How stinky is your chinese hamster?

[KatiePillow]

My hamster sesame is my only chinese, so I don't have anything to compare her to.
I cleaned her out completely on tuesday, but her cage already seems to smell like pee, I'm a bit worried she has diabetes..she seems to have really long drinks, but then doesn't drink for ages..I think it's so she doesn't have to come out in the open often.. but obviously I'd rather be safe than sorry.


Also, how often do you clean out your chinese hamsters houses? sesame is peeing in hers..but if I ever touch her nest..she moves it somewhere unventilated/more private (she nested in her tube for about a week... I left her because she was at the mouth of it)

I don't really know what to do with her >.<

[dengen]

Our two baby boys and dad dont seem to be that stinky but mum does make a whiff! But she does tend to toilet in her wheel and then spin which makes the smell spin round :???:

She also seems to drink more than the boys dont know if this is a female thing but I wouldnt say she drinks enough to consider her being diabetic

hopefully somebody with long chinese experience will enlighten us more:)

[souffle]

I find they do smell 'different' to other species. I wouldn't say more , just that each species seems to have a characteristic odour!
Chinese do wee on the wheel and actually seem to do it even more if you keep washing it! We leave ours a few days between washes.
Vectis hams has some information about a Chinese hamster she has with diabetes so perhaps you could have a look at that.

[KatiePillow]

I don't think she has diabetes, because she hasn't been drinking more than my other 3 dwarves (I was a bit worried, so left it two days between changing water to check, and they'd all gone down the same amount)
She wees in her bed, which is rather horrible, I need to clean it out again >.<

I will keep an eye on the water, and maybe buy a test..just to be sure she doesn't have diabetes >.<

[Vectis Hamstery]

Like Souffle, I've found that the more you clean the wheel the more they wee in it. I found that they would make an enclosed plastic house smell bad so I don't use any house with a roof, walls and floor. With plastic houses, I take the roof off and turn the base upside down over the substrate as a nesting area. I've also found cardboard boxes and log bridges useful as they allow more air to circulate. Some of my girls liked to nest under the base of flying saucers where it got all damp, so I changed them to wheels instead.

If she isn't drinking more than normal I'd try changing what she nests in. My diabetic boy drank obviously more than the others at diagnosis (30-40ml per day). There is info on diabetes in hamsters here (http://www.madabouthamsters.com/content.php/133-Diabetes-in-Hamsters).

[KatiePillow]

Wow..that's a lot..
And everything I give her, she seems to have a habit of making smelly and steamy =/

I will do the half a plastic house thing I think..
I was thinking of doing it but didn't in the end, I don't know why...and I bought a strawberry house instead D:

Thanks for the reply, and I think she is not diabetic then, she's just a stinky little girl >.<

[dengen]

wonder why they like the toilet wheel so much :-) will try leaving mine for a few days to see if that helps