Hamster Central - View Single Post

Pebbles82 · 07-03-2022, 02:52 PM

Hi. Had you had some kind of illness or infestation? A major clean like that is likely to stress a hamster quite a bit - removes all their familiar scent. Moving things around at the same time could stress him to. How long have you had him? 185g is a good weight.

It's usually recommended to do "partial" cleans though. Eg if replacing the substrate, don't clean anything else at the same time. You can do the wheel as and when and various toys and as when. So something always smells familar.

Even when changing the substrate I don't replace all of it - I keep back some of the clean old stuff and spread it on top so it still smells familiar.

I think of it as the hamsters's home - we wouldn't like to come home and find someone had painted all the walls, it smelled of paint, and they had moved all the furniture around - so it didn't feel like home and couldn't find anything!

They scent mark everything in the cage. Generally it's considered hamsters like everything left in exactly the same place - it's their familiar terrain. Sometimes adding something new can add interest.

How is he after the clean?

07-03-2022, 02:52 PM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Too much of a good thing? Hi. Had you had some kind of illness or infestation? A major clean like that is likely to stress a hamster quite a bit - removes all their familiar scent. Moving things around at the same time could stress him to. How long have you had him? 185g is a good weight. It's usually recommended to do "partial" cleans though. Eg if replacing the substrate, don't clean anything else at the same time. You can do the wheel as and when and various toys and as when. So something always smells familar. Even when changing the substrate I don't replace all of it - I keep back some of the clean old stuff and spread it on top so it still smells familiar. I think of it as the hamsters's home - we wouldn't like to come home and find someone had painted all the walls, it smelled of paint, and they had moved all the furniture around - so it didn't feel like home and couldn't find anything! They scent mark everything in the cage. Generally it's considered hamsters like everything left in exactly the same place - it's their familiar terrain. Sometimes adding something new can add interest. How is he after the clean?