How to Potty Train Your Dwarf Hamster (or Any Hamster)

Perhaps it will come to you as a surprise, but hamsters can be potty trained. When I was considering getting a dwarf hamster as a pet, I was worried that it would be impossible to keep my apartment odorless with a cage of two dwarf hamsters in my living room. But my fear was unfounded - both my little dwarves learned how to use their potty as soon as they got it. Luckily, it is also possible to teach the older hamsters how to use a litter box, so don't worry, it's never too late to start using one!

So, how do you potty train a hamster?

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• litter box for your hamster
• a small litter scooper that comes with your litter box or a plastic fork
• critter litter

1. You will need to get a small litter box for your hamster and some litter (it's really easy to find them at any pet store and they are quite inexpensive). If you'd like to save some money, you could also use a homemade litter box (f.e a little jar or an ash tray)

2. 
    

   Now you have to observe your hamster and see which corner of its cage it uses to go to the bathroom in (contrary to what some people think, hamsters are quite clean and they always use the same place to urinate).

3. At this point, it would be a good idea to clean your hamster's cage thoroughly. Make sure to keep a few pieces of the bedding the hamster peed on. Clean the rest of the cage carefully to eliminate the smell of urine from the corner your hamster uses for its bathroom.

4. Fill your litter box with some litter (it takes some practice and observation to figure out how much litter to put in, but usually about 1/2" works). Don't forget to put in those few pieces of the soiled bedding that you kept. Doing this lets your hamster know what the litter box should be used for.

5. Put the litter box in the corner of the cage that your hamster likes to use as its bathroom and watch your hamster. The familiar smell coming from the litter box should be enough to get it to use its new litter box to go to bathroom in. Hurray!

6. If your hamster still refuses to use the litter box, you might need to repeat all of the above steps again (hopefully, that won't be necessary!)

Tips & Warnings

• Pet stores aren't the only place where you can buy hamster bathrooms - you can get them online (f.e on ebay.com or amazon.com), especially if you want a larger variety of shapes and colors to choose from.
• Try not to overfill the litter box as the hamster will make a mess - they like to kick the excess litter out of their litter box. However, take care not to put too little of the litter in as this will result in odor problems.
• Clean your hamsters litter box at least once a week and fill it with fresh litter when you're done. You might also need to scoop out the bad litter out during the week to control the odor.
• Some people use cat litter instead of buying special litter for critters - if you prefer this solution, make sure to use the small and sand-like variety of cat litter as the hamsters will try to eat bigger rocks and might get sick.
• Hamsters will chew on any plastic litter box, so if you'd like to avoid this problem, get one of the glass litter boxes instead.

[mweise]

on 7/3/2009 Wow, I didn't even know this was possible. Great article!

[cybilfrost]

on 4/12/2009 I never knew this! I love hamsters; especially the dwarf ones. 5*

[jrosengarten]

on 4/4/2009 Whoda thunk it? Hamster potty training. Never knew that could even be done. See why e-how is so great?

[HardworkinJudy]

on 4/3/2009 Great detailed article on litter training hamsters! Thanks!

[tachic]

on 3/28/2009 This is great! Potty-training a hamster?! Didn't know it could be done.