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AmityvilleHams · 12-09-2019, 06:16 PM

Weekly spot cleaning is fine. Thorough full cage cleans monthly is not a good idea though, at least once you start encountering larger cages with proper substrate depth. 100 cm x 50 cm cages could easily go 3 months without a full clean, but even then it is never necessary if partial cleaning is done(you'd continuously be replacing soiled substrate anyways over time). Square meter sized cages with very deep substrate on the other hand could go 6 months or even a whole year without ever having a full cage clean outside of medical necessity even though they could absolutely end up never requiring a full clean at all. This is still true of wood based substrates.

Hamsters using sand baths as their toilets certainly help increase the time a cage stays reasonably clean, but when you add in the proper form of cage cleaning(spot cleaning and very small partial cleans along with occasional wheel cleaning and necessary removal of food that's gone bad in some way) that increases even more. Cleaning the cage fully too often not only compromises the hamster involved's immune system in multiple ways, but it also results in a negative impact to your wallet along with potential negative impact to the environment.

12-09-2019, 06:16 PM
AmityvilleHams PM Fluffy for custom title Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 4,545	Re: Cleaning Schedule Weekly spot cleaning is fine. Thorough full cage cleans monthly is not a good idea though, at least once you start encountering larger cages with proper substrate depth. 100 cm x 50 cm cages could easily go 3 months without a full clean, but even then it is never necessary if partial cleaning is done(you'd continuously be replacing soiled substrate anyways over time). Square meter sized cages with very deep substrate on the other hand could go 6 months or even a whole year without ever having a full cage clean outside of medical necessity even though they could absolutely end up never requiring a full clean at all. This is still true of wood based substrates. Hamsters using sand baths as their toilets certainly help increase the time a cage stays reasonably clean, but when you add in the proper form of cage cleaning(spot cleaning and very small partial cleans along with occasional wheel cleaning and necessary removal of food that's gone bad in some way) that increases even more. Cleaning the cage fully too often not only compromises the hamster involved's immune system in multiple ways, but it also results in a negative impact to your wallet along with potential negative impact to the environment.