Just a quick update, I have taken the sand bath away for the time being as it was making my chest bad with her digging in it just now and I will give it back to her for an hour once a week and hope that this will be ok for her chest?! And thankfully she has managed to empty her pouches of the sand and use them a few times since to move her bedding around!

 

I used to use the science supreme chinchilla bathing sand for my dwarf hamsters or children's play sand which is cheaper

 

When I had my Syrians I always got sand not dust. Can't remember what make it was though.

 

i would do aqs you have mentioned and make sure to leave it in only for an hour at a time otherwise they turn it into a toilet lol. never had a hamster pouch the sand tho! the sand is really fine and i used to ave to leaved the room when putting it in as it makes me sneeze like crazy!

 

Yep silly girl that she is she was digging into it rather than rolling around and pouched a load on both sides!! She is currently keeping me on my toes trying to find weak spots in the new cage layout!! She seems a lot happier though having the two levels!

 

I have always used the Supreme Chinchilla sand too - I think the key part is that it is sand, not dust. The dust is very fine and can irritate the respiratory system - especially with all of that digging.

Supreme Bathing Sand | Cleaning & Grooming | Mice & Rats | Small Animals | BestPet.co.uk

Here is a link to the stuff I have used, never used the website so can't vouch for that, but to give you an idea on what you are looking for at least.

I left it in full time with the Syrians, it did become a potty, but I like an animal to use a specific area where possible as it makes for easy spot cleaning so that wasn't an issue for me.

 

The children's play sand that Tesco and Argos sell is great too and miles cheaper just depends how much you use but it didn't take me long to get through a box of the chinchilla sand as I used to make a sort of little sand playground for my Russian hamster.

 

Yeah, if you remove any lumps from play sand and then place it in the oven shortly it should become hamster-safe - it's also cheap! I use it for Bobo and Oreo in their baths and toilets.