Hamsters are clean animals and clean themselves on a regular basis. You may never need to bathe your hamster, but if you do there are some basic things you need to know before you try.
Do hamsters need a bath?
For the most part hamsters do not need to be given baths. Hamsters clean themselves on a continuous basis. You may see them grooming themselves as soon as they wake up at night. Most hamsters have a routine they will follow after waking up.
Most times their routine will be to eat a little from their stash close to their bed, make a trip to the potty corner and then sit and groom themselves for up to an hour before they are ready to come out and play.
The hamsters I have had never liked being in the water but if they get into something sticky and you can’t just cut it off their fur, you may need to try and give them a bath.
The only time I ever had to bathe one of my hamsters was when she was getting old and stopped cleaning herself as well as she used to. In that case I just used a damp cloth and washed off her bottom.
How to bathe your hamster
The very first thing you need to know is your hamster may not like the water and you might get bitten. If you have a hamster that is already prone to biting, you might want to wear a pair of thick gloves to try and bathe your hamster.
Bathing a hamster isn’t easy and you will need to have a lot of patience. First you will need a small plastic bowl with about 2 inches of warm water in it for Teddy Bear Hamsters and 1 inch of water in it for Dwarf Hamsters.
Hold the hamster in your hand and only wash the area that is sticky, or smelly. Do not get water around the hamsters face or ears. You can use baby shampoo or a pet shampoo made especially for small animals like hamsters.
Make sure to hold the hamster in one hand and gently cup a little water in the other hand to bring up to rinse the shampoo off the hamster.
When you are done, place your hamster on a towel and gently dry the wet area. You can let your hamster groom the area until it is dry or you can use a blow dryer on the lowest setting and dry the fur yourself.
Using a blow dryer is nice because they like the warm air on them but you have to make sure to have it on the lowest setting and keep the blow dryer at least 5 feet away from the hamster so their skin doesn’t get burned.
Only give your hamster a bath as a last resort because doing so can remove the oils from their fur and dry out their skin.
