Hi everyone,
we've had a new Syrian hamster now for four weeks (about 4 months old from an accidental litter). We are sure he's almost deaf as he hardly flinches at any kind of noises. He's very friendly and very keen to get out of his cage
so always climbs on our hands in the evening to be lifted out.
Our old hamster unfortunately died (we don't know why, it was a real shock, only had him for five weeks) before we received a bigger house (he always peed in the corner of the house where his food stack was but also used two other toilets in the cage).
Cookie is very clean, he always uses his toilet which is inside his hut (which has three rooms). I put chinchilla sand in it and he also uses it to bath in it. I'm replacing the sand and wash the toilet (just with very hot water and a small drop of washing up liquid) about every three days. Should I clean it more often? I spot clean the cage about every three to four days as it's not that messy at all. He's got a candy jar as a sand bath in one corner and I get the droppings out. I replace the sand in the jar about once a week and also wash it out with hot water. So far I've only done a full change of bedding (we use Filch) after two weeks (reusing some of the old one) but I feel it's not really necessary to do that as he doesn't seem to wee anywhere else apart from the toilet and inside his plastic wheel (I wash that out once a week). When I do a full clean I get everything out and wash the cage out and use a bit of disinfectant spray for pets. I also put some paper at the bottom of the cage (for extra protection, it's got a wooden floor) but I don't think that's necessary with Cookie.
My main concern is his hoard. He does hoard a lot of his food and there are loads of droppings inside it (it's in the same room where he sleeps right next to his sleeping corner). How do I clean it? In order to get rid off all the droppings I need to remove all of his hoard but I know that's not nice for him. He prefers fresh food and I don't think he hoards any of that at all. What do you do about his hoard? Do you ever remove all of it? Do you keep a few food bits, clean his house out and then put it into the new bedding in the same corner? Sorry it's such a long post.