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Old 02-07-2019, 10:50 AM   #1
SandyT
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Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Cornwall
Posts: 85
Default Hamster Cage Clean

Hiya,
I need to clean Marnie's cage. It will be her first clean and I'm not 100% sure how to go about it for the best. I apologise in advance for my silly questions!
Ok, so I know that you would take a third of the Fitch out and replace it, mixing it in with the old Fitch so that it smells familiar and I know that you don't clean the toys and wheel etc at the same time. I also know only to take soiled bedding from the nest and disturb the nest and stash as little as possible, replacing anything you have to take due to being peed on.
The problems I have are these, I'm not sure she actually has a nest as she has cleared a lot of the Fitch out from underneath her house.
Also, I put a toilet in her house but that got buried. I found the corner in her cage where she was peeing, so I put another toilet there, which she pees in a little but but enjoys more as a sand bath. I'm kicking myself over this as I have something much better for this purpose but I didn't put it in the cage as a permanent thing as I read somewhere that Syrians shouldn't have sand baths daily. Anyway, I looked in her house and she seemed to be peeing in there too so I dug out the buried toilet and put it there, I'm not entirely sure she likes it. (I think she also uses another corner for hoarding poops, not sure what I should do about that.)
She doesn't tend to get up til between 9 and 11pm and though I am up, they don't seem like great times to clean her out, can I wake her up and move her to do it earlier in the day?
My most stupid question is probably the next one, do you remove the top of the cage? Despite the large front door, I don't think it's that easy getting all around her cage. I really do need to access it all because my goodness, that girl can poo. I have done some spot cleans but read not to take too much poo because of them hoarding it etc but now there is loads in there.
I'm so nervous because I don't want to do anything that will upset her more than necessary. She's already a timid little thing.
Thanks in advance.
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Old 02-07-2019, 12:44 PM   #2
cypher
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Default Re: Hamster Cage Clean

It can seem a bit daunting getting the balance right between cleaning enough & not upsetting them but try not to worry about it too much!
Digging a load of fitch out from under the house is totally normal, they tend to do that when making a nest & you an end up with quite a mountain of fitch in front of the house sometimes so she may be nesting in there.
I think it would be fine to wake her a little early to do the clean, do you have a carrier to put her in while you do it?
I take the top of the cage for anything more than spot cleaning you can't really do it any other way.
I wouldn't worry too much about poo, if there is a lot it's fine to take most of it out but don't worry about clearing it all out, it won't do any harm to leave some for a while.
I would mainly concentrate on anywhere she's peed, even there don't over clean things.
If she buries the toilet in the house does she still pee in that spot? If she does it might just be easier to spot clean there & not leave the toilet in if it doesn't work for her.
You haven't had her that long now & she has a nice big cage so you shouldn't need to do much cleaning or remove that much fitch really, no hard & fast rules about how much to take out or leave just try to do what really needs to be done & not more especially as she is still quite new to everything.
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Old 02-07-2019, 02:37 PM   #3
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Hamster Cage Clean

How long have you had her? She may not need a substrate change yet and you can just spot clean for a while. Keep persisting with the potty - it'll sort itself out. If her nest is pee'd in and you have to remove some (try and leave a little bit if you can if there is some dry) - then it might be better not to do the substrate now and just spot clean the odd bit (don't worry about the poops - they're not dirty or smelly really and they eat them sometimes for extra vitamins etc - you could prune them a bit if there are a lot.

So spot cleaning - just take a handful or so of soiled substrate out and add a new handful and mix it in. So maybe just spot clean the pee areas, clean out her potty and refill it and put it back (they often put substrate on top so it doesn't smell ). And sort her nest out a bit if it's pee'd in.

With plenty of substrate in the cage you can just spot clean for quite a few weeks and it gradually gets replenished.

The usual recommendation is not to clean anything for the first couple of weeks in the cage - after that, spot clean mainly. I go about 3 months between substrate changes with a 100cm cage. And just clean other bits as and when they need doing.
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Old 02-13-2019, 05:55 PM   #4
SandyT
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Default Re: Hamster Cage Clean

In the end, I took out a few handfuls of Fitch that seemed to have a fair bit of poop in. She had been using the toilet in her house, so I sorted that. I did a general tidy without trying to mess too much. I added a bit of new Fitch and lightly mixed it in. I was chicken though as I didn't touch anything in her house apart from the toilet section. The day she pulled so much Fitch out from under her house, I could see her under there asleep so I don't know if she'd got too warm or she just fancied a change, it didn't look soiled.
Whilst I was cleaning her, she was in a decent sized tub (big enough for just having a lean anyway) and I'd put lots of Fitch in it. The trouble was, I ended up having to dig her out to put her back in her cage which is obviously far from ideal 😳
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Old 02-14-2019, 07:29 AM   #5
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Hamster Cage Clean

She's bound to be skittish for a bit but will settle again soon I hide lots of treats in different places in the cage for a few days after and that soon distracts them from the disturbance.
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Old 02-14-2019, 07:31 AM   #6
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Hamster Cage Clean

I wouldn't worry about the poops just now. Just the pee - the poops aren't really dirty or smelly and they sometimes eat them, which is normal, for extra nutrients - they have two stomachs. They sometimes even put poops in their food bowl or hoard them! I only start removing them if they are really taking over or when doing a substrate change.
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Old 02-16-2019, 09:42 AM   #7
SandyT
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Default Re: Hamster Cage Clean

OK. Thank you. I know that they can eat their poop, it just seemed like a lot to me but it's probably my inexperience.
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cage, clean, put, toilet, nest, fitch, house, buried, sand, corner, peeing, advance, thing, read, hoarding, poo, wake, move, tend, poops, times, great, 11pm, til, door

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