Overall Cleaning and Cage Questions

[Taffy]

Hello! Yes, I'm new. I have recently bought the Detolf cage from IKEA, and now I'm preparing for a hamster!
Question 1: How often should I fully clean the cage
Question 2: How often should I spot clean?
Question 3:Is there any reasonably priced, easily moveable cages you would reccomend? (I am going on vacation and want to know a good cage to put my hammy in when he is at a friends house)
Thanks, Taffy

[bry]

hi, 1. it really depends how messy your hamster is, but roughlly once a month would be good. 2. as above, but roughly everyday to once every 3 days. 3. you could maybe build a bin cage (very very easy to make, i made one when i was 11)

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to HC.

You don't ever need to fully clean the cage really unless your hamster gets sick or you get something like a mite of moth infestation, other than that it's best to avoid full cleans as these are very stressful for a hamster.
It's best to just do partial cleans, maybe a third of the cage at any one time at most or just clean away some of the surface substrate if need be, this can be done every few weeks but how often it's needed will depend on the hamster to some extent.
When you clean the nest or hoard area it's important to always put some of those back, if the hoard has any wet food or veg in it or is getting a bit old you can just replace it with some fresh mix.

Most hams can be litter trained which makes spot cleaning a lot easier, it can take them a while to settle on one spot but when they do you can provide a litter tray with some chinchilla sand for them to use there & just empty or sieve it as needed. If not litter trained then a bit of spot cleaning every couple of days should be enough, less if possible in the first couple of weeks while your ham settles in.

Serendipity had a good holiday cage for her ham but I can't remember what it was! I expect she'll see this & let you know though.

[Taffy]

Thanks so much!