Quote:
Originally Posted by shane
Thanks Imogen!
One corner has the sand bath, he doesn’t seem to be going in there.
Another corner had the wheel and he was pooping (not peeing) under it. Just before I cleaned I found out that hammies go to the toilet in the corners, he’s got one of those little plastic toilets but it wasn’t in the corner and he wasn’t using it so I moved it into the corner and put some of his poop in it.
He has a two-chamber house in another corner. I accidentally discovered that he wasn’t sleeping in it when I cleaned, he’s been pooping in there too but again the bedding seems clean.
The last corner has a lot more bedding in it and he’s created a nest somewhere between the house and that corner. I can only assume that he’s peeing down there. He’s still too shy to let me pick him up (he’s taken a few treats from my hand then immediately goes back home) and I didn’t want to go ripping his nest apart while he’s in it.
Should I force him out so that I can find the soiled bedding or wait until he’s ready to be removed from the cage so I can I do it?
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Never force out your hamster from his hidey house, he escapes into there to feel safe if he feels nervous or threatened and forcing him out can make you have a harder time bonding since he'll be more scared of you then when you guys started out.
Wait for him to come out, it may take a little but try not to let it sit too long without seeing if it's clean though, since bacteria can start to grow and cause problems.
As with the toilet, try removing it
for now, I noticed with my hamster he always tried finding a corner or moving something out the way of a corner to go to the toilet in because they were all "occupied". At first my hamster didn't understand what that big bizarre corner thing was and in return just sat in it to groom himself or eat a nut or something. If you remove it he may end up peeing in that corner, my hamster usually does this little handstand thing in the corner and pees up the side of the DIY bin enclosure haha. By doing this it left a scent in that corner that smelt like his pee as well as the soiled bedding, so from that I just picked it up and placed it into the toilet, as well with this I used some clean wood chipping from the enclosure (like a pinch) and rubbed it against the pee on the plastic of the bin cage to get a bit more scent and also placed that with the soiled bedding. After, he started doing a handstand in the little toilet compartment and got potty trained.
Usually I don't use latex gloves when cleaning because I'm disgusting like that, but when I went to toilet train him I used latex gloves to make sure none of my scent got on to the soiled bedding and it seemed to have done the trick.
If you can't find any wee stains then I'm not sure, it's not that common to hear of a hamster peeing all over the place but he might just be nervous and needs to settle in.
May I ask what he lives in? Is it a DIY bin/tank enclosure? etc.