struggling to litter train your hammy, try this

[Brianh96]

hey all.


i did a full cage change about 2 weeks ago and before doing this I put a pastry dish as a sandbath because i wanted to see if he would like it, later that night i looked over to the cage and could see that he was going in it for a dig but soon lost interest,
it was coming up to the month mark since the clean and i wanted to try something knew as a sandbath, and i saw on youtube happyhammy was using a jar on its side. i was intrigued so i went rooting through my house and found a medium candy jar and decided that this would work great.
so i put a few inches of sand in it and left toffee to have a nosey. the same happened again ; he would dig and then loose intrest. but i though wait a day or too and see . the next morning i woke up and looked in the cage to find that he had urinated in the sand.
then an idea popped up in my mind, why not see if instead of him using it as a sand bath,why not try it as a toilet. he usualy uses the corner of the cage closest to his nest but i though why not try it.
so i changed the sand and put alot less sand in, and put it next to his next and waited.
almost straight away he started using it as a toilet and after a couple days keeping an eye on it i noticed he would only urinate on the sand and nowhere else which is great
now i dont have to change the soiled substrate every couple days because he only uses the jar, instead all i do is remove the soiled sand.
the best part is the fact that the odour control is AMAZING. doesnt smell in the slightest.

this is going to lenghten the life of one cage clean by a mile , and the less i have to do a cage clean the less of a stressed out hammy i have

seriously give this a try

have any of you guys tried this out or something similar to this, i would love to hear

[emojimom]

My Syrian Beatrix (RIP) used her sand bath as a litter tray, too. She actually did most of her pooping there too. I used a small fish bowl on its side, and it worked great, though she did kick out a lot of sand, too. I'm hoping my new hammy Matilda will do the same. You're right; it's so much easier to keep a tidy cage when you can just change the sand.

[Hammy992]

I am thinking I might have to do this as my Syrian ham Custard uses his sputnik sandbath as a toilet!
He used to just enjoy just digging around in it until one day I ran out of hamster litter and not being in a position to get more thought "oh I'll just put a bit of bathing sand in his potty until I can go buy some."
Since then no matter what I try he now treats all sand inside his cage as a loo and outside of the cage it's a sandpit
When I use his old stuff he just stores his food in with it as well - yuk! So I may need to accept that he prefers the sand and doesn't want to use anything else lol

[Brianh96]

Originally Posted by Hammy992

I am thinking I might have to do this as my Syrian ham Custard uses his sputnik sandbath as a toilet!
He used to just enjoy just digging around in it until one day I ran out of hamster litter and not being in a position to get more thought "oh I'll just put a bit of bathing sand in his potty until I can go buy some."
Since then no matter what I try he now treats all sand inside his cage as a loo and outside of the cage it's a sandpit
When I use his old stuff he just stores his food in with it as well - yuk! So I may need to accept that he prefers the sand and doesn't want to use anything else lol

personally ive never tried the actual hamster litter because i though it was dead gimicky along with the toilet that pairs with it. but i seriously suggest this, and i pay 3 pound for the sand [ ile put a link below of the specific] its genuinely going to last me 6 months, and for 3 pound thats dirt cheap.

Originally Posted by emojimom

My Syrian Beatrix (RIP) used her sand bath as a litter tray, too. She actually did most of her pooping there too. I used a small fish bowl on its side, and it worked great, though she did kick out a lot of sand, too. I'm hoping my new hammy Matilda will do the same. You're right; it's so much easier to keep a tidy cage when you can just change the sand.

yeah ive kinda worked out the right amount to put in , i find that if you put too much in that my hammy digs in it and kicks loads out. and its gonna save me sssoooooo much money. before i would of never thought of this but im so glad i have

the sand i use is this, i works great ;
http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pe...5B2%2b10%255D#

[Pebbles82]

Our syrians have always used a litter tray if it's in the right place! Using sand is better than potty litter. You're right about it reducing cage cleans - our cage just stays clean and dry and empty the litter tray about every 5 days. Some hamsters will use both a potty and a sand bath as a toilet! Our Syrians have never been that interested in sand baths so I just use a corner litter tray.

Another thing you could try, if you ever change his nesting box/house is they will use a litter tray inside their house if the house is big enough. In fact Rodipet in Germany sell hamster houses with rooms/compartments and the hamsters naturally nest in one room, pee in another and there is space for hoards too.

Our hammy always used his litter tray until I got him a bigger house - then he chose a corner of the house to pee in so I moved his litter tray in there. Works a treat!

Sandbath or litter tray - all the same to a hamster! They are quite clean little things really.

If you scroll down this page you can see a corner litter tray inside one of their houses

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...us-dalani.html

[Brianh96]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Our syrians have always used a litter tray if it's in the right place! Using sand is better than potty litter. You're right about it reducing cage cleans - our cage just stays clean and dry and empty the litter tray about every 5 days. Some hamsters will use both a potty and a sand bath as a toilet! Our Syrians have never been that interested in sand baths so I just use a corner litter tray.

Another thing you could try, if you ever change his nesting box/house is they will use a litter tray inside their house if the house is big enough. In fact Rodipet in Germany sell hamster houses with rooms/compartments and the hamsters naturally nest in one room, pee in another and there is space for hoards too.

Our hammy always used his litter tray until I got him a bigger house - then he chose a corner of the house to pee in so I moved his litter tray in there. Works a treat!

Sandbath or litter tray - all the same to a hamster! They are quite clean little things really.

If you scroll down this page you can see a corner litter tray inside one of their houses

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...us-dalani.html

Thankyou for the link. Ive just had a look at the multi-room labyrinth, and i think ile be getting one for toffee. he would be in his element. but im worried that it wouldnt fit in my cage. do you or anyone you know have one that could tell me