It’s not pleasant to have a stinky hamster. Do they, however, exist? Do hamsters smell bad? If they do, how will you handle it? So many hamster parents have had this concern, so today, we will learn about all this. But first, let’s discuss whether hamsters smell or not. To answer it in short – No, hamsters do not stink. They do not produce a stench that adheres to their body.
Table of Contents
Do Hamsters Smell? (And how to stop yours from stinking!)
Your hamster may have won your heart even before you brought him home, but his cage may have stolen your desire to take a sniff of air near it sooner or later.
It’s typically his urine that stinks the worst. Controlling the noxious odor may necessitate a few changes on your side, as well as a new hamster habitat. Follow the below-mentioned steps to stop the stink.
Choose a caged enclosure.
Plastic enclosures, particularly ones entirely made of plastic, trap odors. Aquariums, on the other hand, have limited ventilation because of their glass walls.
Because ammonia leaves more slowly from an aquarium than from a cage, ammonia builds up when your hammie pees in it. By including a cage topper as a second storey, you may improve ventilation and odor control in aquariums.
Finally, a completely enclosed habitat will provide the optimum airflow and odor management.
Select the appropriate substrate.
Avoid hay and straw because, while they are comfy for your hammie, they are inefficient at absorbing odor.
Hardwood shavings work well, and any kind that contains wood pulp will typically do an excellent job of masking unpleasant odors.
Fill your hamster’s enclosure with a 2-inch layer of bedding.
This depth allows your buddy to build nests and burrows, but more significantly for your nose, it aids in urine absorption.
You should clean your furry friend’s cage daily.
You can get rid of the unpleasant odors in your hamster’s enclosure by removing the patches of bedding that your furry friend uses to relieve himself.
Because many hamsters only urinate in one or two cage locations, spot-cleaning is quick and straightforward. You need to remove the dirty bedding and replace it with new bedding.
Weekly, clean your hamster’s habitat with soap and water.
If you spot-clean every day, a once-weekly cleaning should suffice to maintain the cage smelling fresh. Take your hamster and place him in a hamster ball or a separate enclosure. Take away all of his accouterments and toys.
Dump his bedding and begin washing everything in hot water with a light dish detergent. Rinse everything with hot water until all of the soap has been removed, then thoroughly dry before adding a layer of fresh bedding. Reintroduce your hamster and his toys.
Make it a habit for your hamster to use a litter box.
Although teaching a hamster to use a litter box may appear to be a challenging task, it is relatively straightforward.
As the litter in the box, use chinchilla sand rather than chinchilla dust. Keep an eye out for where he usually pees and position the litter box nearby.
If you put some soiled bedding in the litter box, he’ll most likely start utilizing it to pee. He’s unlikely to defecate in there.
How can I keep my hamster from smelling bad?
In general, unless your veterinarian instructs you otherwise, it is not essential to wash a healthy hamster. Hamsters clean themselves by licking their paws and grooming their coats, similar to how cats do.
Washing your hamster exposes him to the danger of acquiring a cold and removes healthful natural oils from his coat. If you wish to improve your hamster’s smell without endangering the hamster’s health, you will most likely need to enhance the hamster’s living environment.
Maintenance of Living Enclosures
In most cases, hamsters are not the source of foul odors. The reason why your furry friend does not smell good enough is likely that you are not cleaning the pet’s cage frequently enough or that you are not cleaning it well enough when you do.
This is responsible for pet ownership: Every day, remove feces, filthy bedding, and old or uneaten food from the cage. Once a week, thoroughly clean the cage with soap and water and replace all bedding.
If cleaning the cage once a week does not remove the odor, or if you have many animals in a cage, you may need to clean it more frequently.
Alter the Diet of Your Hamster
Specific forms of food can produce scents when digested by an animal’s intestines, so you may be able to improve your hamster’s odor by removing certain sorts of food from its diet or modifying the type of commercial feed you’re supplying.
Keep track of the days when your hamster smells particularly awful and make a note of what you fed it the day before.
Increase Ventilation
Small, stuffy rooms are more likely to stink than bigger, more aired areas.
If your hamster smells awful and its tank is in a tiny confined space with little ventilation, you might be able to reduce the scent by relocating the cage to a better-ventilated place.
Just keep your hamster away from any draughts to avoid catching a cold.
Make an Appointment with a Veterinarian
It is rare for a hamster to emit a pungent stench.
If your hamster has a detectable odor or develops a strong odor without any other changes to its environment – and you’re sure the stench isn’t from his waste in the enclosure – take him to the veterinarian to rule out a medical explanation for the smell.
A foul odor might sometimes indicate that your hamster has an undetected health condition.
Do winter white hamsters smell?
Winter white hamsters are the Djungarian hamster, Siberian hamster, or Siberian Dwarf hamster do not smell.
The presence of a broad dorsal stripe and the coloring of its fur to white during the winter are the most distinguishing characteristics of the Russian Winter White Hamster.
They are the most popular pet in most pet stores and, once domesticated, are exceedingly docile and friendly. They are also an excellent pet for both adults and children over the age of 11.
They are not readily domesticated and demand constant care from their owners and enough physical activity to be healthy.
How to keep hamster cages odor-free.
If you own a hamster, you’ve undoubtedly already noticed foul odors emerging from its cage. You may be asking why hamster pee smells so terrible and how to get rid of the unpleasant odor.
