Having trouble deciding on which bedding to get for your hamster? With so many choices available at your local pet stores and online, finding one that suits your little pet can be quite a task for beginners. But knowing the right features to look out for can help you make the best choice while selecting suitable bedding.
Why Is Choosing The Right Bedding Important?
The simple answer to this is that choosing the right bedding will provide your hamster with a safe, warm, and hygienic environment to burrow and nest. Additionally, you want one that is able to control odours well and have good absorbency to keep cages clean and dry between bedding changes. These key features will lead to a cleaner and enriching environment, resulting in a happy and healthy pet!
Popular Bedding Choices
Paper and wood shavings are popular bedding options for hamsters
Hamster owners have many different beddings to choose from. But it can be boiled down to two most commonly-used materials for hamster bedding – paper and wood. However, these bedding types also come in several different forms, such as:
Paper: crumbles, pellets, and granules
Wood: shavings, pellets, and granules
These different forms have their advantages and drawbacks too. So it’s important to know the key features of each form and material to help you make up your mind on proper bedding for your pet.
Paper Or Wood Bedding
What defines good bedding then? There are multiple features that good bedding should have. But there is no single bedding that is able to meet every single criterion. So it’s best to choose one that has several crucial features, such as:
- Absorbent
- Controls odour
- Suitable for burrowing and nesting
- Safe for “pouching” (hamster will pouch materials in their mouth when building a nest)
- Low in dust
- Non-toxic
More or less, depending on the brand, most paper and wood bedding checks all these boxes.
However, paper bedding is more absorbent and have less dust fallout compared to wood bedding. The latter is worth taking into account, as dust may cause respiratory problems and allergies in your hamster in the long run. Paper bedding, in crumble form, also holds its structure well and is softer so your hamster can burrow and nest comfortably while keeping warm.
Wood bedding, on the other hand, is typically more affordable than paper bedding. So it’s the preferred option for anyone on a budget. It’s more easily found at pet stores too and comes in a variety of scents. Nonetheless, scented bedding may cause respiratory problems in your hamster as it does not always use chemicals that are safe. Therefore, it is not usually recommended by the veterinarian. Depending on the form of wood beddings, shaving types may consist of sharp bits that can cause irritation when pouching as well.
Final Thoughts Of Hamster Bedding
Finding an all-in-one bedding may be a difficult task. But keeping these bedding comparisons in mind while shopping for one will help you make the best decisions for your hamsters to thrive. You can also get creative and combine multiple bedding types together in your hamster’s cage, to optimize each beddings’ key features to create the best environment for your pet!