Dos is hereby grounded. >:(

[4Taylor20]

Mr. Dos has been being so naughty lately. Every day, twice a day, he pees in his wheel. I take it to the tub and scrub it with scolding hot water and baby shampoo and the urine seeps in the cracks so it smells super gross. Today was no different, but i let it soak for like half an hour in super hot water and scrubbed it twice, it was so clean it sparkled! Smelled like a baby and no scent of pee, i put it back in his cage feeling super good about how clean it was, 30 seconds later he wakes up, walks over to it, and silly me i thought he was going to run, no, he PEES IN IT!!¡¡ i quick cleaned it out before it soaked in the cracks and im so done with him peeing in it.

Why does he do this? It is really starting to irritate me, he is in my bed room, and i always know when he is awake because he stinks up my whole room! :confused::(

I think he has second hamster syndrome and is jealous of his brother](*,)#-o

[DrKMcK]

Hi 4Taylor20. As long as you keep cleaning the wheel, he'll go back and do it again. He's marking territory and will only do it worse when you keep cleaning it. I know it's icky, my Almond does it too. If you can possibly toilet train Dos to a litterbox/sandtray it might help.
:-)

[Thin Lizzy]

Has he always peed in his wheel? Is it more since you got frodo?
You constantly cleaning his wheel is taking away his scent, you're invading his territory.
The more you do it, the more upset he'll get.
Have you tried putting wood shavings on the wheel? Get him to pee on the wood shavings and then place them in a corner of his cage and lift him and put him on the soiled shavings.
I've never had a hamster do that. Well my youngest did once, she was so excited on her saucer and was going faster and faster and she peed but it was a one off due to her being over excited.
The only other thing would be to take the wheel out and try and get him toilet trained.

[4Taylor20]

next time i get to a petstore i will pick up some sand, i forgot last time i went to the store and any petstore is an hour from me in any direction so i cant really just up and go, and it does seem to be a little more since i got him, does that have anything to do with that??

[cypher]

Peeing in the wheel is a bit of a pain but some hams just do! It would help if you could litter train him & that's definitely worth a try but I totally agree that over cleaning will make it worse. With my Chinese who always pees in her wheel I just wipe it down with paper daily & give it a proper clean every few days, rinsing well so there's no cleaning smell left which would just make the problem worse!

[velma]

Hector my robo pees in his wheel. As he's a robo it's a obviously a lot less, er, liquid to contend with than a Syrian ;) but like Cypher, I just wipe it out & give it a proper weekly clean (If he was bigger & it was more I'd probably do every few days). Sometimes it needs cleaning more frequently because it sort of crusts up when it dries out so is harder to wipe away. But if you keep cleaning it & taking away his scent he'll be more detemind to pee there. But definitely try litter training him as suggested above. Cleo my Syrian used to pee in her nest & I've managed to get her to mostly pee in her sand jar now using the same method.

Just one thing though, you say it smells when it seeps into the cracks. Does that mean you have a wooden wheel? A plastic wheel would be easier to wipe down & wouldn't smell the same. And I believe that other members have plastikoted their wooden wheels & shelves to create a barrier as pee'd on wood will stink over time.

[Aimeeeee]

My hammy started doing this. all I had to do to change this habit was remove the wheel during the day (he only used it to wee in anyway) and then give it back to him in the evening when he was awake. It meant that when he woke up in the day needing a wee he had to find somewhere new to go, after 2 days of this he started going in his new spot :)

[4Taylor20]

He has the 12 inch silent spinner, and the white part and the colored part come apart so there is a seam, and it gets in there and i cant wipe it out.

[velma]

Hector had a medium spinner while he was in his other cage. To be honest the pee thing is one of the reasons why, when I swapped him back to his original cage, I gave him original wheel back for ease of cleaning. His current wheel is easier to wipe. (The hams aren't in my bedroom so I don't have the noise issue.) But you can seperate the two pieces to wipe them out. It's a pain but you can do it.
Even if you can't get to the pet shop for sand or litter, make a toilet corner & put soiled substrate or even the tissues you used to wipe the wheel down in it. I use a biscuit jar for my Syrian but anything would do temporarily. It should encourage him to start peering there.