Robo hamster, Dusty's new set up

[Dusty's Mom]

This is my first attempt at making a good set up for a hamster. Dusty is my first hamster and he seems to like it. He just moved in last night from a 20 gallon tank. This is a work in progress. This is the large Bucatstate 2 hamster cage. I am learning what hamsters need in there cages so any advice is welcome. Thanks!

 

[Maz]

It looks amazing! He's a lucky boy.

 

[elusive]

That looks great, I’m sure Dusty is going to love it.

 

[Coco61]

Fantastic set up for Dusty. He will really enjoy it

 

[Dusty's Mom]

Thank you everyone! Right now I am not seeing Dusty at all. He used to come out in the late morning. Since this is a new cage I think I shouldn't expect to see him for a few days as he gets used to the new home. I ordered a nanny cam to magnetically stick to the underside of the lid to watch him if he comes out at night.

 

[Maz]

Yes he'll probably be doing his own thing for a few days now and getting everything how he likes underground But I'm sure he'll be appearing more soon!

 

[elusive]

That is quite normal, it’s like they need to settle in over again & have lots of interesting things to explore too but he will probably start to come out again soon.

 

[Dusty's Mom]

~~Dusty's set up has changed a bit since I first set it up. The Sand bath is smaller because the larger one he stopped going into. I put this smaller one in and he digs a lot in it and kicks sand out a lot. So I have ordered a covered sand box with a hole in the top to see if he will use that.
~~I have seen him use all his log tunnels in here. He really is getting the hang of using the wheel. He has gone into all the hides too. And he uses that "under ground ladder entrance" now too. (bottom left). The only thing I don't see him do much with is the dish of ground cork. (white round dish on the left) He just runs over it, never digs in it. I have put seeds in it to see if he would do something in that dish, but he hasn't yet. I don't know if the pieces are too large for him to want to dig in or not. I may take that out and replace it with something else, but I don't know what yet.
~~I move his food dish to different locations when I change the food and refill it. His nest box has a hole in the middle of the front side. That Niteangel bridge is over it and that is his main entrance/exit to his under bedding world.
~~The bedding depth is about 9 inches and the cage has large platforms lining three sides (not the front side), to support the wheel and dishes and hides. So I really don't know how I would ever do a major clean in this set up without it being a very major job. I can easily spot clean the top layer around the items on the surface, but I have no idea where Dusty's food hordes are or his nest area to check them. I would have to dig down under the bedding and the platforms to find them and in doing so probably ruin them and I would have to remove all of this set up to even get down under to check.
~~I have lifted the top off his nesting box (it is on stilts) and I didn't see anything but bedding, no nesting spot, no toilet area. I do see tiny poops in the sand when I clean it out. But I cannot find a sifter fine enough to catch those time poops.... LOL!
~~Any advice is helpful. I have not yet cleaned anything regularly but the water bottle and food dishes so far. I think it is time for a surface spot clean, maybe half the cage at a time. I have sprinkled forage material around the cage three times, but I keep his seed food in his dish (which is a small terra cotta pot saucer, works great).
~~So I am wondering how long before I would need to do a major clean of this set up. He moved in almost 2 months ago. I just hate thinking about destroying all his tunnels, nests and hordes he has worked on and made it his home.
~~Sorry this is so long.....

 

[Maz]

I found robos really make very little mess at all. My last robo did any toiletting in one small area under his house - away from his nesting and hoarding and at the back of the cage. I felt the same as you, worrying about not having done a clean (after 6 months though). When I did I would do half the cage at a time - because his house was on one side of the cage. So I did the house half - only to find everything was immaculately clean and dry and neat and tidy - except for one small area which was clearly a pee area but was dry (the pee so little I think it evaporates or dries out!) with some poops in. They often have poops in their nest as well, which is normal.

This meant everything in the other half still smelled familiar so it was less upheaval. I did the same with my first robo - half the cage at a time. He had two nests - one in each half of the cage If I cleaned the house half he would decamp to his other nest on the other side of the cage. When I came to do the second half (I think a couple of weeks later), he would decamp back to his house in the other half (which had had time to be rescent marked by then).

With deep bedding I tend to do a third of the cage. So when you come to do a clean, you could maybe do the middle third - except that could be tricky if the two sides collapse in on it!

I think you could leave that a lot longer to be honest, and maybe just spot clean the top substrate a bit if you see poops building up - but I wouldn't worry about poops too much really they are so tiny and just like little seeds - not dirty or smelly really. If they increase in volume throughout the cage then may just spot clean some out.

I do tend to go 4 months between a third cage clean (with a Syrian) and have been longer than that with a robo. And found that apart from the house area, the rest of the cage is very clean and dry. At the time of doing the house area, I would prune the hoard quite a bit (from underneath, leaving the top part - ie newest food - behind. As their hoards can build up.

 

[Dusty's Mom]

Thanks, Maz, I really have no idea where Dusty is nesting. I don't know if he is using his nest box or not for sleeping. I suspect his hordes are at the bottom of the cage as there is one tiny spot at the bottom at the front glass where I think I can see a sunflower seed. Since his nest box is on stilts I would suspect he is nesting way down under the bedding and not in the nest box itself. I cannot go digging around to look for it.....LOL! That would ruin his system, whatever that looks like throughout his bedding.
Nice to know I can leave this for longer than 2 months and just to surface bedding replacement for now. And good to know I need to replace things when I do a cleaning to the way it was. I have pics now.

With gerbils you can redo and change their set ups and they love exploring the new set up and arranging it the way they want it. That is fun to watch. We call it gerbil TV. It is easier to clean out a gerbil cage as their enrichment tunnels and things are mostly under the bedding. A few things on top, but they don't seem to mind if things get changed around. And the things you put on top eventually get buried anyway. They are very curious creatures. And a gerbil cage of 40 gallon or more should be cleaned completely out every two to three months. Not because they are dirty or smelly, and they do not horde food, but just to enrich their lives and give them a 'new' home. I like redoing the gerbil cage to see them have fun with it when I put them back into the cage they have a blast~