Potty training hamsters. help and advice?

Question

based on a recent question i asked i have decided to try and potty train my hamster. i heard it can easily be done. ive read different sites about it but i was wondering if anyone any advice? i cant really tell where my hamster pees so it'll be hard to find the place. and also she sleeps where she goes to the bathroom so i dont want to disrupt her and put a potty right where she sleeps. so any advice? whats the easiest way to go about doing this?? step by step guidlines would be the best. please help.

Answer 1

First have your hammie get used to the litter you'd like him to use.  Once he's doing that, see where he's going to the bathroom.  Put a shallow plastic container there and fill it with the litter.  The shallow container can be a tupperware you have lying around or something more fancy you can buy from a petstore. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.js... (I'd just use the container not the litter stuff they have in this product)

If you see your hammie going in it, give him a treat to encourage him to do so.  If you see poops not in the bin, place them there to make it smell like the toilet to him.

Even with litter training, your hammie is never going to be 100% perfect.  In my own experience with my pet rats, they poo in it 80% of the time and pee maybe 65%.  Even so, it's still worth it to do it.  You'll save on bedding and the clean up won't be as big of a deal.

You can place old rags/towels on the bottom of the cage where the litter bin is not to give your hammie something comfortable to walk on.

Here's some sites that can help you out:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/...

http://hamsterhideout.com/forum/index.ph...

http://www.ehow.com/how_2074136_potty-tr...

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

A hamster sized litter box should only be about a dollar, and you can use the same bedding that you use in the rest of the cage.  They sell elaborate kits for litter training hamsters, but you don't need those.  they should just have little plastic litter boxes shaped to fit the corner of a cage.

If you're not sure where you're hamster's favorite potty spot is I would recommend cleaning the whole cage really well except save some of the dirty urine soaked bedding and put that in the litter box in a corner of the cage and your hamster may start using it.  You have to clean the cage well enough that the hamster can't tell where it used to go though, so you might want to soak the cage parts in a diluted bleach solution and then rinse and dry them really well (as long as the cage is plastic, metal or glass; don't put any wood in there and make sure to rinse REALLY WELL with water after using bleach as hamsters have sensitive resperitory systems).

Answer 3

EASY & CHEAP WAY TO TRAIN THEM:

Get the lid of a peanut butter jar and put grinded up wood chips into it.

Leave it for a week or so, and you will notice that soon it will start going to the bathroom in it.

Answer 4

I would recommend that you get these supplies at any major pet store, such as Petsmart or Petco. I always prefer Petco's selection.

http://www.petco.com/product/105865/Supe...

I really recommend that litter training kit for anyone with a rodent that needs to be potty trained. Even though it is designed for ferrets, any rodent should be able to go to the bathroom in it. As well as it's an inexpensive kit. (10.39 if bought online)

You should observe and find out which corner your hamster goes to the bathroom in, and once you're sure, you should place this in that corner. Two things could happen. First, your hamster might just go to the bathroom in it right away, or it may change the bathroom corner, because it doesn't recognize what this is.

If he changes the corner, then you will want to keep moving this litter box until your hamster goes to the bathroom in it. (That will eventually happen)

Good luck.