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[dreamitdoit]

Do you give your hamster sand baths? Do I need to?

I have a short haired, black-furred, Syrian hamster, with nice soft, glossy fur. She is my third hamster; neither of my previous hamsters - another short haired and a long haired - had sand baths. Does Poppy hamster need one?

Comments

[nutmeg3]

I have a Poppy hamster, too! (Also an R2.) I've never done sand baths for my hammies, only my gerbils and my degu.

Here's my Poppy:

[dreamitdoit]

Hi fellow Poppy!

Here's my Poppy:

[nutmeg3]

Awwww, look at her sittiing up for her biccie!

[dreamitdoit]

The sand is like £5 a box so maybe I'll give it to her to try when I have a job, if I ever get one..

[dreamitdoit]

Dawww! Poppy just woke up and is chewing on her water bottle, as usual. The sand's at the pet shop. It says chinchillas need dust but hamsters need sand? IDK.

[flockofgulls]

All my hamsters use a big sand pot for their litter pans. Syrians Roborovskis and Chinese and Russian dwarf!

[freyalorelei]

If you want to try it, go ahead, but sand baths are really more of a dwarf hamster thing, and not even necessary for them. The hamster would probably enjoy digging around in a sandbox, if nothing else...they are a burrowing animal after all! I would put mine in a shallow fish bowl filled with sand and they'd have a blast. :)

[gatehorse]

I do for my dwarf hamsters, and I think they like it, but I also think they wouldn't miss it if I took it away-while I see them rolling in it sometimes, more often I think they just use it as a litter box. I was told chinchilla sand worked fine, and to just make sure I avoided the dust baths, because that's bad for their lungs. So really it's up to you. A small box of sand lasts a long time, so it's not a huge investment at least if you do try it.