Hamsters Don't Smell!..Mice do but thats a whole other story

Little man's new cage still hasn't arrived yet *sigh* and I'm holding off any more clean outs until then, plus I'm dangerously low on megazorb. So my lucky readers get this instead of another cage review.

I really want to get rid of the misconception about hamsters smelling. After yet another conversation with my mum (who I don't live with by the way) about smelly hamsters I was left feeling more than a little annoyed. Hamsters are in fact an incredibly clean rodent, and prefer to do their "business" in one corner of the cage, meaning a simple spot clean every couple of days is enough to keep the smell at bay. I clean out the cages once every two weeks because I use Megazorb:

which is actually a horse bedding and comes in HUGE bags of 85 litres. It is wood pulp and is really soft, and absorbent. I originally switched to this after Munchkin became visibly irritated by woodshavings, sneezing and scratching an awful lot. I find it keeps the tunnels my hamsters dig in shape and keeps any nasty smells at bay.

However, even using woodshavings hamsters DO NOT SMELL if they are cleaned out enough (once a week on shavings would be my recommendation) and it annoys me to no end that they have this bad stigma attached. I have 4 hamsters, all in seperate cages and the room they are all in together never smells. Maybe this is because you are used to it I hear you ask. No, even visitors to my house don't notice.

I can understand why they have this label attached to them, they are rodents after all, but with the proper care and attention they don't ever have to smell, and can be even kept in a living room where people always are and not cause an issue.

A quick end note before I finish my rant...never bath your hamsters, EVER.

They don't need it, and it does in fact do more harm than good by washing away oils essential to maintaining a healthy coat. You can give them a little dish or box with chinchilla sand or dried out children's play sand in if their coat is looking greasy but no water baths.

There, rant over, anyone interested in getting a hamster but who is put off by their smell, don't be. Hamsters are such lovely creatures and don't deserve to be overlooked because of misinformed rumours.