Hamster Central - View Single Post - Safe sand bath for dwarf hamster

AmityvilleHams · 07-13-2019, 06:14 AM

It's still safe even if you need to sift, rinse, and bake. Some things need certain processing steps to be safe. For play sand, the baking is due to storage at hardware stores(it can get wet so needs drying, and ants for example will get into anything so these may be present).

Anything in a hamster cage should be either chew proof or digestible if ingested. While it obviously isn't good to eat any sand, play sand in accidental swallowing amounts is completely fine. It's inevitable when hamsters groom themselves that whatever is on their fur will become ingested, including play sand(reptile sands seem to clump way more, natural or otherwise, and this could be as simple as the particle size or shape causing it).

A lot of perfectly safe wood from pet stores needs some form of processing before being fully safe for hamsters, and even some foods need to be processed in some way before they're safe to consume. You wouldn't eat potatoes raw because they're unsafe to eat raw, but that doesn't make potatoes themselves unsafe!

Some play sand does come in clear bags. Dust right away isn't a concern for reasons I've already stated. I do remember seeing at least one 10kg play sand bag online, I can't remember the exact site though but I do know it was UK based and some home improvement/hardware type store.

ETA I found it again!
https://www.homebase.co.uk/soft-play...i-pack_p374055

I also found this one that may be more accessible for some and is a little bit cheaper:
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-so...10kg/p/0423913

The Wilko one has options for delivery if you really needed it delivered, and I'm sure you could get some sort of groceries(well, not food but groceries-ish?) delivered along with the sand to make it worth the extra expense for that.

07-13-2019, 06:14 AM
AmityvilleHams PM Fluffy for custom title Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 4,545	Re: Safe sand bath for dwarf hamster - 2019 It's still safe even if you need to sift, rinse, and bake. Some things need certain processing steps to be safe. For play sand, the baking is due to storage at hardware stores(it can get wet so needs drying, and ants for example will get into anything so these may be present). Anything in a hamster cage should be either chew proof or digestible if ingested. While it obviously isn't good to eat any sand, play sand in accidental swallowing amounts is completely fine. It's inevitable when hamsters groom themselves that whatever is on their fur will become ingested, including play sand(reptile sands seem to clump way more, natural or otherwise, and this could be as simple as the particle size or shape causing it). A lot of perfectly safe wood from pet stores needs some form of processing before being fully safe for hamsters, and even some foods need to be processed in some way before they're safe to consume. You wouldn't eat potatoes raw because they're unsafe to eat raw, but that doesn't make potatoes themselves unsafe! Some play sand does come in clear bags. Dust right away isn't a concern for reasons I've already stated. I do remember seeing at least one 10kg play sand bag online, I can't remember the exact site though but I do know it was UK based and some home improvement/hardware type store. ETA I found it again! https://www.homebase.co.uk/soft-play...i-pack_p374055 I also found this one that may be more accessible for some and is a little bit cheaper: https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-so...10kg/p/0423913 The Wilko one has options for delivery if you really needed it delivered, and I'm sure you could get some sort of groceries(well, not food but groceries-ish?) delivered along with the sand to make it worth the extra expense for that. Last edited by AmityvilleHams; 07-13-2019 at 06:50 AM.