Question about cleaning Ikea Detolf

[Chris_]

Hello, once IKEA opens up again I am upgrading my syrian hamster to an IKEA detolf for some extra enrichment, I wanted some opinions on how often to clean the detolf. I have had different answers from different websites, if anyone has a detolf, how often do you deep clean?

[cypher]

It depends on your ham tbh, some need cleaning more often than others, I'm a firm believer in only cleaning what needs doing when it needs doing rather than having a set schedule.
I never do a full cage clean myself, not all at once, parts of the cage once every few months maybe with just spot cleaning & cleaning up any areas like around the wheel that tend to need doing a bit more often in between.

[Chris_]

Originally Posted by cypher

It depends on your ham tbh, some need cleaning more often than others, I'm a firm believer in only cleaning what needs doing when it needs doing rather than having a set schedule.
I never do a full cage clean myself, not all at once, parts of the cage once every few months maybe with just spot cleaning & cleaning up any areas like around the wheel that tend to need doing a bit more often in between.

Thank you!

[Petite]

I have an Ikea Detolf for my dwarf, and usually clean about half the cage every other month. Because it's so big and you can get a lot of substrate in it, that's all it seems to need.

[Nika]

Hi there! I have used a detolf for all my hamsters so far and as others have said, there isn't a simple answer. I found that with paper bedding I needed to clean more often (once a month). These days I use aubiose and I mostly do spot cleaning. Cocoa tends to pee in the same corner so I can clean that corner more often while leaving the rest of the substrate alone a lot of the time! With her specifically, I don't really need to do very deep cleans. With my first hamster, I would do a deeper clean more often. Younger hamsters also tend to be a bit messier in my experience!
Spot clean and when things are seeming to get too messy, you can do a bigger clean! that's my experience anyways

[Ria P]

I got my Robo last August and did a full clean after 3.5 months because i thought i ought to. I was wrong and quickly realized that a tiny Robo's pee evaporates and poo is nothing to worry about. Now i only clean part of the tank and use my (big) nose as a guide. No unnecessary cleaning in this household.

Same applies to my dwarfs' enclosures and my Syrian pees in a toilet filled with sand which i clean as and when needed. His cages gets miffy every 6-8 weeks so i clean it but save as much as possible of the nest and hoard to avoid a major hamster strop.

Only one i cleaned fairly frequently was my late dwarf's cage who was a diabetic who peed excessively.

Like cypher says, it does depend on the hamster.

Go by the as little as possible guide and you'll find put what works for your hamster.

[Chris_]

Thank you for everyone's answers! The detolf is coming in a few days, so reading your replies has been very helpful!