How often do you clean the hideout?

[jennyfive]

Hi folks

Hope I'm not posting too many threads, but I'm sure you all have many insights on this! I'm ultimately getting wee Harry a new hideout as I feel the one he has is a bit wee for him (certainly once he grows up) but how often do you clean out a hamster's hideout? I ask as Harry tends to poo and pee in his a lot so I feel the need to clean it almost every day (he has a potty so I'm hoping he'll learn to pee in that). I don't know if cleaning too often may irritate or stress him (I know how I felt if my personal space was encroached upon when I was wee )! What do you think? Many thanks in advance!

[Drago]

You don't really want to clean the nest. Remove a bit of the pee soaked bits to avoid ammonia burns, and fungal issues, but don't remove feces or anything like that. Hamsters are very particular about their nests, and they don't need to be cleaned all that often, if ever. I never clean the nests as after several weeks, my hams generally change the location of their nests anyways so it never really gets dirty enough for concern. Personally, I'd remove the pee occasionally, but leave the rest Best wishes

[jennyfive]

Thank you I had wondered how he might react, I'll just do spot checks for pee in that case from now on. When you do a full clean of the full cage/home itself do you still tend to leave the hideout as your hammy has left it (e.g bedding, poo etc) or would you clean some/all of that out then?

[Drago]

I generally clean the abandoned hideout area with a normal cage cleaning

[CMB]

If his house/nest is wooden, you could paint it with Plastikote water based enamel. This would protect the wood from the pee.

[jennyfive]

Ahh thank you, his hideout is plastic but I'm really not happy with it long term as I'm so sure he'll grow out of it quickly!

[CMB]

A wooden hideout is better than a plastic one. Plastic ones seem to get hot and condensation inside from the hamster breathing.

So if you get a new hideout you may want to look for a wooden one.

[flowerfairy]

I usually clean out half a cage at a time and do their wheels and houses etc at a different time to the cage cleans to minimise stress.