My hamster has bathroom issues...

Question
I have my hamster, Twisp, for a little over a month now.  I have owned hamsters before and they would always urinate in the same place in the cage. This one however enjoys urinating in two places, on his store of food in his nest and in his wheel.

So, he is sleeping, eating and wallowing in his food/urine all day.

At night he goes in the wheel which makes it slippery and he tends to fly out at random times.  I am tired of cleaning and drying his wheel each night.  I have tried moving the wheel and even bought him a new one to no effect.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Answer
hi steven,

twisp is a cool name btw!

i have the same problem with my hamster, she pees in her ball. this is simply because she is young and her bladder is still weak, extra excitement, stress and excersize causes them to lose a bit of bladder control, so this completely normal and will grow out of it.

does ur hamster have an excersize ball? if not i highly recommend it as not only do they love it but its much easier to clean than the wheel. however only let him out in it for no more than two 15 minute intervals each night.

as far as the food is concerned that is a little strange, you could try putting a small bit of his wetted sawdust and bedding in a corner far away from his food and nest. he should eventually get the message that this is the new potty place. but this will take patience, and wont work the first time, think of it as potty training your hamster, keep repeating it until he gets the message.
bearing in mind if your hamster is stuck in his cage all the time hes getting bored and frustrated causing excess weeing. u really should get a ball, more chews, and interesting toys lol.

chances are hes not eating his stored away food, he will be eating the dry stuff, u just dont see it. he should grow out of this behaviour.

if you clean his cage out with small animal cage, anti bacterial fluid (which is cheap at any pet store) once a week he should be fine.

unfortunately your going to have to do a bit of extra work until this weeing phase passes, such as scooping out wetted sawdust and bedding, and removing the wet food. u must keep cleaning out his wheel or ball when you get one, we dont want twisp to get an infection.

best of luck with this, and thank you for asking, if theres anything else please ask. let me know how you get on.

joanne :)

p.s. if after sometime the bed and food wetting continues, get his neutered as he may also be marking his territory, which would explain the peeing on the bedding and food, hes trying to tell other hamsters 'this is mine'. but try the training first just to be sure.