My sand looks like dust?

[Ullumini]

I'm not sure where to put this topic in so I just chose hamster healthcare. If there is a section for this and I didn't see it, tell me so I can put it there and sorry.

I live in a country without many good pet products (especially hamsters)
Anyways, I used to use zeolite sand for their sand bath. You can google it but it's not like the initial pictures. It's a little coarse but it is somewhat sand like. It's great for odour control so they use it as a potty instead.

I'm a little opposed to buying brands here marketed towards sand baths because almost all of them are scented.
Recently, somebody gave me scented bath sand and I gave some to them to see how they'd react to it, and they absolutely loved it. I was a little surprised that they loved it so much, they couldn't stop rolling around in it.

I realized that zeolite sand was way too coarse for their preferences so I searched online and found sand that was unscented, but the brand also made scented sand.

Thing is, the scented sand I tested out was really fine, I'm kinda afraid it'll be too fine for them and get dusty or something. I thought that the unscented ones would be the same.
I googled what good commercial sand baths should look like and the texture was almost exactly the same as the zeolite sand!
Should I get the sand or keep using zeolite sand?

[Bel04]

I just bought sand for my hamster and it got delivered today. It’s childs play sand. It’s purple but I scented. Feels like regular sand from the beach. I put it in a takeaway dish and put it in her cage. She loves it.

[SKB_Hamsters]

I strongly advise against using scented sand as hamster have a very strong sense of smell and it can be very overpowering for them. A reason for them to be rolling around in the sand so much is that they are trying to get the smell out of the fur - as dwarf hamster use their sand to clean their fur. Dust is also not safe as it can cause respiratory issues.

I looked up zeolite sand and some pictures look really fine and other look similar to grit. So I wouldn’t use this.

I would go for the sand that you found which is unscented - this would be the safest option.
Or A children playsand would also be safe - as it isn’t too coarse however it will need to be strelised in an oven to make sure any possible bacteria in the sand has been killed and remove any moisture which could be in the sand.

Originally Posted by Bel04

I just bought sand for my hamster and it got delivered today. It’s childs play sand. It’s purple but I scented. Feels like regular sand from the beach. I put it in a takeaway dish and put it in her cage. She loves it.

I wouldn’t advise using the sand if it has been dyed purple as you won’t know whether the dye is safe or not for hamsters.