Hamsters are great for the busiest of us that don’t have enough time in a day to do everything. Hamsters don’t demand much to be happy. If you give them food, water, and a playground they are more than satisfied. However, even if they require little attention you still need to take care of them and their surroundings.
Hamsters are very clean animals and they do each daily routine in a different spot around the cage. They don’t like to eat where they play or groom themselves (yes, they do that!) where they go to the bathroom.
But even though they try to keep everything separated and clean as we humans do, they still need us to take care of discharging the debris from their habitats.
How to ensure a successful process
Before you begin, you could do a few things to ensure a quick and easy cleaning job, without disturbing or putting too much stress on your animal.
H3 1st step: Don’t start anything before you take a sniff around your hamster’s cage to decide the debris’ location. This way you’ll know where to start. When you perform cleaning every few days, then it’s enough to just eliminate the dirt and leftover food from that place, and if the bad odor still persists, you could replace the bed wood shavings with clean ones.
Note that even if the furball likes to maintain things separately, the bathroom stench will still fill the air up, so briefly clearing the droppings every 2-3 days, and the entire home cage from A to Z maybe every 2-3 weeks is advised.
H3 2nd step: If you decide the enclosure needs a real thorough clean-up, then gather the necessary products. You must get a piece of cloth for washing, a gentle disinfectant that won’t make your pet sick, fresh beddings, and also gloves and a mask if the stench gets too strong to bear.
H3 3rd step: Take the feeding balls out and all the playground attachments and toys and wash them with warm soapy water, making certain you rinse all the harmful soap off them before reattaching. It will ease your life up during the cleaning, and it will ensure a bacteria-free environment when you’re done.
H3 4th step: Take your pet out and place him/her safely in another enclosed space. You don’t wish for your little friend to get intoxicated or injured by the cleaning products so throw the dirty wood shavings away safely by placing them in a garbage bag and immediately closing it up. You will avoid a massive stink-up of the house.
How to properly clean the cage
Now that everything, including your hamster, is out of the way you can start cleaning.
Turn the tap on and with the pressure shower head, rinse off any leftover debris. Then, place the entire cage in a plastic ball big enough to fit the cage and add lukewarm water.
Add a small amount of cleaning product on a sponge and start soaping up and scrubbing every side of the cage inside and out. Make sure you use a product that is odorless and suited for this type of cleaning in order to avoid harming your pet in any way.
Once you covered the whole surface, including the metal bars, turn the tap back on and very carefully rinse everything off. Pay special attention to this step as it is important for your hamster’s health.
Finally, wipe the cage off with an absorbent cloth and let it dry well, preferably on a balcony or in an aired-out room. If you can let it dry under the sun you could promote faster killing of bacteria because of the UV rays.
Once everything is clean and dry, put the pieces back together. Start with a new layer of bedding, preferably two for more comfort, and attach the accessories back the way they were. Put your hamster back in his/her habitat and add some fresh water and food. Make sure you give your hamster some time to get used to the new smells in the cage.
Last tips and thoughts
Every pet needs your attention, whether we’re talking about a dog, a cat, or a hamster. We are responsible for their health, comfort, and well-being so we should pay attention to all their needs.
Even though hamsters are easy pets to take care of, we need to clean their cages regularly because it’s key to maintaining their health, but also yours. Take a few minutes every couple of days and remove the soiled bedding and leftover food from their homes and take an hour every month to do a thorough cleaning.
We know it sounds all tedious and uninviting, but it really isn’t. If you follow the steps recommended above, you will have the easiest time cleaning everything. And who knows, it could even turn out to be fun!
Hamsters start to smell very unpleasant if you do not take care of the hygiene in the cage. A small cleaning is best done every day.
They are very fond of cotton. and polystyrene. True, sometimes they think that it is possible to eat))