I Really Need Advice on Dealing with my Anxious Hamster
My dwarf hamster absolutely HATES it when I spot clean her cage. She doesn't have a specific corner that she uses for her bathroom, so I end up having to remove everything to find out where she's peeing. Unfortunately, that often leads me to her nest and her giant hoard of food. I try to take her out of her cage so she's less stressed, but she immediately tries to go back in. Usually, I ignore her when she wants to go back while I'm cleaning, but last night she started biting me and was very desperate to go back in, so I gave in and put her back. That was a big mistake because I hadn't gotten to her nest yet, and as soon as I did, she started freaking out, pouching all her food, and frantically looking for a new place to hide it. She spent the rest of the night "remodeling" her cage, and I could tell she wasn't happy that I'd cleaned it out. I don't remove all her bedding, just the bottom half that's soiled. I just feel so bad because she was probably feeling so insecure knowing her nest wasn't safe. But I can't just not clean her cage. Any advice?
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