Bathing in potty area?

[SirLawrence]

Hi, this is my first post here. My Syrian Lawrence has a tubberware container with some wood shaving substrate which he uses as his pee corner/potty. As well as doing his buisness in the tubberware he rolls about and grooms himself. He seems to love this activity so I was wondering about introducing a sand bath. Could a sand bath work as a potty aswell? Or is it better to keep them seperate?

Also thank you all for your contributions to this forum. As a first time hamster mummy I have been turning to Hamster Central for every query knowing there would be great advice from those more experienced!

Emma

[Pebbles82]

I think it can work as both yes. I had a sand bath and a potty but our Syrian kept kicking all the sand out and turning his ceramic salt pig sand bath into a cosy nest, filling it with Fitch substrate, so I stopped bothering with a sand bath. But I do use sand in his potty litter tray and he pees in the back corner and washes in the front of it. Some people find hammies use a sand bath as a potty as well - or a potty as a kind of sand bath as well.

So yes I would replace the shavings in the sand bath with Chinchilla bathing sand (which a lot of people on here use). It needs to be sand, not dust. This is the one most people use

https://www.viovet.co.uk/Supreme_Sci...g+sand&sct_r=1

I get two at a time to save on postage and they last a while. If he uses the sand bath as a potty you can just scoop out the wet patch, you don't need to change all the sand every time.

[POLAR WHITES]

You can also use children play sand this comes in big bags. It's normally wet inside and does need drying. I normal put some on a baking tray and bake it in the oven for 30 mins. Also P@H sell chinchilla dust thus isn't dust it's sand and is ok to use if a little dusty at first till settles.

[FreddyAndMe]

I use one of the trixie covered corner potties. He never used it until I put sand in it - now he rolls about and wees in it. It came with a little scoop that I use to sieve out the dirty sand (it clumps together in his wee) and I change it all out alongside cleaning his cage every fortnight. So yes, baths and potties can be combined!

[AmityvilleHams]

They do generally function as both for hamsters!It's actually very normal for that to happen,but you could offer a larger area of sand or several areas of sand to attempt to balance it out.It doesn't necessarily mean that your hamster will use different areas for different things though

[velma]

You can try having seperate things but your hammy doesn't always see it that way. They'll use areas exactly how they see fit, no matter what you intended so an "all-in-one" is fine. For my Syrian I have a glass biscuit jar on it's side that she (mostly) uses to pee in and she also has a grand old time in there kicking all the sand about amd having a clean. I quite like the jar as its enclosed which means the sand only goes out the front as she seems to prefer being closed in but there are plenty of other options. I had a corner potty but personally found it a bit small for her when she is digging. Some people use corner trays like you get for rabbits. You can also get ceramic dishes for cheap in places like Poundland that work well or plastic dishes like your Tupperware one (just keep an eye out for chewing).

[SirLawrence]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I've ordered a Trixie corner toilet and picked up some sand at P@H. Watching him investigate the new texture was hilarious (as was his little sandy nose when he looked up at me!)