Sand bathing

[pinky]

Does anyone use sand baths for their hams? I have a few questions.

I bought "sand" but it seems pretty fine--finer than beach sand. It's SuperPet brand sand. It claims to be "dustless." What is the texture of what others have used--as I describe?

What depth of sand should be used? I put the whole package in, which was stupid, probably, since that made the layer about an inch or so thick, and a lot was "wasted."

How long should the ham be in the bath? I put Mallory in for a few minutes. She rolled four times--and peed once, of course! Sufficient?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[ladyjosephine]

I use chinchilla sand, so it's reaaaally fine.
I have a small bowl in every ham-cage, and I put about 2 cm(high) in it.

I clean the bowl weekly, when I do the rest of the cage. Lily's always pee's in it, so I clean her bowl every other day.
I leave the bowl in the cage, so they can use it when ever they like. I think they look beautiful, their fur just shines a lot more than before I started to use the sand.

[Die Fledermaus]

I use chinchilla sand, also.

Often I just rub it into the critter if I really want them clean instead of hoping they get the idea with the dish of sand, although they usually do, eventually.

[Andrea]

I have a small aquarium filled with sand bath, when cages get cleaned out the critters get put in there for their bath, it's probably half an inch deep, do they dig and play in it. I use it for all the critters, and just like a kitty litter box I clean it out with a strainer.
I also leave a dish of it out in play areas if the hams (or gerbils) want to have a bath.
I do it when they look greasy or when it's cage cleaning time.

[Die Fledermaus]

Andrea, I'd worry about cross contamination doing that, especially vis a vis my chronic mite problem, which is OK - at the moment. otherwise it is a good idea, I think, but as they would not be in there long (half hour) they might not get to "business".

I wonder if other critters would object if the ones before them peed in it.