How To Prepare Hamster Bedding

Hi. My name's Marie. I'm the deputy manager of the Small Animal Department of Wood Green Animal Shelters in Cambridge here and I'm going to advise you how to care for hamsters.

I'm going to tell you how to prepare hamster bedding. When choosing hamster bedding, it's important you get the right material for them. The best option is short shredded paper and this is free because most people have it in their house.

The other option is Carefresh and this is crushed egg carton and again this is safe and it's absorbent. This is available in most pet stores so do ask around for them. Never use wood shavings on your hamsters.

It's really bad for parasites and often can irritate allergies and breathing issues in humans and your hamsters as well, so avoid this for your hamsters. When setting up in your accommodation, you want to use a nice thick layer on the base of the accommodation of either the shredded paper or the Carefresh. Once you've done that, you then also need bedding for their house.

The best option is to use shredded soft tissue paper. This is absorbent and it's warm and snugly for them to go into their houses. Avoid the cotton ball types if you can.

These often have fine threads that can wrap around the hamster's feet and nails and they can often store it in their pouches and get stuck. So, the best option as I mentioned is the soft tissue paper. So generally, shredded paper or Carefresh on the base of the accommodation and soft tissue bedding for their sleeping areas.

Clean this out once a week and remove any soiled areas daily. And that's how to prepare hamster bedding. .