Another thing I love…
I just bought this small, 3” sieve from Amazon (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases), and OMG does it make a difference!
I have two Roborovski hamsters: Steven & Sofia (named after Steven Spielberg and Sofia Coppola). I love them both and especially love how different they are! Their habits, their likes, food they go for, what they do with their evenings, and so on!
Steven is a “wheel-pee-er,” as I have heard many hamsters seem to be. Steven wakes up, runs to his wheel and immediately pees. I wash his wheel constantly (and even have a few on rotation so I can swap one in when I wash the other) but it’s always an uphill battle.
Sofia, on the other hand, is a sand-pee-er. This actually makes more sense, it’s kind of like having a teeny, tiny cat. Only thing is, now I have to stay on top of keeping her sand clean…. and that’s where this small, 3” sieve (strainer) comes in handy!
I have been running the ham’s sand through a fine mesh sieve about 1x a week, depending on how it’s looking. I usually reserve Saturdays for tidying up the hamster cages.
For Sofia, however, I felt that I needed an easy way to clean up more frequently without having to disrupt her habitat too much. It’s hard during the week, since by the time I’m off work, she’s already awake- I can’t easily remover her sand bath while she’s awake without her getting a bit frantic.
So! I think I found the perfect solution! I tried using this last night and was very happy! She clearly doesn’t like the sound, so I have to use it when she’s occupied eating or burrowing, but at least I can quickly get in there, scoop a few bits of dirty sand out and move on!
I will say, there probably are some particles on the air as a result of this, so I would recommend doing this while your hamsters are otherwise occupied. Probably the sand settles after a minute or two, but I wouldn’t want a hamster around this just in case they inhale a bit of airborne sand.
I’ll still want to do a full straining on the weekends, since it’s hard to get all the corners and far reaches of her sand bath, but I do think this is a step in the right direction.
How do you keep your ham’s sand bath clean?
