Weird odor

[mgswart]

Has anyone ever had their hamster stink like urine really bad? Is it 'cause she's not grooming herself enough? If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this please let me know. I've heard of letting them roll in dust but haven't tried it. Any suggestions are welcome.

[Chaos]

My female smells pretty bad, some days its worse then others. She grooms all the time so I'm not sure why she smells but my male dosn't. I found providing a sand bath does help a bit. DO NOT USE DUST. It can cause respiratory problems. Use chinchilla sand. But the smell sometimes lingers even with the sand. If any one else has suggestions to reduce smell I'd be happy too.

[TiaMaria]

Its because female and males spray there cages to mark there territory, its a musky yuckie odor..there really nothing you can do other then change the bedding, the smell eventually lingers off after a couple days..but some hamsters can be compulsive sprayers...i just put a nice house in the cage, and he sprayed the house instead of the bars and etc, it also didnt smell because not much of it left the house :)

[mgswart]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd heard about the chinchilla sand before. It's a lot harder to find than the hamster dust. I'll have to try it. I also didn't know about the spraying. Maybe that's the majorty of it. Thanks again. :)

[Chaos]

Really? I've never even heard of hamster dust, just chinchilla sand and dust. I've heard unscented baby wipes can help with smell too.

I don't know about the spraying thing, The cage bars/inside smell just fine. It only smells the day or so before I clean it. I cleaned it saturday yet it still has no odour. Its her actual fur that stinks. I'm assuming its cause in the day she never gets up to go to the washroom, just goes in her nest house. Maybe thats why she smells, she's only spraying in the house and it stays on her fur.

[gaffer]

i had a girl about 10 years ago who always smelt of pee, but the main reason was that she never washed herself. I think it's possible she was weaned too soon (though i couldn't find out once i realised the problem, besides which there was nothing I could do about it if that had been the case) as she only ever washed her face and never gave herself a thorough all-over wash.

I just used to wipe her down with cotton wool balls damped with some warm water and that made it a bit better...

[mgswart]

I believe that I found the problem. The corner she chooses to go the bathroom in was disgusting when I looked into it yesterday. There was urine all over the bars and side of the cage. I don't think she got the bedding at all! So I cleaned that up and the cage smells better. I just can't believe a female does that. Usually it's the male animal that marks their territory.

[TiaMaria]

No its both in syrians, they are both very territorial, so they both mark there cage, and there stuff!

[Butterbean]

Remember all female hamsters go into heat every 4 days or so, so that's what the smell may be.

I am not sure what the smell is suppose to be like... but that could be it.

[janie36]

I was going to suggest the same as Butterbean, they have a very pungent smell when they have their oestrous cycle, which as Butterbean said is roughly every 4 days.
Maybe if she doesn't smell all the time, it could be this!
When we had our female she was always more "aromatic" than the boys! LOL! :-)

[Butterbean]

Yeah, she has almost a poop smell but not quite, hard to explain.

[pixibubbles]

when females go into heat it can be quite a musty yukky smell. it's basically just unpleseant.