Eau de Hamster

[Stella Maris]

During his adolescent phase, I often noticed a not-so-faint whiff of 'eau de hamster' as I walked past Bean's bin. This was caused by
1. peeing in his wheel, and
2. scent-gland marking his bed.

Happily, with maturity, he's quit the serious 'scenting'. It's not noticeable at all unless I open up his house, and even then, not much.

And Merlina's suggestion re putting a sand tray under his wheel seems to have worked! He had a sandbox right next to the wheel but that wasn't enough to encourage him to leave the wheel to wee. With the sand under the wheel, it ended up stuck to the wee in the wheel, and I guess he didn't like the feel of "running on the beach". I've taken the sand away, and he still hasn't peed in his wheel for over 2 weeks now. Yay!

[Ria P]

Hahaha!! "Eau de hamster" that's a good one.

Glad he's convinced now that his enclosure and everything in it is his and his only.

[Stella Maris]

Thanks, Ria! That might be it.

I first got my dwarf, Oreo, on a Friday afternoon. On Saturday afternoon, the room filled with a musky miasma. It emanated from his cage, so I cleaned out what seemed like the most redolent corner, and all was well. For a while.
A couple of hours later, I was once again inundated from across the room by his 'eau de hamster'. I cleaned out another corner of the cage, realised I couldn't live with the stench, and decided that I would have to return him when the pet store opened on Monday.

But Sunday and Monday came with no further olfactory assaults. In fact, he smelled just fine except for one ill-planned effort when I put a long tube into his bin to entertain him. He stashed some of his food in the middle of the tube, then excreted some transparent goo (scent gland musk) to mark it as his. That was the end of the "let's see what he does with this nice long tube" experiment!

Since they both live in my studio suite with me, I'm glad "the boys" don't stink!

Oreo's 2 years and 2 months now, still running on his wheel, and begging for treats. I only see Bean (8 months old now) in the morning every day or two, wanting to get out and explore. I give him the run of the place. (The fridge and dishwasher are blocked off; he went under there one morning, and didn't come out until I banged his food dishes together.) I made a ladder from a piece of fence so he can climb back into his bin when he wants.

Cute critters.