How do I bathe my hamster?
You want to bathe your hamster and are now looking for instructions on how to do it? In a nutshell: Please not at all. A hamster’s fur is very sensitive to water and should come into contact with water as little as possible. Hamsters are nevertheless very clean animals, they keep themselves clean by sand baths.
Sand baths
Always provide a place with sand for your hamster. It is best to use chinchilla sand, because it has exactly the right grain size for our hamsters. If a hamster can not clean itself regularly in the sand, you can see this very quickly in a greasy or damp-looking fur.
You can get a variety of different sand baths in stores. From my experience I recommend plastic bowls (at least as long as your hamster does not gnaw the bowl) or glass. The advantage here is simply hygiene. Hamster urine is quite aggressive and stinks quickly, so you should clean your sand bath well. But with wooden baths the urine quickly soaks into the material and in the worst case the wood will rot. This does not happen with plastic and glass - and you can even wash out the bowl under running water.
Another option is to have a partitioned area of your cage where you sprinkle the sand directly on the floor. However, this will increase the amount of cleanup required, as you will have a harder time removing the sand.
Rodent toilets
Rodent toilets are also first of all just bowls with sand, although the purpose (as the name suggests) is slightly different. Rodent toilets are usually shaped so that you can put them quite easily in a corner of your cage. They are also filled with sand and are used for your hamster’s small or large business.
However, hamsters are unpredictable when it comes to set up. Your hamster will not necessarily use the toilet as a toilet, and may not use it at all. For some hamsters that use their sand bath to urinate, this is a good option to try - the smaller area is easier to keep clean and you avoid unpleasant odors.