If you replace the litter every few days, urine may have seeped to the bottom and saturated the cage’s metal or plastic surface. Because metal and plastic retain odors, the scent will persist even if you change the entire litter.
The reason the hamster pee smells so terrible has less to do with the urine itself and more to do with how you deal with the odor. When this happens, many people believe there is nothing further they can do and replace the cage.
It is, however, feasible to remove this odor by utilizing the various odor solutions available in the market. Make sure to wash the cage at least once a week.
Female Hamsters: Why Does She Smell Like That?
Hamsters are lonely creatures. They live entirely alone and only interact with one another when they conflict or increase the species. Because the tendency is to be alone, there must be a significant change in a female’s biological profile to be open to a male’s attention.
Heat period in the female hamster
Various names are used to refer to it, but the most frequently used is oestrus, often known as “in season” or “in heat.” It affects the majority of young female Syrians every three to five days.
It occurs when the female is fertile and ready for mating, and it is one of nature’s most efficient methods for ensuring species survival.
The female hamster becomes more restless and agitated during oestrus, fussier about her nest, and more protective of her home. All of this is done to help her become a better mother.
Cause of foul odor
The foul odor is caused by the thick, white, sticky discharge, resulting from the biological changes she is going through internally. The chemical may aid in the reproductive process.
More significantly, when the female goes foraging in the wild, she leaves some of this material on the vegetation and dirt around her burrow, the unmarked hole in the ground that serves as the entrance to her home.
Male Syrians have an incredible sense of smell and can detect this powerful aroma for miles in the desert air.
To the sensitive nostrils of men for miles around, the little trace she left near the entrance of her underground nest is like a giant billboard. It indicates that she is ready and competent to generate life for a brief period!
Do male hamsters smell?
Male smell glands are more prominent in all hamster species. When the hamster achieves sexual maturity, the glands are completely formed. During puberty, the glands grow more visible, as does the odor.
This scent may bother some individuals, yet it is entirely normal and natural. The fragrance of the scent glands varies from undetectable in some hamsters to a strong, musky stench in others.
It’s most evident after handling hamsters when the ventral gland rubs up against the handler’s hand.
Do male or female hamsters smell more?
This is a difficult question for which there is no simple answer.
The smell in females and males vary from time to time depending on various factors, such as in the case of a female hamster, which smells terrible when she is nearing heat period.
Generally speaking, most hamster parents have had varied experiences about who smells worse – males or females.
Do hamsters smell when they die?
If the hamster is sleeping, it should awaken within that time frame.
More visible indications of death, such as an unpleasant stench and rigor mortis, should appear if it does not wake up.
A hamster in hibernation should not have an unpleasant odor.
Reasons Why Hamsters Smell.
There are far too many contributing factors that lead to smelly hamsters. We will now address the most common ones.
Unclean Cage.
While hamsters are excellent first pets, they need a significant amount of devotion and care to ensure that they have a long, happy life.
New hamster parents may be unfamiliar with hamster grooming and, more significantly, hamster habitat cleaning and maintenance.
As a result, the cage goes unclean, which then leads to a stinky hamster.
Ill hamster.
If your hamster is emitting an odor, you should see your veterinarian as soon as possible. A foul stench might suggest illness, such as digestive or dental issues.
A foul odor indicates that your hamster either rolled in something unpleasant – in which case he’ll clean himself off soon – or is sick and needs medical treatment.
Female Hamster in Heat.
Female hamsters go into heat, a brief period of most susceptible to male hamster approaches. This indicates that they are ready to reproduce and may be identified by several behavioral changes and, yes, a pretty unpleasant stench.
Does Hamster poop smell?
If you monitor your hamster, you will notice that he always chooses a specific location to use as his restroom. His hideaway was always the farthest away from where you placed it.
If anything, the hamster’s pee corner will become stinky. Because it is dry droppings, the feces has no odor, and neither does his food.
Hamster smells of urine.
Infections of the bladder and kidneys can cause your hamster’s urine to smell unpleasant and be discolored.
If your hamster’s urine suddenly develops a strong odor despite no changes in his cage hygiene or nutrition, take him to the veterinarian right away to rule out a medical explanation.
Conclusion
If you can make time for standard hamster cage upkeep, you’ll quickly realize that unpleasant odors are a non-issue. Hamsters are low-maintenance pets. Leave them to their own devices (along with a sand bath), and they will keep themselves clean without any prodding.
Hamsters are beautiful additions to any family that can provide appropriate care and cleans up after them. When you acquire one of these fluffy, tiny charmers, you will not be disappointed.
You could even enjoy the way they clean themselves, which can be very cute to see. Just keep their cage clean, and everyone will be content, fresh, and odor-free.
FAQs
do hamsters cages smell
Small animals, such as hamsters, can emit more odor than you might expect from such a small species. Cleaning the cage once a week is the greatest method to keep the smell at bay. You may, however, make a few efforts to make the cage less stinky, such as litter training your hamster.
Do hamsters have an excellent sense of smell?
Hamsters have an excellent sense of smell and can identify one another by fragrance. If handled often, they may even know their owners by scent.
do hamsters like the smell of lavender?
The lavender fragrance, both natural and manufactured, is what is toxic to rodents, including hamsters. While we humans believe lavender smells lovely, it isn’t very pleasant to our beloved furry friends.
