Getting hamster out of house to spot clean

[strandedinaber]

Hi,

Two days ago I rehomed a 15 week old Russian dwarf hamster named Minerva. She was originally from Pets at Home, and was rehomed because her owner was moving back in with her mother, who was allergic. Minerva was sharing a cage with her sister until her sister attacked her, so had been in her own cage for about a week until I adopted her.

I'm concerned about a few things, though. Firstly, I think her cage is way too small. The woman who rehomed her gave the cage to me since she wanted me to take her a week earlier than I had planned on taking her, and I've kept it for now because I thought it was the best way to help her settle in at my house. But she's spending a lot of time in her house. She comes out every time I'm cooking something to ask for food (sticking her nose through the bars and nibbling at them) but goes back in straight away again; however, on one occasion I opened the door of the cage because she was up against it and kept running around the cage to see me. I couldn't tell if it was because she wanted to see me or she wanted to keep an eye on me. I held the cage door open, she came out cautiously, bit me, and then went back in again.

Because her cage is small and the doors are in awkward places, it's pretty much impossible to get in to clean the cage. I'd have to unclip the top of it and lift it off, and since she runs when I get too close, I can't really do so. So I can't spot clean the cage. It isn't too bad now, but I don't like the idea of leaving the wet patches down there. She originally only used one corner for the toilet but is now using another corner instead.

Does anyone have any recommendations, please? Either on how I can get her to come out into a hamster ball or hamster pen for a few minutes so I can spot clean the cage, or how I might clean it with her still in it? Or should I just keep trying to bond with her and leave the cleaning for a few more days?


[IMAGE]https://www.flickr.com/photos/139231233@N06/shares/8tpSs1[/IMAGE]

[IMAGE]https://www.flickr.com/photos/139231233@N06/shares/6J64Hy[/IMAGE]

ETA: Can't get the photos to work for some reason, although they're public on flickr - does anyone have any idea why, please?

[flowerfairy]

No idea about the pics hopefully someone with some techy knowledge will come along.

Two days is a very short time. Your little hammy will still be settling in. I would say at least a week. She will indicate to you by her behaviour. Sounds like you are watching her closely and responding to her nicely.

Talk quietly to her and offer treats through the bars and see what happens. There are some great taming threads on here and good tutorials on youtube.

[racinghamster]

Hiya. Do you know the name of the cage she is residing in? Is it one of the Perspex tanks like a Mini Duna or similar or is it a barred cage of some sort? She should be used to people but all the same, spot cleaning around her is advisable anyway. Getting access to her house will be best done when she`s actually out and about! So, not waking her up basically, but wait until she`s awake and interested in what`s going on. Let her be part of the process, but if you have to remove the entire cage lid, you need to be sure she can`t climb out and make a run off the end of a table or chair. So keep the cage low down when doing this.

I can`t open your images either but not to worry. If your finding her cage too small and awkward, you can always look for a second hand Zoozone 1 or anything similar in size. They do come up on ebay, Gumtree etc... or are around £31.00 new online. These are excellent cages for all dwarf hamsters. x

[Pebbles82]

As the others say, 2 days isn't long, and it's best to leave her another couple of days to get used to the change. Better to leave the spot cleaning a bit longer than stress her out.

If the cage isn't very accessible and she's not used to you yet, you could get her out of the cage in a tube. We used to do this when we first had our hamster. We used a kitchen roll tube, and put one end in the cage through the door and have the other end in his ball. Or just put both hands over the end of the tube after he'd walked in and let him out of one end into whatever we were putting him in (ball, pet carrier eg).

If you don't have a pet carrier, a large cardboard box would do, as long as the sides are high enough that she can't get out. So have the box next to the cage, let her walk into the tube (putting a treat in the tube can help). Close off both ends of the tube with your hand and then put the tube down inside the box. Then she is somewhere safe while you spot clean the cage, which won't take long. You'd need to do the same when putting her back. Wait for her to go in the tube, or coax her in with a treat. Put your hands over either end, then put one end through the door of the cage so she can walk back into the cage again. She'll probably appreciate being able to run around the box and be out of the cage anyway. You could put some food and treats in the box and a ceramic mug as a hidey place.

