Owning a hamster can be a great feeling if you are a pet lover. You might be doing all you can to make sure you take the right care of your pet. As you play around with your hamster, you would surely like to see the pet clean. While most of the pets would love to have a bath to keep them clean, is it the same for the hamsters? Can you bathe a hamster? Certainly not! You cannot bathe your hamster. It should never be tried or done except under serious situations and definitely by experienced vet or pet owners.
You might be surprised to note that hamsters are known to keep themselves as clean as possible. They essentially do not have any form of odor. However, if you do smell some kind of strong odor, it may be a signal for a serious problem. Besides some unusual circumstances, it is not recommended that you bathe your hamster. The best thing you could do for keeping it clean is follow a list of different grooming techniques and abiding by the proper cage maintenance practices.
Hamsters do not like water. However, they know how to swim but strongly dislike it and get scared being in the water. If you at all want to see your little pet cleaner, you may use some chinchilla sand. Hamsters would roll on it and clean themselves with the sand.
As mentioned above, hamsters do a remarkably a good job keeping themselves clean. You might be a witness to the process you hamster adopts to groom himself. This is more visible after you handle them. By nature, hamsters are territorial creatures that have scent glands in their hip areas. They are known to groom themselves by spreading the oils secreted from these glands across their entire body. You would be pleased and find it quite amazing to know that once you handle them, they work to remove the scent you left on them.
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It is common to see bedding or the poop to stick within the fur of your hamster. It is a lot more common among the long haired breeds. In order to remove any of those elements, you may use a toothbrush and gently remove it from the fur. It also offers a good time for inspecting possible signs of illness in your hamster. A careful observation needs to be done while brushing over the belly and checking for abscesses or tumors.
Hamsters can easily catch a cold and if they get wet, they are sure to catch one. It is one of the primary reasons that a vet may advise pet owners to never bathe the hamsters. Another risk associated with such a process is the removal of essential oils from inside the fur which are known to keep them healthy. Bathing your hamster can be life-threatening and might kill it as well. The only cases of extreme circumstances when you could clean the spot areas would be if the hamster has gotten some kind of toxic substance in its fur. This needs to be done in a warmed environment and make all efforts to get the fur dried up quickly.
Hamsters do not have a foul odor of any kind and it is less likely they would develop one. In case your hamster does have a smell that is not the bedding, then there is a matter of concern. Probably among the common issues could be the cage which is not clean. You should clean the cage at least once every week. If it is a small cage, then you need to do the process twice a week.
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Another reason for the odor could be an illness. There are a large number of diseases that a hamster may catch and it is advised to consult a vet or an expert to find out the possible reason for the odor. Therefore, besides having the urge to take the best possible care for your hamster and let it remain as clean as possible, you must ensure you offer him the right environment which is clean and free from all sorts of dirt and waste. Hamsters have the characteristic of storing food in corners, hence ensure that while cleaning, check the corners of the cage as well.
