Dust Baths

[sona]

How often should you change the dust/sand in their dust/sand bath?

I use the P@H Chinchilla dust bath stuff. At the moment I put it in their playpen with them every other day and change the sand /dust every other time (eg 2 usages by our 2 degus). I remove any bodily matter each time and buried treats, but sometimes the sand still looks okay (no lumps of wee etc). So I was wondering, so long as I take the crap out and the sand still looks clean, is using it only twice a bit over zealous or about right?

Basically, how often is it neccessary to change the sand/dust bath, or is it a case of using common sense with regards to how much it's been used?

[saddlers]

I don't actually empty it out, ours sling quite a bit out every time, so I just do sift out the "little presents" they leave and the treats they bury in there, and top it up again. I have always been cautious after we had fresh dust that seemed to trigger a fight, so I figured I would just top it up so their own scents are always present.

[moletteuk]

You can use it for ages Sona. I sift the bits out fairly regularly but only change it every few weeks! It's not so much about bathing as in cleaning, but more about conditioning the skin and fur by soaking up the oils and sloughing off dead skin cells.

[sona]

Thanks for the info. Going to save me from going through bags of the stuff

[ilikedegus]

I've always sieved out the poo and other bits and in theory I'll keep it until it smells too bad...in reality they throw so much out, then I top it up - it's never got too smelly.

If you have space to put the bath into a larger shallow cardboard box, that catches the thrown-out sand and it can be re-used.

[swiffermuis]

I sieve the sand every week, and I put new sand in every month. I think everyone has got different ways I suppose