After owning a hamster for over a year I’ve realized having a hamster is something you have to learn how to do with first-hand experience. I learned as much as possible before I got Beanie, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the things Beanie’s done. Here I will tell you about the top five things Beanie does and has done that annoy me the most.

Listing things in order of least to most annoying.

Peeing Through Bars

When Beanie was in her dreadful wire cage from the first night she peed through the bars, plastering my wall in urine. It was very annoying, and my opinion on barred cages is that I will never have one again because I don’t want to be dealing with that. I love cleaning, but wiping pee off my wall is not my idea of a good time. I know every hamster is different, but I’m not risking it!

When they pee through the bars you’re not just cleaning the wall either; you have to clean the bars as well. This trait of Beanie’s was very bothersome, but is going last because Beanie no longer does it.

Wheel Peeing

Ever since I purchased Beanie a large, solid surface wheel she has peed in it every night. “Yes Beanie, I know you like the smell, but have mercy on me!” And even if she likes the smell, I still feel like she dosen’t enjoy running in her own urine. Every day when I do my spot-cleaning I get my pride and joy. My Professional Spray Bottle (from Dollarama, if you’d like one), and spray the interior of the wheel with a vinegar/water solution, then I wipe it dry with paper towels. I highly recommend using a spray bottle if your hamster is a wheel-peer; you can clean it without leaving the room!

The daily wheel cleans don’t take much time or effort, so it’s ranking low on the ‘Annoying Scale.’

Dumping Cheek Pouches

Once or twice Beanie has come out of her cage for playtime with food in her cheeks. I now try to avoid this after the first real incident.

It was getting later and later in the evening, and I didn’t want to wait much longer for Beanie to dump her food out before her playtime. Her pouches were noticeably full, but I was going to risk it and let her out.

Beanie went under the door into my storage closet, and while I was working in the room I noticed Beanie was awfully quiet. I realized she was stuck in the back of my tiny, packed storage closet, and couldn’t get out.

After carefully moving several things Beanie came crawling out, with her cheeks empty. Nooooo! I pulled some more stuff out to reveal the mound of food in the far corner of the closet. Beanie dumped her food to try to get out. Wonderful.

My little broom couldn’t get the food, so I resorted to grabbing it with my bare hand. Bleh, gross! The food was kinda slimy, and really disgusting to touch, so I used the mini broom to get it the rest of the way out.

After replacing the stuff in the closet, and hamster proofing it more, I let Beanie back out for some more playtime. To this day I refuse to let Beanie out with cheeked food.

Sleeping Out In The Open

This is something that drives me absolutely crazy. I cannot get through a day knowing Beanie is sleeping out in the open instead of in a hut. I want Beanie to have a good sleep, and she can’t do that when she’s sleeping out in the open.

When Beanie does this is usually after I do her weekly nest clean, or move her hides around. As of this writing she moved behind her wheel, which isn’t much coverage, so I scootched the wheel forward and fit her igloo over her.

I don’t know about you, but this would be the first thing on my ‘Annoying List’ if it wasn’t for Beanie’s most annoying trait of all.

Putting Food In Her Wheel

I’m sure many, if not all, hamsters do this at some point. They cheek their food, dump it in their wheel, and run on it. It is by far the worst noise in the world, especially when you’re trying to sleep.

But Beanie, unlike any hamster I’ve heard of, punishes me when I go to bed early and don’t play with her. I’ve just realized when I don’t play with is when she puts food in her wheel at 4 or 5am, and runs in it.

She will do this until I get out of bed and dump it out. Once she was very persistant, and refilled her wheel three times before she realized I wasn’t going to play with her. Never underestimate the intellect of a rodent!

I don’t think I’ll ever understand what goes on in Beanie’s mind. Hamsters are very complex, and every hamster has a different personality, which is amazing! Does your hamster do any of these, or any other strange things? Leave them in the comments below!

If you’re interested in more hamster-related content be sure to like this post and follow the blog, and I’ll be back on Tuesday with more small pet care, DIYs, recipes, cage setups, stories and more, have a ham-tastic day!