what essential oils/room sprays are safe for hamsters

[benjamin0]

i'm a fan of essential oils and room sprays because i enjoy my room smelling nice, but i know most aren't really safe around hamsters. i was wondering if there are any safe kinds or brands that i can use around a hamster?

for context, my hamster's cage is in my room because there isn't really anywhere else i can put it. i wouldn't be spraying it directly into his cage, just around the room

[Ria P]

Not something i'd recommend because they have very sensitive noses and respiratory systems.

I also used to be a great fan of oil burners and used them freely until i started to keep hamsters as pets.

Nowadays i only use them in hamster free rooms which in this house restricts me to bathroom and toilets.

[AmityvilleHams]

Air fresheners and such shouldn't be used around pets in general, especially those with delicate respiratory systems like hamsters.

Essential oils are really tricky. They're not all created equal with many companies that produce them including harmful additives and impurities that make them far more dangerous than they otherwise could be. If not used at a proper dilution they can already be very toxic or at the very least highly irritating to humans let alone far more sensitive species.

I wouldn't personally ever recommend using something like a diffuser in the same room as a hamster even with safe plant species & high quality impurity and harmful additive free essential oils at proper dilutions. They can be really irritating with how sensitive hamster noses are!

I know people with parrots(who happen to be extremely sensitive animals) will often safely boil certain things in a pot of water in the kitchen to add nice smells without using harmful synthetic fragrance and such - cinnamon in particular being fairly commonly mentioned from what I've seen. This would be a really good idea but obviously you shouldn't leave anything unattended on the stove.

For general odor absorption rather than fragrance baking soda works really nicely. You do need to keep it outside of hamster reach for safety reasons, but it's a very economical choice with minimal effort required.