Help - we have a very cute but also very smelly hamster!

[notalone]

DS's hamster is adorable but he has very bad toilet habits. He lives in a Habitrail cage which is a bit like a plastic spaceship for hamsters with tunnels and different compartments for different things. He poos in his bed and wees in one of the compartments but won't have any sawdust in there (we are forever putting sawdust and other absorbent stuff in there but he just removes it). As a result there is a constant smelly puddle of wee in one of the compartments and a hamster who eats where he poos. Any idea what we can do as DS's room is starting to smell and it can't be pleasant for hammie either?

Hamsters are annoying like that

Although I had one that put his back legs on the bars of the cage so he pissed in an arc OUTSIDE the cage.

I think you just need to clean it out frequently.

lmao @ mp's hamster.

sorry i have no help tho.

it was annoying

we had to put newspaper down all around the cage and change it every day

treat his bed as a toilet and rinse it daily.

you can get special plastic hamster toilets but ours just uses her "bedroom" and sleeps elsewhere.

it's quite convenient though if they wee in one place, it's easier to clean out.

Our rabbit uses his "bedroom" as a loo as well, he takes all the bedding out and poos in it. We thought this was a bit messy of him. But eventually we worked out he thinks it's the loo, he's actually being quite sensible, it's just us who thought it was his bedroom.

MP - Eugghh!!! Thought mine was bad lol! Was kind of thinking that may be the answer though was hoping someone may have a wondrous solution. Apparently you can actually buy toilets for them and train them to go in their loo - can't see that working for mine though

We've had several (male) hamsters & you can train them to wee in a jam jar (why, you may ask - but you can then just rinse the jar out each day the cage doesn't smell ). Not sure about females, but presume same applies.
Put some sand (from the sand pit) in a clean jam jar (with a wide enough neck for hamster to get in & out of easily - bonne maman jam jars are ideal). Idea is the hamster will wee on the sand to mark his/her space. They still poo in thei bed are (yuck) but this doesn't smell (as much).
I've always done this from when we first had them, so if they are established it may not work as well (i'd try & clean his existing cage v. thoroughly so no wee smell remains or he may get confused!)

Good Luck!

Posts crossed Fennel.

Lol at the bedroom misunderstanding!! Is it ok to do this to his bedroom every day? He stores all his food in there so would he be upset if it was being removed daily, especially with the effort it takes for him to get food in there in the first place (up a tube then through a smallish hole - sometimes you can see the exertion on his face bless him!)

Thats a fab idea Melmum but because his cage is a pain in the ass habitrail then a jam jar may not fit. However I think you are onto a winner with the sand - I don't think he will be able to move sand very easily so that could be what we need to stop the smell. Why didn't I think of that lol

I trained both of my hamsters to do their wees in a jamjar (on its side). To do this, just put their wee soaked sawdust in the jar a couple of times. They soon get the hang of it and then you can easily rinse out the jam jar as & when it's convenient. My hamsters used to love going in the jar after I'd just washed it out & dried it as it was all warm!!