Just take a handful of the wee'd on substrate out, from each corner she's wee'd in and replace it with a new handful and mix it in. ie remove most of the wet substrate, but leave a small amount behind to be mixed in with the new, so it still smells familiar. Best not to disturb her nest (assume she has built a nest - strips of white toilet paper are best for this).

Generally it's best not to do any cage cleaning for the first two weeks, except a little bit of spot cleaning of the wee area. This is actually a good time to introduce a potty litter tray. You put it in the (latest!) wee corner with some chinchilla sand in and a bit of wee'd on substrate on top. If you don't have any sand at the moment, just use substrate, but make sure there's a little bit of the smelly stuff on top! She'll probably just start using it. Then all you have to do is empty the potty and wipe it out next time.

Any kind of dish would do as a potty. I have this one though, and it works well - higher at the back to avoid splashing, and fits in a corner easily.

Hamster Potty corner Litter Tray for Mice Hamster Gerbil Cage House. Size: 16 × 7 × 12/12 cm: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

The other thing you can do while you're spot cleaning, is add a bit more nesting material. Take a few sheets of white toilet paper and keep them up your sleeve for a few hours, then tear each sheet into 5 or 6 strips lengthways and put a pile of the paper in her cage. She will probably pouch some to take to her nest and it will help her get used to your scent

The photo links don't seem to be working. You can upload photos by clicking on 'Go Advanced' at the bottom of the message box, when you have typed a message. Another window opens up. Click on browse, select a photo from your computer and then click on upload. Wait till it says it's uploaded. Repeat the same for subsequent photos, then click close window. After you submit the post the photos will appear at the bottom of your message, quite small, but they enlarge when a mouse is moved over them. They upload quicker if you shrink the file size but if you can't do that they'll still upload, just take a bit longer.

[strandedinaber]

Thanks all! I've managed to get the photos to work now, thanks to your advice. Thanks for all of your suggestions. I managed to get my hand in the other day (she was distracted by a treat) to put a few handfuls of sawdust on top of where she wees, so that's helped with the smell. I've also found that opening her cage to put a treat in when I get home from work (at 5pm) wakes her up, and she comes out for a bit and always stands on her hind legs up against the cage door to either greet me or find out what I'm doing (I'm not sure which). I've gotten into the habit of feeding her a treat, washing my hands, and then opening the cage door and putting my hand to the side of it. She usually walks out onto the wire door and sniffs at my hand, and will occasionally walk onto my hand (or nibble at it) and then goes back into the cage. For the past few nights, she's then hidden until I go to bed. Tonight though she just came out for about ten minutes and ran around on her wheel Her cage is right by where I am sitting, so I'm taking that as a huge accomplishment.

ETA: I did try and put her in the ball the other day to do a bit of a spot clean. She panicked. She was in the ball for less than a minute, but she was rolling around all over the place, and when I put her back in the cage, she was running around for a good fifteen minutes checking everything was there and ignoring the treats I'd put in entirely. So I'm not keen to do that again until she's a bit more settled I did wonder though if the ball smelt of her sister; her previous owner gave it to me, and her sister attacked her, so it's understandable that she panicked if the ball smelt of another hamster or her sister. Think she (and I!) will have to live with the cage as it is until this weekend, and hopefully by then she will be more confident. I think I'm going to put the cage into a big hamster pen and try and clean it while she's also in the pen, so she can see what is happening and keep an eye on the cage.

[Pebbles82]

Hi again. Sounds like good progress. Yes you're right the cage does seem to be too small. She will need something at least 70cm by 40cm floorspace. The Ferplast duna multy would be a good option and not too expensive. I'll post a link further down.

