Your hamster pees where it sleeps to demarcate its territory by leaving a scent; this smell alerts other hamsters that they are intruding. This activity appears to be employed for communication, as other animals in the same population will most likely notice this pattern and respond if it occurs regularly.
This article will help you identify the problem, its causes, and preventative measures, so your hamster doesn’t have to live in urine-soaked sheets every night.
Why Is My Hamster Peeing on His Bed?
Your hamster is peeing on his bed because of the following reasons:
Sickness
If your hamster has been eating more and running around more than average, then there’s a chance that he might be sick. It’s best to take him to the vet for treatment; otherwise, all of his bedding will smell like pee, and soon, everything else in his cage will too
Stress
If your hamster is taken to a new environment, it becomes stressed and thus urinates on his bed.
Overfeeding your hamster
If you overfeed your hamster, this can cause many health problems, including peeing on the bed.
Loneliness
Hamsters are nocturnal animals (active at night) and like to have somebody to play with or talk to while they sleep; hence when lonely, they tend to pee on their bed.
Ways To Train Your Hamster to Use Toilet Box
Below are various ways to train your hamster to use the toilet box:
- Place the hamster in the toilet box and watch it go, then praise it when it uses the box.
- Toilet train your hamster when you are going somewhere to know that the hamster will not be in its cage when you return.
- You can use treats to help train your pet to use the litterbox, keep their teeth clean while eating them, or offer only small pieces of food, so they do not choke on it.
- Ensure you place the hamster safely and clean while using the toilet box.
- Use a toilet lid or something with a shallow cover and area.
- Take your hamster out of its cage for about five minutes to get used to being out and having free time.
- Place some hamster food in the lid or toilet paper to make it easier for your pet to use the litter box.
- Place some treats on the lid or toilet paper box and let your pet get them when it needs to go litter box.
- Hamsters need to go potty about once per hour, so make sure you know where your hamster will be going when you are not home.
How To Train a Hamster to Stop Peeing Where It Sleeps?
- Remove the bedding in the cage. An empty cell makes a hamster work harder to find a place to sleep and relieves them of having liquids dumped on their heads during the night.
- Use unscented, dust-free pine shavings and dust them daily with your veterinarian-approved dust for two weeks as per his instructions. After two weeks of this, you can use a new set of pine shavings.
- Place their cage in a dark area, increasing their activity and keeping them from sleeping too long in one spot and waking up when they need to eliminate. Use this method only for short periods.
- Place a towel over the straw of his water bottle.
- Put a piece of kitty litter in the bottom of the water bottle for extra absorbency.
- Add some canned pumpkin to his feed.
- Attach some suction cups to his container’s front and secure them in one spot.
- Add an old towel or blanket as an extra layer between him and dirt/dust.
- Place his cage in a room with no carpet, or buy an old towel to lay down on the floor.
- Put him in a smaller cage with less room to run around.
FAQs
How often do hamsters pee?
Hamsters pee about once a week. In addition, these furry little creatures usually squirt out about 50 ml of pee each time.
Lastly, some experts believe that tubular urine (what hamsters produce) may be better for the digestive system than any other type of urine because it’s more concentrated with nutrients and less waste from food sources or cleaning products.
Age, diet, and exercise may influence your hamster’s business in the litter box or floor. The essential factor in determining how a hamster will need to urinate is the environment in which your hamster is housed.
The diversity in the background that a hamster spends his life in can influence his ability to regulate urination. For example, if your hamster is kept on a concrete floor for all of his life, he may self-clean less than if housed on an oak wood chip.
What do you do when you find your hamster peeing on his bed?
The first thing you should do is make sure he is not sick. If he isn’t, you can try to figure out what is causing the behavior.
It’s a good idea to keep an eye on him so that you can figure out when he pees. You can also take him out of his cage, bathe him and clean his cage as soon as possible.
Do hamsters pee in their burrow?
Hamsters do not pee in their burrow! A hamster’s actual peeing behavior is more complicated.
They do not have a bladder, and when they need to urinate, they either go off their food and water supply or use another animal’s urine as a place to relieve themselves. For example, when you have an intact male hamster, he will not pee unless there is a female nearby or the smell of her urine on his fur drives him into a frenzy.
When the smell of another hamster or the scent of a female drives a male hamster into a frenzy, he will go into the toilet corner and relieve himself. When you notice this behavior, know that it is time to separate males from females so that there will be no fighting, and you might want to think about spaying or neutering your hamsters.
Therefore, you should never put newly introduced male and female pets together in the same cage.
Final Thoughts
Hamsters often choose to pee in their own home instead of in the cage or outside the habitat, and this is because they know that these spaces are safe and comfortable for them. However, suppose you have a hamster who chooses a different area for this rather unpleasant activity.
There’s a good chance that your pet might be destroying his bedding or harming himself.
Hopefully, you found this article helpful; remember to use the guidelines above to be able to stop your hamster from peeing where it sleeps.
