Mysterious case of missing pee

[Clair&FreddieG]

Hi everyone. My son Fred got his first Syrian hamster two weeks ago. Boo has a lovely large enclosure and seems to be very chill, she is taking a few seeds and veggies from his hand now, but still a little shy and nervous ( my son is as well so hasn't handled her yet). She doesn't seem hugely active but I'm thinking of getting a night cam to capture this better. He has been very good with fresh food and water, and keeping an eye on her, but we haven't seen any pee! We used brown paper bedding and wood based bedding mix, so will use white paper from now on. We know where her food hoard is in her multi chamber house. And there are poops in there. There's no evidence of clumps in the sand ( he's changed it twice just in case) and ive put my hand in gently and around to find 'wet' twice now trying not to disturb too much paying attention to corners, there's no smell, and no signs of peeing? She doesn't seem unwell at all so we are really stumped. My main worry is missing areas that cause her to become unwell. Are we just just being to cautious and the need for cleaning soiled bedding will be a little longer? Thanks

 

[Maz]

Hello. It's often quite tricky but the rule of thumb is, if you can't smell it, don't worry about it! She is probably peeing somewhere different to where she sleeps and hoards. That is what they do in the wild - separate areas for nesting, hoarding and peeing. It can be quite hard to find sometimes, depending on how much bedding you have.

I wouldn't worry about it just yet. If you still can't smell anything after a bit more time, it can be a case of having a feel around under the bedding to try and find a damp patch. Even then you might not find it!