Toileting in bed

[RachelB]

Our new Syrian (we’ve had her about a month) is urinating in her bed. We’ve got a little wooden house in her cage which she sleeps in but is also now very wet and smelly from urine. I’m going to have to replace it but any ideas what I should get or how to stop it from happening again? Is it going to completely freak her out by having a new bed? She doesn’t seem to mind new additions to her cage (wheel/ toys/ tunnels etc). She’s quite an inquisitive and adventurous hamster!

[cypher]

Any wooden houses need to be painted with a couple of coats of Plastikote (it must be the water based enamel paint) to keep them dry & easy to clean.
I would suggest getting a larger house Rodipet do some good ones, I like the granite houses some people prefer the labyrinth type & put a litter tray with some sand or just substrate (not the litter you can buy for toilet trays as it's not safe) inside the house, with any luck she will use that.

[Kyrkogrimr]

My Syrian boy has a chamber house with a "ceramic corner toilet" by rodipet in one of the rooms. I put some sand in the dish and he uses that. I haven't had problems with him peeing anywhere else since I got it.
When I was a kid I trained my hamsters to go in a jam jar by putting soiled bedding in the jar and putting the jar where they liked to go, and that worked too.

[RachelB]

Is there anything other than plastikote I can use? I can’t find it in stock anywhere!

[LunaTheHamster1]

Can you take the base off the house?

[RachelB]

I don’t think so. I think I need to treat her wooden wheel with something too, she seems to have done a wee in there too!!!

[cypher]

Rodipet do a safe varnish, expensive but probably worth it if you have a few things to do.
https://www.rodipet.co.uk/accessorie...sh-0375-l.html

Peeing in the wheel is normal so if your wheel is wood that will need doing too.

[GraceA]

I would suggest providing some sort of litter tray or sand bath if you dont have one already. This worked for me since my hamster now goes to the toilet in her sand bath and it makes cleaning much easier. You could use childrens play sand, chinchilla sand (not dust) or reptile sand.

[Ria P]

I would make a shoe box house for now and put a plastic corner toilet with sand inside. Put some of the peed on substrate in the toilet so she knows where to pee. Syrians quite like an en suite. Could be that the house is too small and not big enough for a peeing corner, nest and hoard so she pees in her nest.
Use the lid as the lift off roof and cut the base out so the house sits on top of the substrate and cut out a big enough entrance of course.
Once she starts using the toilet you can always upgrade her to a new wooden house.
The Ferplast guinea pig house is a good and inexpensive option.

[flowerfairy]

All my hamsters have pee'd in their beds. I give them houses without bottoms on too of very deep paper substrate and change the bedding regularly but not too often.