last vet visit where I had to disturb his burrow and took the opportunity to clean out any wet)

I did everything a bit back to front- got the hamster before doing proper research and had a mad rush to obtain and set up a proper sized tank for him. I didn't have enough platforms that were tall enough to allow for optimal depth bedding across the whole enclosure so he has deep bedding in one half and shallower bedding in the other half where his sand and wheel are.

 

[clerbird321]

Sometimes I can smell Mr Maggie's cage (its right next to my spot on the sofa!) Its not exactly an unpleasant smell- just 'hamster-y?!'

Some days It can smell a little like pee when I open the front window- but his sand is right at the front and that's where he pees, so once I've sifted the sand it usually sorts that.

I'm sure he must still pee in his burrows too though as he only ever pees in his sand overnight while he's up and about. (I could be wrong of course) But I'm trying not to think about it too much. He has had a lot of upheaval recently with vet trips so I have had to dig him up and wreck his tunnels/nest several times already in a short space of time and I want to leave him in peace as long as possible now.

I find it hard to resist as instinct is to clean too much/too often but I'm determined to sit on my hands for at least another month or 2 before I deep clean his 'deep end' where he burrows. (its now been 3 weeks since his last vet visit where I had to disturb his burrow and took the opportunity to clean out any wet)

I did everything a bit back to front- got the hamster before doing proper research and had a mad rush to obtain and set up a proper sized tank for him. I didn't have enough platforms that were tall enough to allow for optimal depth bedding across the whole enclosure so he has deep bedding in one half and shallower bedding in the other half where his sand and wheel are.

This helps, thank you!! I totally agree with it not smelling bad near his cage, it just smells “hamster-y” lol. I also did some major research before deciding to get a hammy and then preparing to get one. I spent months just planning! There’s so much to learn I have the same setup, deeper bedding in one half and shallower where his sand and wheel are. My plan is to go ahead and try the every 3-4wk burrow clean and see how that goes.

 

[Maz]

This helps, thank you!! I totally agree with it not smelling bad near his cage, it just smells “hamster-y” lol. I also did some major research before deciding to get a hammy and then preparing to get one. I spent months just planning! There’s so much to learn I have the same setup, deeper bedding in one half and shallower where his sand and wheel are. My plan is to go ahead and try the every 3-4wk burrow clean and see how that goes.

Apart from their pee, hamsters aren't really smelly at all. Now mice urine can absolutely stink! Especially male mice.