my hamster uses her wheel as a toilet?

apteryx · 01-04-2018, 12:22 PM

My dwarf hamster only likes to pee and poop on her wheel. I've never seen any soiled bedding around the cage and every morning her wheel is filthy, so I have to wash it daily.

Is this normal behavior? I don't mind too much, but I got her a sandbox+litter tray the other day and was hoping she'd use that as a toilet instead of her wheel since it's easier for me to clean. Any suggestions? :-/

CMB · 01-04-2018, 12:30 PM

You could wipe the wheel with ttissue and then put the tissue into the sand box/litter tray.

Washing the wheel can make them pee in it more. My robo pees in his wheel, but also in his sand.

cypher · 01-04-2018, 01:51 PM

It's totally normal for some hams to do that, I wouldn't clean the wheel more than once a week, it may look filthy to you but your ham obviously likes it like that & over cleaning will just make matters worse!
As CMB said you can try to encourage use of the littler tray but some hams will always pee in the wheel, I wouldn't worry about it tbh.