Balls aren't advised for dwarf hamsters, so maybe that's why she didn't like it, but they can be useful for carrying a hamster safely from one room to another, or to the bathtub for taming.

One of the best things you can give her is plenty of deep substrate - it gives a soft landing if they fall and hamsters like digging tunnels too It doesn't work out more expensive as you don't use any more, it just lasts longer when you spot clean as the bottom half of the substrate tends to stay dry. Then she'll need a wheel, a sand bath and a house that is open underneath (they like to hoard under their nests). You can make a house/nesting box from a shoe box with a door cut out. Maybe another tube as a toy, like the one you have already, and a hidey place or two (a ceramic mug on its side would do).

This is the Duna Multy - it seems to be hard to get hold of these days but Porton sell it (the Amazon seller seems to be in Spain!).

Cage Duna Multy

If you get one, make sure it's not the 'mini' duna as that's too small. The link is for the standard duna multy. That's the minimum RSPCA recommended size, but people often have much bigger cages than that for dwarf hamsters, so a 100cm or more cage would be fine too.

This is probably the cheapest suitable option if you're on a budget - most people are. I can't see what wheel you have at the moment, but 6.5" to 8" wheels will be fine. Popular tried and tested ones are the Trixie wheel, the Karlie Wonderland Wood wheel and the Wodent wheel (these are all 8"). The only 6.5" one is the Silent Spinner (the Wodent and Karlie are also pretty silent!) but there have been issues with the Silent spinner wheels not spinning, so one of the others would be better.

Sorry to give you a shopping list there! Another option is to make a bin cage. Ikea sell the Samla bin which is about 70 x 40cm, but it needs some diy - holes cutting out of the bin and meshing for ventilation.

Here are some examples of duna multy set ups for dwarf hamsters, to give you some ideas! There are also lots of tutorials for home-made hamster toys available.

This link shows Velma's set ups

Ferplast Duna Multy Set Up Ideas

This one shows more set up ideas (some are Zoozone 1's which are the same kind of thing but need meshing as the bar spacing is bigger. The Duna Multy doesn't need meshing).

Zoo zone 1 please share set ups

[strandedinaber]

Thanks for the recommendations! Things seem to be improving a bit. I got worried this evening as I didn't see her at all last night, and when I came home and put a treat in her cage again tonight, she woke up but didn't come out to see me. I then opened the lid of her house just to check she was okay (I never lift her up from out of there) and she didn't come out at all. Eventually she did, and I put the cage on the floor with the door open and a cardboard box in front of it. I was worried that she was at risk of wet tail or something similar because I know she's using her house as a potty. I managed to do a very quick clean of her house while she was in the box (where her toys and food were), before she freaked out and I put her back in the house again. It's great that she was happy to come out into the cardboard box, but I'm worried that it's just set things back further now.

I'm ordering the Duna Multy tonight as I don't think that things are going to improve until she has a bigger cage. Right now she is biting the cage bars almost constantly and when she's not, she's hiding in her house because there's nowhere else really for her to hide. She's barely eating at all, as well Or rather, there are a certain few foods that she'll pick out (she's having the Pets at Home hamster muesli because that's what her previous owners gave me), but then she'll ignore the rest.

I think the problem is partly that she obviously needs to settle in a bit more since she's only been with me for a week, but also the cage isn't helping. Does anyone have any recommendations, please? I'm comfortable leaving her cage without spot cleaning for the next week now I've managed to do a quick clean, so I'll order the new cage anyway as she definitely needs one, but I'm not sure if changing cages will unsettle her even more...

[Pebbles82]

I think it's a great idea ordering the Duna Multy. Normally cage changes are considered to be a bit stressful for hamsters, but when it's an improvement, that outweighs the change and you might find she is much happier very quickly. Environment makes a huge difference to whether or not a hamster has cage stress, and it does sound like she has it right now. Plastic houses with a floor in aren't great, and she's probably not keen on the heights and the steep ladder too. And a small cage just makes them unhappy usually. I am sure she will blossom in the duna multy.

