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Once a week is advisable, and certainly at least once every two weeks. But you may want to have a clean-out more frequently than that. How often you clean your hamster’s cage depends on the following:
- How many hamsters do you have?
- Does the cage get dirty quickly?
- Does the odor of the hamster cage bother you?
- How big is your hamster’s cage?
Depending on your answers to these questions, you’ll need to make a judgement call.
For a single hamster in a reasonably sized cage, a weekly clean-out should suffice
The more hamsters you own, the more frequently you’ll need to clean the cage. This is simply because the more animals you own, the more waste they will produce.
Some owners recommend 'spot cleaning'. This involves cleaning mess each time you spot it, which will not only reduce cage odor but will also reduce the frequency with which you need to clean the entire cage.
Hamster urine is pungent, so if this is an issue you may want to clean out your hamster more than once a week. Lots of hamsters equals lots of odors.
Finally, the size of your hamster’s enclosure affects how often it needs cleaning. In a very large cage, mess will be spread over a larger area, and be less concentrated and pungent as a result. If the cage is relatively small, it will need cleaning more frequently.
Comments
Emily, 12 May 2020
If you get the right sized cage, (at least the bare minimum of 450 square inches of floor space), then you should only spot clean the cage, by rather scooping the dirty parts of the cage out, or only cleaning out half of the cage, once a month. If you clean out the entire cage this can cause a lot of stress for your hamster because they are used to their scent. If the smell bothers you, then a hamster is probably not the right pet to have. If the cage gets dirty due to multiple hamsters living in the same cage, please separate them. Hamsters are solitary creatures meaning they should live in separate cages and not interact, because they will eventually fight. However, if you are planning to cage 2 hamsters, please have double of everything. Double the floor space, have 2 wheels, two water bottles, and 2 food bowls. Please, follow this advice and there is more on Victoria Raechel's Youtube account.