Cleaning enclosure

[Biscuit2024!]

Hello,

my female Syrian hamster will go to the toilet in a little potty in her chamber house ( most recently also lots of poos in there ). I clean this out every one/two days so i don't change the rest of her bedding very often (actually haven't changed it for a few months) i only spot clean in the area near her potty. Do you think this is okay? i can see she stores food at the bottom of her enclosure (seed mix) but i don't want to stress her by taking the food out as it will ruin her burrows. Do you think this is okay? i dont want to make her ill by keeping the same bedding but it feels dry. There is always so much wee in her potty so i dont think she has any other toilet areas ! and she also pushes dirty bedding out of her house (which is funny)... any advice would be great!

 

[Maz]

It's fine It's what I do. You can leave her hoard for quite a long time, but after a few months I would "prune" it. I tend to prune it from underneath, removing the older food that's been there longest and just leaving the top part.

 

[Biscuit2024!]

Thanks Maz, she has really deep bedding under her food stash so it’s hard to get to it . She knows what she is doing ! she comes out for a free roam almost every night now and is getting much more tame , she doesn’t like to be on us for to long though but that maybe because she is a young hamster and likes to run ! Thanks for your help

 

[Maz]

It sounds lovely she comes out and I bet she's enjoying it She sounds full of energy. Re her hoard then, it might be best just to wait until you need to do a partial clean - eg one third of the cage and put about half of the third bedding removed back. You can then prune the hoard at that time. If she has plenty of bedding under it, it'll probably be stored quite well and dry.

 

[Biscuit2024!]

Thank you Maz..that’s really helpful . You were right about the shoes , she loves to play in them !

 

[Maz]

So cute! There is definitely something about feet and shoes ha ha.