It's best to have a house that is open at the bottom, and sits directly on the substrate, because hamsters like to hoard under the nest in their house. She is probably using the house as a toilet because it means going 'downstairs' to pee otherwise

When you get the Duna Multy, it'd be a good idea to put plenty of substrate in it - four to six inches deep (it tends to compress quite quickly as well so doesn't stay deep long). This will really enrich her environment and she might even dig some tunnels. Plus put a big pile of torn up strips of white toilet paper somewhere in the duna multy and she will make a nest with it somewhere. If you don't have another house, a shoe box or other cardboard box of a suitable size, would do. You just turn it upside down and cut a door in it. If you scatter some food in the cage as well she can do a bit of foraging. Do you need a wheel as well? I am sure she will be much happier with a lower wider cage and no levels as such. All she will need is a house, wheel, food and water and a few toys - like your toilet roll tube, and other hidey places - a ceramic mug would do. They also quite like half an egg box sometimes to chew on. I used to put treats in the holes of the egg box, but our hamster lost interest in the egg box (he's hard to please!).

Just keep talking gently to her until the new cage arrives. She probably will be getting stressed at having her house and nest cleaned out, but there isn't much you can do about that just now. Does she pee in her nest or in a corner of the house? Ours pees in one corner in house house so I put a potty litter tray there. Any kind of small dish would do in the corner of the house if she goes in one place - then it's easier to clean out without disturbing her nest.

Let us know when the Duna Multy arrives! You could also try putting some kind of dish/sand bath on that purple shelf as that seems to be where she would go when she comes out of her house and she might use that as a potty. I have heard that dwarf hamsters can pee in a number of places though! I use sand in our potty tray now - but if you don't have any of the Chinchilla sand you could put substrate in the potty.

[strandedinaber]

Thanks so much for all your advice, Serendipity Will order the Multy first thing in the morning. I did consider ordering the Maxi, but the Multy is around 20cm bigger than she currently has with no levels, and I didn't want to intimidate her by suddenly providing her with loads of space. You're right that she doesn't like the ladders - because they're plastic, she ends up sliding down them. She also has a very bad habit of eating her treats at the top of the ladders, dropping them down them, and then not being able to find them again. Poor little thing, no wonder she's unhappy in her cage!

I definitely plan on putting a bunch of substrate in - I'll use wood shavings, as I'm in the UK and it's my understanding that they're safe to use here? That's what she's got at the moment, so I'd rather not change that just yet. I also plan on putting a few handfuls of the shavings from her old cage into her new cage.

Regarding the house, I think I'd like one with a lift-up top just to be safe, so I can check her hoard without disrupting her nest. But that depends on the budget, so the tissue box may happen as a temporary measure! Unfortunately there's no way that I can put anything for her potty in the house right now - it's just too small, and also the corners are rounded rather than flat. She also fills it to the brim with the toilet paper I put in her cage now, so I'm hesitant to add anything to it!! Especially as her house right now can only be accessed via a tube which could easily get blocked if she tried to push the dish out.

Good idea on putting it on the purple shelf though - I'll definitely do that! My plan over the next few days is to try and put a few more things in (space allowing) as her wheel and house are attached to the current cage and therefore can't come to the new cage. So I want her to have some stuff in the new cage that she's at least a little familiar with. Regarding toys, I'll need to get another wheel as the current one is attached to the bars and not a standalone. She also has one of the wooden blocks with holes in which she loves - uses it as both a hideyhole and a plaything. She also figured out how to use it to get out of the cardboard box and back into her cage this evening, which did make me laugh!!

[strandedinaber]

I thought rather than running two threads at once I'd switch this to Minerva's own thread - it's here (with new photos) if anyone is interested