As you become a Syrian hamster parent, you may realize that general hamster care doesn’t necessarily apply to your new pet. Syrian hamsters require a certain level of care and attention. But is there a general rule on how often you should clean a Syrian hamster’s cage?
You should clean your Syrian hamster’s cage once a week. This involves removing the entire bedding, loose food, old fruits, vegetables, and damaged toys from the cage. With a regular cleaning schedule, it will be easy to keep your hamster healthy and keep the odors in check.
In this article, I’ll explain the difference between daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning. I’ll also explain the easiest and most thorough way to clean your pet’s cage every week.
Clean Your Syrian Hamster’s Cage Once a Week
Weekly cleaning allows you to keep the highest level of hygiene for your hamster. It also ensures their environment is safe for them.
Unlike a tank, a hamster cage has open sides, so you might see a lot of bedding thrown out and food strewn around the cage. Spot-clean the cage as soon as you notice this. Cleaning up after a Syrian hamster may not be easy, but it’s a necessary task to ensure your pet’s well-being.
Besides regular weekly cleaning, there should be a deep cleaning performed once every month. You must do so to ensure everything is disinfected and well-scrubbed.
Daily Spot Cleaning
Daily spot cleaning of your Syrian hamster’s cage can be done in just a few minutes. All you need to do is remove the soiled pieces of bedding, remove any feces, and replace the water.
With regular spot cleaning, your weekly cleaning routine can be made much simpler and shorter.
Weekly Cleaning
Cleaning done on a weekly basis is a bit more extensive than spot cleaning, but still, it shouldn’t take much time.
Once every week, remove all the bedding from your hamster’s cage and replace it with a new one. Remove any broken toys you find, and throw out old food, especially fruits and vegetables, since ingesting moldy food can cause blood problems for your hamster.
Monthly Deep Clean
While spot cleaning and a regular schedule of weekly cleanings might seem enough, you should still perform a deep clean of your hamster’s cage once every month.
Every month, all of the bedding should be changed, and all of the toys and habitat elements from the cage should be thoroughly washed and disinfected.
How To Clean Your Syrian Hamster’s Cage
Maintaining hygiene inside your hamster’s cage is paramount, as dangerous moldy food can cause health problems for your hamster. Additionally, not only does hamster urine smell, but it can also cause sickness to you as an owner.
Hamster urine can cause leptospirosis in humans. Leptospirosis can cause respiratory problems, liver and kidney damage, and even meningitis. You can also get lymphocytic choriomeningitis, the viral infection of the brain or the membrane surrounding your brain and spinal cord.
The easiest and safest way to deep clean a Syrian hamster cage while making sure your pet is taken care of is by adhering to these instructions:
- Place your hamster in a carrier or an exercise ball. This will provide a safe space and stop him from getting lost inside the room.
- Empty the cage of all the bedding. Remove all the toys, water and food bowls, and all other elements like tunnels and the hamster wheel.
- Wash everything. Use warm water and mild, unscented soap. Wash the cage, the base, and all the elements. Don’t forget to scrub the toys, paying special attention to urine stains.
- Disinfect the cage and everything in it. You can do this step while washing if you use antibacterial soap or use a mix of white vinegar and water.
- Dry everything well. This will prevent any mold from forming around wet spots in the cage. Also, make sure to air out the cage if you have used white vinegar since hamsters are extremely sensitive to strong smells.
- Put in the new bedding. Do this only after you have checked for any remaining moisture in the cage. Put back all the other elements, bowls, nesting box, and toys, and in the end, return the hamster to the cage.
Conclusion
Cleaning your hamster’s cage is a task that ensures both you and your pet are healthy. Clean your Syrian hamster’s cage once a week, and replace all the bedding to minimize bad odors from urine.
You may also do a bit of spot cleaning every day to make the weekly task easier and plan a monthly deep clean procedure to make sure the cage is in top condition.
Don’t forget to throw away any chewed-up toys or broken elements in the cage that you find while cleaning, as these can become a choking hazard for your hamster.