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Pebbles82 · 03-23-2019, 05:09 PM

It's best to do partial cleans

ie not clean everything at the same time, so something always smells familiar. So as alpa says, 6 to 8 weeks is fine for substrate and just empty the litter tray every few days (if your hammy uses the litter tray the rest of the cage should stay prettty clean really). I have gone 2 to 3 months before. The more substrate you have in, the less often you need to do a full substrate clean - and even then save some of the old clean to spread on top so it smells familiar.

Deep cleaning isn't necessary - you don't need to disinfect the cage unless there is illness or disease. I just use a warm damp cloth to wipe the base of the cage and to be honest, with enough substrate and a litter tray, the base of the cage will probably stay clean and dry anyway.

So partial clean is - substrate one week, wheel a different week, any toys a different week again, or just as and when needed. It does stress them if everything is cleaned at once or too often, as it removes all their scent marking - which they do to find their way around and to make it home.

03-23-2019, 05:09 PM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Hamsters in Cornwall It's best to do partial cleans ie not clean everything at the same time, so something always smells familiar. So as alpa says, 6 to 8 weeks is fine for substrate and just empty the litter tray every few days (if your hammy uses the litter tray the rest of the cage should stay prettty clean really). I have gone 2 to 3 months before. The more substrate you have in, the less often you need to do a full substrate clean - and even then save some of the old clean to spread on top so it smells familiar. Deep cleaning isn't necessary - you don't need to disinfect the cage unless there is illness or disease. I just use a warm damp cloth to wipe the base of the cage and to be honest, with enough substrate and a litter tray, the base of the cage will probably stay clean and dry anyway. So partial clean is - substrate one week, wheel a different week, any toys a different week again, or just as and when needed. It does stress them if everything is cleaned at once or too often, as it removes all their scent marking - which they do to find their way around and to make it home.