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DIY Hamster Bath House

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Dwarf hamsters should never be bathed in water but they do enjoy rolling in bath sand. Mine are always kicking the sand out of their bath tub. Also, my original hamster bath tub was tiny, made from plastic, and as you can see from the photo, it gets chewed on! I could get a chew-proof ceramic bath, but I had plenty of material leftover from my last DIY hamster platform project so I decided to build one.dwarf hamster chewing on bath tub

This hamster bath house / giant bath tub was made with leftover wood dowels, popsicle sticks, and part of an old gift box. Since it’s mostly wood and cardboard, it’s not so bad if the hamster chews on it. Plus it’s much bigger and a hamster would have to kick the sand pretty high to get them out. It’s easy to build, requires few materials and took me only twenty minutes at most.

diy hamster bath house

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some readers have reported hamsters getting their legs stuck between the popsicle stick wall. To prevent this from happening, please build the bath house with sticks placed horizontally (unlike the photo above which shows the sticks placed in a vertical position)

Materials needed for DIY Hamster Bath House

  • Base: cardboard box or old gift box
    I used the cover of an old gift box to make the base. You want something that’s hard enough, so use anything that’s made from cardboard or harder. Old plastic containers would probably be fine too.
  • Wall: ice-cream or popsicle sticks
    These will form the wall around your base and prevent the sand from getting kicked out.
  • Entrance: wood dowels, or cut-up popsicle sticks
    I used the leftover wood dowels from the DIY hamster platform but you could cut up popsicle sticks for the entrance too. We want the entrance to be a little lower so your hamster can get in easily.
  • PVA glue to stick everything together

Instructions for DIY Hamster Bath House

  1. Glue popsicle sticks to the sides and back of the base to form walls.
  2. On the front of the base, leave enough space for an entrance and glue the popsicle sticks on both sides of the entrance
  3. Glue the wood dowels or cut-up popsicle sticks to make an entrance that’s a little lower than the rest of the popsicle stick wall
  4. Decorate your bath tub and fill with sand

That’s it! If you wanted to, you could probably add a roof or even convert this into a hamster house.

If you’ve enjoyed the tutorial, please help us spread the word by sharing this with your friends. And if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave a message below. Thank you!

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  • Juni

    Cool!!! I’m go’in to try this!

    • Sarah Yee

      That’s great! I hope it turns out well 😀

  • Can you tell me how much total these items were together? Thank you! &I loveeeeeeeeeee the hamster bath house. So a shoebox will work?

    • Sarah Yee

      It’s about $4 for the popsicle sticks and wood dowels and you get a lot of them left after you finish this so you can use them for new projects! I was using my leftovers so it was practically free 😀

      And yes, you can use a shoebox for the base! If it’s too tall just cut it off from the top or make ‘stairs’ for your hamster to climb into it ^_^

  • Hezelnut

    Hi,
    what kind of glue you used for this project? I want to try this since it looks cute with the hamster in it 😉

    • Sarah Yee

      Hi! I used PVA glue. It’s the same ingredient that’s used in Elmer’s white glue and is non-toxic.

  • Summer

    Hi, I love the bath house! Do you have a specific brand of bathing sand that you use?

    • Hi, thanks! Nope, I don’t use a specific brand. As long as it’s unscented and bath sand (not dust), it’s good 🙂

  • Name

    this is cool going to do it hopefully soon 🙂

  • NL1412

    The entrance looks kind of tall for a hamster to get in. Do you have to scoop him/her in or does he/she get in there one way or another?

    • He climbs in himself but you could make a ladder from popsicle sticks to make it easier for the hammy.

  • Mabel

    Hi!
    Your hamster must be very active!But I thought you need certain type of glue or sticky tape to stick the cardboard and the ice cream stick. And sticky tape and glue are very dangerous to hamsters.Do you have any ideas of helping me?

    • Hi! You can use PVA glue which is non-toxic

      • Daisy

        Could you also use a shoebox with the ice cream sticks?

        • Hi Mabel, a shoebox would be fine too. And to your other question: I’m not sure if sticky tape would work or if it’s safe enough for hamsters.

          PS: Could you post under just one identity? It’s really confusing when you use different names and the comments might not appear because they get sent to spam :O

  • SammehTheHammeh

    If you just leave the sand in there, and the ham can come and go as it pleases, wouldn’t the hamster poop in it?

    • They actually do poop/pee in there as well. You kind of want them to do that so they don’t do it in other areas of the cage. Makes cleaning easier since you can just change the sand and not have to clean the entire cage every time 🙂

  • hamster lover

    hi Sarah where do you get the wood dowels and PVA glue?

  • hamster lover

    thx so much

  • malibu

    Too cute!

  • Nadie Mcweeney

    Can you use any sand or does it have to be ‘bathing sand’.

    • To be safe, I’d use bathing sand. For other sand, if you’re sure the sand isn’t too dusty and doesn’t contain anything that would be harmful to the hamster, you can go ahead and use it. Some people use children’s play sand and sterilize it (rinse, bake in oven for 20 – 30 minutes and allow to cool) before giving it to their hamsters.

      • Yumi Walker

        where can you get bathing sand?

  • 2Dark2white

    I am getting a Short Haired syrian. Will this work?