Cleaning Cage for New Hamster

Newme · 11-14-2020, 11:25 AM

Hi! I'm a new owner to a 6 week old syrian hamster who I've had for a week. I've been doing my best to keep stress low so she can settle in. She's still pretty timid. However, I haven't been sure what to do about spot clean her cage, since she always pees in the bottom corner of her burrowing area under ~8 inches of bedding. Her nest and food hoards are in the same location/very close so if I clean that area I will ruin her nest. Over the course of the week it has become pretty moist in her pee corner which concerns me. Should I clean out her burrow area even though it might stress her out? Or is it better to leave it alone for a little longer until she is more settled?

cypher · 11-14-2020, 01:14 PM

I usually leave it a bit longer than a week before doing any spot cleaning but if you can see it’s wet & she’s storing food in the same place you may need to do a bit of spot cleaning soon, it is difficult not to stress them a bit if you have to disturb the nest but it won’t be healthy for her if it is getting wet, just remove as little as you can get away with & if you have to remove the food put some fresh back in it’s place.
Does she have a house to burrow under? If you have a large enough house you can try putting a litter tray in there, put some peed on substrate in it to try to encourage her to use it.

Newme · 11-14-2020, 01:27 PM

Hi, thanks for your reply! Ok, I think I might have to do a bit of a spot clean out tonight then since it is wet. I hope that goes well. I do have a house for her to burrow under. She seems to spend a lot of her time in the substrate under/beside the house. The house is too small to fit a litter tray. I do have a separate litter tray outside the house which she's hasn't started using yet ( I have put peed on tissue/bedding in there to try and encourage her). I am not sure if I should move the litter tray to under the substrate where she normally pees? Or get a larger house with space for a litter tray?

cypher · 11-14-2020, 11:02 PM

I don’t think putting the litter tray under the substrate would help really, it would still be difficult to spot clean even if she did use it, if you can get a bigger house that would probably be better.
What county are you in? In the UK a lot of people use the Rodipet labyrinth or granite houses which are really good.

Newme · 11-15-2020, 08:11 PM

Thanks for your help! I am in Canada so I can't get my hands on one of those, but I will try to make one. I did give the wet spots a clean out. She seems pretty unsure still so I'm worried I'm making her feel more unsafe by messing with her nest/burrows. I think I'll wait a bit before changing out the house for a bigger one so she can have some peace in the mean time.