Vacations, smell

Question
Suzi,
Hi, I'm Audrey, 14 years old. I want to get a hamster but my mom wants to know what we are supposed to do with it when we are on weekend vacations, if we leave for a long time we will get some one to take care of it but for just two days do we really have to go through with taking it to a friends or paying someone? I was thinking I could just give it a lot of water and pellets...that's what we do with our rabbits. Then the smell, do hamsters smell a lot, and if a friend walks in will they be able to tell that there is some kind of living animal in the house/room? And if they do smell is there something that I can do to keep it from stinking, like is there a product that you recomend to reduce the smell?

Thank You!
Audrey Royce

Answer
Hello Audrey!
 You are my first question on this thing!:D
Firstly, just like you rabbits,when on weekend vacations,you can leave you hamster with plenty of food and water and that will be fine,hamsters are quite independant animals and a couple of days won't do them any harm at all.its best not to leave them any food that will rot quickly though, because it will make the cage smell and its not nice for your furry friend.
  Smelly cages...Hamsters are not really smelly animals, and if you clean out their cage regularly,people wouldn't notice the smell(although when you have more than one..like me..the smell tends to build up) If you clean out the cage say once a week, or when it needs it, it shouldn't smell too bad, if you want to clean the  cage thoroughly, you can get hamster disinfectants, but if not i use toilet cleaner-but always make you sure wash it out well.
 Another thing, you can actually toilet train hamsters, it sounds very funny, but they are natural to doing this themselves, if you have a cage with separate add on parts, they may choose its own toilet(like my hamster Connor) but if its just an ordinary cage, they'll choose a corner, once the corner has been chosen,(it may take a little while with a baby hamster) you can put and empty glass jar on its side, and as long as its big enough (hamsters grow quite fast) your hammy will use this for its loo. you will have to clean out the loo more regularly than the cage, but it may also mean you will have to clean the cage less as well.
  I'm not sure where you live, but in England a few pet shops you can also buy scented sawdust...i've never tried it myself, but have heard that helps too.
  Good luck with your new hamster, do let me know how you get on! and what you call him/her too. any more questions, feel free to ask!
  Love Suzi xx