Make your hamster feel at home

Hamsters are known for sleeping lots – but when they’re awake, they want to be busy exploring, foraging and digging. Creating the best environment for your hamster will help them feel right at home.

You may find your hamster constantly munching away at the bars of their enclosure, or even trying to escape! This is a sure-fire way of telling that your little friend is bored of their home. Their environment may be a bit lacklustre and may need more space or activities to keep them entertained.

Providing your hamster with plenty of toys and activities and swapping these round, will help keep them fit, happy and healthy. Remember, this doesn’t need to cost the earth, there are lots of cost-effective recourses out there to keep your hamster busy and distracted so they don’t attempt to break free.

Your hamster will enjoy:

• Plastic or card tunnels and tubes for running through
• Cardboard boxes such as shoe and cereal boxes. See our inspirational article on how to make your own hamster hotel.
• Dig box or tray filled with coco coir or coco fibre* (coconut husk fibres)
• Plastic or wooden houses and hides
• Children’s toys, such as miniature dolls houses and early learning toys can make great hiding and nesting spaces. Make sure not to use toys that have small gaps or windows that the hamster could get stuck in.
• Multi-chamber hide – this can be buried beneath the bedding for them to sleep, hide and store food in.
• Hammocks – more suited to Syrian hamsters
• Sand bath – use a shallow litter tray or plastic take away tub filled with hamster safe sand*
• Wheel – some cages come with a wheel, however they are not always large enough for your pet. They should have a wheel that allows them to fully stretch out and run with a straight back. Syrian and Chinese hamsters will need a 12” solid upright wheel. Other hamsters will need an 8” solid upright wheel.

Hamster exercise balls

We don’t recommend exercise balls for small pets. They can often feel disorientated after use, there’s no access to drinking water, and their little toes/feet can get stuck in the ventilation slits. You can however use them as a hiding space in the cage by removing the lid and filling with soft tissue bedding for them to use.

Bedding materials

It’s important to use the correct bedding for your hamster, otherwise it could have a negative effect on their health. Wood shavings or sawdust can be extremely harmful to your hamster’s skin and airway, and can give you an allergic reaction too!

In the wild, hamsters spend a lot of time underground digging burrows. It’s important for our pet hamsters to be able to fulfil this desire and display natural behaviours in a home environment. To do this, they should have a minimum of 6 inches of bedding placed throughout the majority of the enclosure. They should also have a deeper digging space of at least 10-12 inches (25-30cms), to enable them to create larger burrows and nests.

Base of cage options

Use a couple of the options mixed together for absorbency and stability

• Cross-cut shredded paper
• Eco-bedding
• Greenmile – shredded card material
• Cardboard squares around 1cm square e.g. Ecobale
• Hemp bedding such as Aubiose (non-fragranced)
• Soft paper bedding e.g. CareFresh, Kaytee Clean & Cosy, Fitch, Small Pet Select
• Aspen e.g. ProRep Aspen Bedding
• Meadow or Orchard Hay

Nesting/digging space options that hold the burrows well

• Soft paper bedding e.g. CareFresh, Kaytee Clean & Cosy, Fitch, Small Pet Select.
• White, soft tissue paper bedding such as tea bag bedding – great for creating deeper digging areas, as well as placing inside hiding spaces.

Note: avoid cotton-wool type bedding and ‘seed pod’ bedding, as this can be very dangerous to your pets – it can cause pouch prolapses and can get tightly wound around their body and legs.

Cleaning

Keeping your hamster cage clean is key to preventing serious health conditions such as respiratory problems.

Daily spot clean tasks

1. Pick up poo and wet/dirty bedding. Some may choose to toilet in particular spots, making it easier to clean.
2. Replace dirty bedding.
3. Remove any fresh food (e.g. veg) they have not eaten from the previous day.
4. Change their water.

Every two to three weeks – refresh clean

This may need to be done more often depending on the hamster:

1. Place hamster in a secure plastic carrier with plenty of bedding from their cage. Place the carrier in a safe, quiet space away from where you are cleaning.
2. Remove soiled toys, soiled enrichment, bowls, bottles, and clean them with pet-friendly disinfectant.
3. For any hammocks, wash in your washing machine with non-bio detergent at 60°C.
4. Remove a large handful of clean bedding from the cage and put to one side for later.
5. Dispose of all soiled bedding, sweep the soiled areas and wipe the enclosure with a pet-friendly disinfectant.
6. Set up enclosure by mixing some fresh bedding with the used clean bedding you put aside earlier. Place different toys in the cage for interest.

Note: place any large and heavy toys into the cage first, before the bedding. This will help to prevent them moving or falling and potentially harming your hamster, if placed on top.