My hamster is always trying to escape when she’s in an 800 sq inch cage.

[Pebbles82]

Can I just say she has an adorable, alert cheeky face! She is clearly very active and busy. Also a month isn't that long - especially if you've had to clean out her nest and hoard during that time - it can take a while to settle in. Do you put new food back when removing pee'd on hoard? It helps. They get frantic about their nest and hoard.

She just looks like she's being a hamster to me and if the only air is from the top she may try and see if she can get out that way.

It's a lovely big bin - is it the Iris bin? I can't quite see but it looks like the ventilation goes the whole length of the top. My only observation was maybe it could do with more ventilation - eg a panel at the front - but if the whole top is meshed it could be ok (could explain why she is going for the top as that's the ventilation area?

Where is she nesting? Again I can't see well but I would give her a really big house/nesting box in there. They often move their pee area inside the house in a corner of the house if you give them a large house, so you can then put a corner litter tray inside the house - it has always worked a treat for me. Especially if the house has a lift off roof - then you can just take the roof off and take the litter tray out and empty it and the rest of the cage stays clean. They are much less likely to pee on their nest and hoard with a litter tray inside the house.

They do need somewhere dark to retreat to and build a nice big cosy nest, to feel secure and not anxious and with all that space I think it would help - maybe at the right hand end. A cardboard shoe box would do great - cut the base out so it's open underneath and use the lid as a lift off roof. Then cut a hole in for a door - if you put the door at one end of the long side then they tend to nest in the side away from the door, where it's darker, and pee in the back corner nearest the door. If you put that bendy stick bridge over the door it makes a tunnel entrance and makes it dark inside, so it will tempt her in there and she may move her nest in there or build a new nest in there.

Getting a little corner litter tray with Chinchilla sand in to put in the house where I mentioned and she will almost certainly use it.

Of course she might chew the house to bits but it's replaceable Some female hams are incredibly active.

Something like this. Our hammy pees in the back corner and sits in the front for a wash.

https://www.amazon.com/Kaytee-Hi-Cor...=hamster+potty

If she tries to climb on the roof to get out - don't worry - because if your lid is well fitting she can't get out. Also a partly submerged house works well (mimics an underground burrow) so that would make it lower - as long as there is still enough substrate underneath.

Then leave her alone for a week - it shouldn't get too stinky in that time. After a week maybe empty the litter tray but leave everything else - she will have scent marked everything when she moved in so any changes will stress her. Adding something new seems to accepted well though.

[FirefoxMiho]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Can I just say she has an adorable, alert cheeky face! She is clearly very active and busy. Also a month isn't that long - especially if you've had to clean out her nest and hoard during that time - it can take a while to settle in. Do you put new food back when removing pee'd on hoard? It helps. They get frantic about their nest and hoard.

She just looks like she's being a hamster to me and if the only air is from the top she may try and see if she can get out that way.

It's a lovely big bin - is it the Iris bin? I can't quite see but it looks like the ventilation goes the whole length of the top. My only observation was maybe it could do with more ventilation - eg a panel at the front - but if the whole top is meshed it could be ok (could explain why she is going for the top as that's the ventilation area?

Where is she nesting? Again I can't see well but I would give her a really big house/nesting box in there. They often move their pee area inside the house in a corner of the house if you give them a large house, so you can then put a corner litter tray inside the house - it has always worked a treat for me. Especially if the house has a lift off roof - then you can just take the roof off and take the litter tray out and empty it and the rest of the cage stays clean. They are much less likely to pee on their nest and hoard with a litter tray inside the house.

They do need somewhere dark to retreat to and build a nice big cosy nest, to feel secure and not anxious and with all that space I think it would help - maybe at the right hand end. A cardboard shoe box would do great - cut the base out so it's open underneath and use the lid as a lift off roof. Then cut a hole in for a door - if you put the door at one end of the long side then they tend to nest in the side away from the door, where it's darker, and pee in the back corner nearest the door. If you put that bendy stick bridge over the door it makes a tunnel entrance and makes it dark inside, so it will tempt her in there and she may move her nest in there or build a new nest in there.

Getting a little corner litter tray with Chinchilla sand in to put in the house where I mentioned and she will almost certainly use it.

Of course she might chew the house to bits but it's replaceable Some female hams are incredibly active.

Something like this. Our hammy pees in the back corner and sits in the front for a wash.

https://www.amazon.com/Kaytee-Hi-Cor...=hamster+potty

If she tries to climb on the roof to get out - don't worry - because if your lid is well fitting she can't get out. Also a partly submerged house works well (mimics an underground burrow) so that would make it lower - as long as there is still enough substrate underneath.

Then leave her alone for a week - it shouldn't get too stinky in that time. After a week maybe empty the litter tray but leave everything else - she will have scent marked everything when she moved in so any changes will stress her. Adding something new seems to accepted well though.

Thank you. As cute as she is, she’s a handful as you can see. She was just now gnawing at the mesh as I’m making this post.

She sleeps on the left side of cage along the back. She used to sleep in a plastic tube until I took it out for safety reasons after she started destroying it. This was after she still had hideouts that she has stopped using in favor of the tunnel. They were removed because she was only using it to attempt an escape.

She has a jar of chinchilla sand that she regularly pees on but despite that, still wees in her nest which can smell very quickly. Once the cage is spot cleaned, I’ll leave her be but it’s going to be a difficult week because she’s very noisy in her tantrums.

And yes, this is an iris brand bin. She has already destroyed a small bit of that bin(part of the spot that molds to the bin’s wheel)

[Pebbles82]

Difficult. Removing her hideout/nesting place will have made her worse probably - they like to feel secure in their nesting box. Tunnels aren't very good for nesting as they get smelly.

Does it really matter if she climbs on her house to try and get out? Because she can't get out if the lid is secure.

It might be better to just let her go through that phase, and she'll give up and get used to a regular out of cage time. At the moment though it will be an itch scratch situation. She is more and more frantic because her nest/house has been removed a couple of times. That is their most important thing in life.

I would suggest a house as suggested above with a litter tray inside - she will like it and may settle down then.

[Pebbles82]

It's very difficult when they can't talk - although I do talk to our hamster and explain to him, while I'm doing it, that I have to take this bit of hoard out of his potty because it's pee'd on and then let him see me putting new food back next to his potty - eventually he got the message and hoarded next to his potty instead of in it!

Cleaning her out a lot will be very stressful. Hamsters do pee and they are kept in an artificial environment - a cage or tank - they won't pee everywhere and are quite clean generally and will use a toilet - although may pee in their wheel.

However if you start taking her nest and hoard way it becomes a vicious circle because they then pee on things to deter people or predators from interfering with their things!

You may have to ride it out and just let her get a tiny bit smelly for a couple of weeks.

It is our human instinct to thoroughly clean everything so it's brand spanking clean, but that removes all the hamster's familiar scent and makes them feel homeless and want to escape. So keep any spot cleaning to a minimum and try and put a litter tray near or in her house - as well as her sand bath.