|
Cage Cleaning
should be done once a week. The soiled bedding should be discarded, the cage
and all accessories washed with a mild soap and rinsed and dried thoroughly.
An anti-bacterial soap, or antibacterial cleaner can be added to your soap
solution in small amounts. A toothbrush helps to remove some of the white
calcium stains caused by urine, but it will eventually build up and not be
removable. Using a litter box for your hamster is recommended.
In the case of
reusing a cage a hamster has been ill in or died in, use a bleach and water
1:10 solution, rinse well and allow to air at least 3 days before reusing.
Any wooden objects should be discarded and not reused, especially in cases
of wettail.
Some hamsters
have anxiety about being returned to their cage to find all the familiar
smells gone. Though all hamsters will likely wonder around and smell of
everything and start working on building a new food stash, other hamsters
will run back and forth wildly for a long while seemingly upset. If you
hamster is bothered by having his cage cleaned or changed, you can leave one
object- dish, house, etc- unwashed each time- but of course, you would not
want it to be the same object each time, as it will need to be cleaned at
some point.
|
