Hi, I'm new. I've been checking out DIY Bin Cages and I am in love with them for their size.
I'm worried about my hamster cutting herself on the edge of the sharp cut plastic/ wire mesh, or escaping (Roborovskis are small and I presume she can be good at squeezing through a tiny gap between the cable ties securing the mesh).
She will die if she escapes because I have to go to work (hey, I need the money to buy her more treats and toys
Can't sit around all day!) and she'll probably run out of the house and get eaten by some alley cat. To make matters worse, I think a stray kitten does sneak into the bottom floor of my house sometimes. My baby is locked upstairs in my room all the time, so predators can't come in, but if she escapes and goes out... that will be quite disastrous.
To prevent all of those worries, I was thinking of cutting the ventilation at the top only, and a little smaller (with a huge margin on the sides), so that my hamster can't actually find enough purchase to reach the ventilation area in the first place. However, I was also thinking of keeping a permanent cloth over half of her cage, as her exclusive area of darkness and privacy, so that will cut down on the ventilation area.
Question:
What would you recommend as the minimum size for the ventilation window? If you look at my sketch (NOT to scale and just an idea that's open to feedback by you lovely veterans), I'd prefer to leave a huge margin so she can't even get at the mesh area. I'd also have to avoid putting climbing stuff near the window so that she can't climb near it.
I haven't bought a bin cage yet. Still trying to design and consider how its dimensions should be like.