Am I cleaning his bed/potty area too much?

[Ramyun Noodles]

I know hamsters "mark" their bed and food stash with pee and poo and mine exclusively does it in his bed where he stores his food and sleeps. I don't mind, since I clean it daily and give him fresh food. I'll keep 25% of his old bedding and some of his old, non-wet food to keep his scent around. But, am I over-cleaning it?

The reason why I'm asking is because I see him pull his poo directly from his bum and fling it into his stash of food!

[GemmasMom]

I never save food, since mine pouch the food, then store it, but that's just me! I don't think you are over-cleaning it. If you just have one ham who isn't very messy, you definitely don't need to clean more than once a week. You could probably even go for two weeks

[Lynternette]

I clean mine out once a week exactly the same as you. They pull out poo and fling it out. Sometimes Dusty will fling it out of the door of his house.

[Ramyun Noodles]

I have to say, the poo flinging cracks me up! Thanks for your input!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Er... I may be misreading but are you cleaning something daily? If so, then yes, thats probably too often. Weekly (or even longer) is better

[Arraminta]

Hahahaha poo flinging!!! Hahaha I have such a cartoon image of a hammy launching poos out of his house x x x :0)

I would agree with all,, cleaning out their bed too often could make them anxious because you are raiding their store all the time... If necessary spot clean wee areas. I clean mine out ever 1 -2 weeks which is more then enough.

Arraminta

[student1304]

it depends what house your guy is sleeping in,
my chinese smells really bad and I had to clean his house and wheel every two days because he pees on them both.
I was advised to get rid of his plastic house because that's why it smells bad, he now has a wooden house so we'll see how that goes