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Fluffagrams · 01-11-2019, 02:34 AM

Most of my Chinese are in bin cages that are about 60cm x 40 cm which seems to suit them well but I tend to believe in a flexible approach to my hamster's caging, choosing and upgrading a cage according to the hamster's individual personality and needs. I find that getting to know the hamster as an individual and learning to read their body laguage is a key to my methods and recentely I found that one of my girls was showing signs that she needed more space so I upgraded her to an 80cm x 50cm wire cage and she loves it but such a cage would be hard on my most reclusive, nervy Chinese who has never been content in anything bigger than a Mini Duna.

I tend to start the youngsters in something lke a Mini Duna and then move them into one of the bin cages when they're more used to living on their own.

One thing I have noticed about Chinese is that they can be particularly sensitive to too much space and in the past I used to agree with the 'bigger is always better' but one Chinese taught me that I needed to be more flexible on that because, despite multiple adjustments to his larger cage to provide more cover, he was still unsettled that even his own shadow semed to send him darting for cover. He was reluctant to come out for food and drink and that was an unusual behaviour from a hamster that had previously been calm. I have found that Chinese Hamsters from pet shops generally seem to prefer larger cages than those from club breeders.

Because I have such a flexible approach to caging, I find it difficult to suggest 'the best' cage size for a hamster because there is so many different things to consider. Generally speaking, I wouldn't be putting a Syrian in a Mini Duna for example unless they were unwell and needed everything close as hand or it was being used as a transit cage but I would use it for a Chinese or Roborovski depending on the hamster's nature. However, if someone asked me for my opinion on what cage they should choose for a pet Syrian, I would suggest something of about 80cm x 50cm as a starting point.

In answer to your third question, I generally prefer to use bin cages for my hamasters but do like the Savic Hamster Heaven as I found that it had a good sturdy build quality and the larger front door allowed things like toys to be placed into the cage without needing to remove the top of the cage.

01-11-2019, 02:34 AM
Fluffagrams Moderator Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Bath, UK Posts: 3,640	Re: Hamster cage size Most of my Chinese are in bin cages that are about 60cm x 40 cm which seems to suit them well but I tend to believe in a flexible approach to my hamster's caging, choosing and upgrading a cage according to the hamster's individual personality and needs. I find that getting to know the hamster as an individual and learning to read their body laguage is a key to my methods and recentely I found that one of my girls was showing signs that she needed more space so I upgraded her to an 80cm x 50cm wire cage and she loves it but such a cage would be hard on my most reclusive, nervy Chinese who has never been content in anything bigger than a Mini Duna. I tend to start the youngsters in something lke a Mini Duna and then move them into one of the bin cages when they're more used to living on their own. One thing I have noticed about Chinese is that they can be particularly sensitive to too much space and in the past I used to agree with the 'bigger is always better' but one Chinese taught me that I needed to be more flexible on that because, despite multiple adjustments to his larger cage to provide more cover, he was still unsettled that even his own shadow semed to send him darting for cover. He was reluctant to come out for food and drink and that was an unusual behaviour from a hamster that had previously been calm. I have found that Chinese Hamsters from pet shops generally seem to prefer larger cages than those from club breeders. Because I have such a flexible approach to caging, I find it difficult to suggest 'the best' cage size for a hamster because there is so many different things to consider. Generally speaking, I wouldn't be putting a Syrian in a Mini Duna for example unless they were unwell and needed everything close as hand or it was being used as a transit cage but I would use it for a Chinese or Roborovski depending on the hamster's nature. However, if someone asked me for my opinion on what cage they should choose for a pet Syrian, I would suggest something of about 80cm x 50cm as a starting point. In answer to your third question, I generally prefer to use bin cages for my hamasters but do like the Savic Hamster Heaven as I found that it had a good sturdy build quality and the larger front door allowed things like toys to be placed into the cage without needing to remove the top of the cage.