Hamster Hisses When I Spot Clean Her Cage

[Natasha95]

Hi! It's been a while since I've posted a question here, but I need advice on how to keep a hamster calm while you're spot cleaning their cage. I've had my dwarf hamster for about 5 months now, and she's fully tamed, but she still gets really stressed out when I clean her cage. Spot cleaning is hard because she goes to the bathroom at the bottom of her cage, so I need to dig around to find it, and she absolutely hates it when I do that. Sometimes she'll just sit where I'm cleaning and refuse to move, other times she'll come over and start digging and trying to cover up the hole with the surrounding bedding, and sometimes she hisses and buzzes at me. I tried taking her out of her cage when I was cleaning once, but it's like she knew what I was doing because she got really stressed out in her play pen and started pooping everywhere and chewing on the bars. I was wondering if there's anything I can do to keep her calm. Her cage is 540 sq. in. (I know small spaces can cause cage aggression), and she's usually fine with me putting my hand in her cage and even moving some things around in there. She only gets mad when I spot clean.

Also, I know it's unfair to compare hamsters because they all have different personalities, but my Syrian never had a problem with me cleaning his cage. He'd come check out what I was doing and then walk away. And full clean-outs were fun for him because he liked playing with the parts of his cage I had laying around while I was cleaning. They both had the same size cage, and I actually clean her cage a lot less often, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[alpacassei]

Russian dwarfs are more likely to be cage aggressive than Syrians regardless of cage size tbh. 540 square inches should be enough and if she’s not showing signs of stress (bar chewing, pacing, clawing at edges, etc) then I wouldnt worry about that.

Females especially can be quite defensive of having their nests etc touched, my Mishka was the same. I’m not sure what to suggest other than taking her out the cage while you spot clean. Leave a little bit of her old nest material in the cage as well so it smells familiar.

[Natasha95]

She doesn't seem stressed, except when I'm cleaning. I'll take her out next time, and hopefully that'll help. Thanks!