Hamster hates bedding??

[Bbhami]

Hi guys, I've been wondering if any of you encountered a hammy who hates his/her bedding? I noticed my 10 month old syrian is always tip-toeing around her carefresh bedding and would only put shredded tissue in her nest. She would shove away most of her bedding in a corner and hoard the tissue on her nest side. Sometimes when she goes around her cage she would suddenly jump when a lump of bedding pokes her sides or back (quite a funny reaction). I'm using the same type of bedding (plain brown carefresh) on all my hams and she's the only one who does this. Is it advisable to give her another type of bedding?

Does kaytee have the same texture as carefresh?

[Pebbles82]

She sounds a bit nervous. Sometimes though they do this if you have just cleaned the cage and put fresh bedding in, because it smells unfamiliar. They leave a scent trail on the bedding so they can find their way around. If it's all new bedding they're a bit lost and nervous and feel like they're in a strange place. They do like to rearrange substrate as well and do all kinds of funny things with it. Our hamster recently dug it all out from the middle and piled it up against his house - there was some logic in it - he wanted to block off the window on the house.

I follow the 1/3 2/3 thing with substrate when cleaning the cage now. Remove the top third, keep the bottom 2/3 add 1/3 new bedding and mix it all up. That way it still smells familiar. It's usually only the top third that gets smelly and any worse bits could be spot cleaned. In fact I only spot clean and do a cage clean about once every two months, but you do need plenty of substrate in to do that. In the long run it works out more economical and better for the hamster too.

[Larrymom]

This happened with my first hamster gubes when I bought a different type of bedding, I then went back to my original and he continued as normal so maybe try something else and see if there's any difference

[Bbhami]

I also follow the 1/3 rule during cage cleaning but she really has those days when she hates her bedding so much. :s I recently noticed she hates her bedding more when I'm nearing the cage cleaning schedule. She would ignore an area of her cage when I think its getting dirty? Not so sure how she thinks )

I agree it's quite funny when they rearrange things, particularly my female syrian. I would always come home to a different cage after cage cleaning.

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

She sounds a bit nervous. Sometimes though they do this if you have just cleaned the cage and put fresh bedding in, because it smells unfamiliar. They leave a scent trail on the bedding so they can find their way around. If it's all new bedding they're a bit lost and nervous and feel like they're in a strange place. They do like to rearrange substrate as well and do all kinds of funny things with it. Our hamster recently dug it all out from the middle and piled it up against his house - there was some logic in it - he wanted to block off the window on the house.

I follow the 1/3 2/3 thing with substrate when cleaning the cage now. Remove the top third, keep the bottom 2/3 add 1/3 new bedding and mix it all up. That way it still smells familiar. It's usually only the top third that gets smelly and any worse bits could be spot cleaned. In fact I only spot clean and do a cage clean about once every two months, but you do need plenty of substrate in to do that. In the long run it works out more economical and better for the hamster too.