If you’re wondering how to bathe your hamster, just remember one thing and you’ll be fine:
Hamsters should never be bathed in water
It is very stressful for them and can make them sick. Now that we’ve gotten the most important point down, let’s look at how you can properly bathe a hamster.
Most hamsters enjoy a good sand bath and that’s all they need to keep themselves free from oil and dirt. If your hamster’s fur looks wet, oily, or dirty, just give them bathing sand in a dish or bowl like this:
That’s Ichigo the robo dwarf hamster in the video above. He has a really bad habit of soiling his wheel and then sleeping in it so his fur gets yellow and dirty. To keep him clean, I usually have a dish filled with sand for him to roll in. I also made him a DIY bath tub a while ago.
Oatmeal, my Russian dwarf also enjoys rolling in sand now and then, but I find that the Roborovskis do it a lot more.
When a hamster rolls in sand, oil and dirt from its fur gets rubbed off and the hamster not only looks cleaner but its fur also becomes softer. Its nails are kept short when it digs in the sand so that’s another benefit.
It’s okay to just leave the sand dish in a corner of your cage. Don’t be alarmed if your hamster starts pooing or peeing in the sand. It’s normal and you’re supposed to change the sand when it gets too dirty. Having the sand in your cage also helps potty train your hamster and keeps the rest of the cage relatively clean.
If your pet is using the sand for the first time, it may not know how to roll in it but from my experience, just leaving the sand there will help keep your hammy clean. And most of them eventually learn how to use it on their own.
That’s Ichigo again. See how much he loves his sand 🙂
[Tweet “Bathe hamsters in sand, not water”]
PS: The sand I used in the video is Supreme’s Bathing Sand. You can get it on Amazon (US) or Amazon (UK)
