Cardboard Playpen

[Jennithefluffy1]

After my 5th successful playtime session with my babies I thought I might share what set up I've been using so you can point out any glaringly obvious errors etc..... =D
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q239/jennithefluffy1/Hamsters/CIMG3029.jpg
This is a pretty shoddy blurry pic because the camera was busy trying to focus on Vera who's running around like a mad thing xD
But basically it's 8 card rectangles (roughly 70x30cm) held together with duct tape. I realise this isn't ideal, and I shall move onto bull dog clips at the first sign of chewing, it just allows me to just fold and unfold without clipping everytime xD
At the moment I'm only using 4 of the 8 sides because my room isn't that big, but it can easily be unfolded for bigger area =D
I've just stuck some cardboard underneath because my mum rather likes my carpet hehe

[Fidgetthefirst]

Looks neater than mine! Ive been using mine for a while now, think i need to make a new one tbh..

Looks good! I personally think they're a lot more hamster proof than those barred ones you can buy!

[kyrilliondaemon]

It looks good to me :)

And yeah, the barred ones need hamster-proofing with cardboard so are only a good idea if you want to hamster-proof them (or chase your escaping hamster a lot). It works for us (except that we haven't hamster-proofed ours yet lol, so we usually use smaller areas for play at the mo) but its unlikely to be worth the effort. We got metal ones for a good price but only bothered at all because we set them up semi-permanently and Scamp can knock cardboard out of place in her ball, but can't move the metal.

[Jennithefluffy1]

Looks neater than mine! Ive been using mine for a while now, think i need to make a new one tbh..

Looks good! I personally think they're a lot more hamster proof than those barred ones you can buy!
Yeah I like the fact it has high sides, no way the little dwarfies are getting over that! :D and the fact it doesn't cost anything ;)
It looks good to me :)

And yeah, the barred ones need hamster-proofing with cardboard so are only a good idea if you want to hamster-proof them (or chase your escaping hamster a lot). It works for us (except that we haven't hamster-proofed ours yet lol, so we usually use smaller areas for play at the mo) but its unlikely to be worth the effort. We got metal ones for a good price but only bothered at all because we set them up semi-permanently and Scamp can knock cardboard out of place in her ball, but can't move the metal.
Ahh that's not a bad idea to use it for ball time, luckily there's nowhere in my room that they can get under in a ball at the moment :)

[kyrilliondaemon]

Ahh that's not a bad idea to use it for ball time, luckily there's nowhere in my room that they can get under in a ball at the moment :)

May have explained it badly lol
We actually give her free roam of the flat in her ball (same goes for the others once we've proven they can move on carpet), but since the runs are up semi-permanently they usually take up part of the living room and as they're full of toys we don't like having to move them completely before letting anyone out in a ball. So instead we just leave them fencing off the areas of the living room that're full of hamster toys :P

[Jennithefluffy1]

May have explained it badly lol
We actually give her free roam of the flat in her ball (same goes for the others once we've proven they can move on carpet), but since the runs are up semi-permanently they usually take up part of the living room and as they're full of toys we don't like having to move them completely before letting anyone out in a ball. So instead we just leave them fencing off the areas of the living room that're full of hamster toys :P

Ahhhhhh I understand xD I let my two out in their balls for the first time today, Nellie just looked bored but Vera was running around like a crazy thing and getting under my feet while I was cleaning the cage. Might have to set up a perimeter for her hehe

[kyrilliondaemon]

Ahhhhhh I understand xD I let my two out in their balls for the first time today, Nellie just looked bored but Vera was running around like a crazy thing and getting under my feet while I was cleaning the cage. Might have to set up a perimeter for her hehe

lol cool
Scamp our syrian loves her ball, Skip the robo seems to like his, but Whizz was too nervous to want to try running far when we let him try his, so we're giving him a while before we try them both in theirs again.
We haven't tried the russian boys in balls yet - Dusty is really reliant on having the others around and we think he'd worry he'd been separated from the others permanently and get unhappy if in a ball on his own (when he'd never been in one before), even if the others were nearby, so we think we'll have to use Scamp's old ball (she outgrew it but all four russians will be ok in it for a short time) and let him try a ball out with company before they can all go in their own balls, else Dusty will probably just worry about where the others are instead of enjoying exploring (and some of the others may do the same). We hope that if they go in a ball with company first they'll all learn that the balls are for exploring in and then will all be happy to explore alone in their balls next time.

Scamp loves to chase feet in her ball though - Or more specifically my injured foot lol. She seems to know theres something different about it, so instead of realising that if she hits it it'll hurt, she loves to chase it to investigate instead. Its a long term injury though so I'm getting good at keeping my feet up and standing on one leg to view rooms before I actually set foot in them - Then if Scamp charges she can't hit my bad foot and I can find out where she is before trying to walk anywhere lol

I'm glad Vera seemed to love the ball though :)
Now she just needs to teach Nellie how wonderful they are - Then you'll really need a perimeter lol
Just hope you never end up on crutches - Trust me, crutches and/or limping make hamsters ten times more lethal in their balls lol

[Jennithefluffy1]

Ohhh ouch, that sounds painful! I think Nellie wasn't best pleased because I had to wake them both up to clean out (I mean they should really be up at 10pm anyway ;) ) but they didn't seem stressed at all about being in the balls, I'd almost think they'd been in one before, but then I bought them from P@H so maybe not xD

[fluffymunchkins]

Looks nice and fun for them :)
This is the playpen I use while preparing them to be ready for floortime, its the hamsterfort celotaped together.
(thats Squirt sneaking in the picture, and you may noticed my overflowing toy box ;))

[Womblehands]

very nice..
FM? could a syrian climb over that fort?

[Debbie]

I think Nat (AI) has that fort and put photos up of one of her hamsters climbing over the walls, but maybe it depends on the syrian!!
I think a cardboard playpen is much better than the metal ones, we have one but it's a pain to put together and I know syrians can climb out of it so you have to watch them like a hawk to make sure there are no escapees!!

[SnickersTheFirst]

very nice..
FM? could a syrian climb over that fort?

Cooper is alot taller than the fort so could easily get over but he decides not to, bless him. :mad: He's the same with the barred playpen, such an angel.

If you have Syrians that enjoy to escape playpens then I wouldn't recommend it. :)

[Jennithefluffy1]

Looks nice and fun for them :)
This is the playpen I use while preparing them to be ready for floortime, its the hamsterfort celotaped together.
(thats Squirt sneaking in the picture, and you may noticed my overflowing toy box ;))

Awww the adorableness! I thought about getting one of those but dad pointed out the massive box in the garage that wasn't being used for anything... xD
I have a feeling I may end up with that many toys eventually, I tend to hoard things haha

[Gizmodo ^_^]

Bet that is great for them :D, looks lovely

This is what me and RachK do for our hammies xD
Pip my robo, gets playtime in the bath, and in the playpen enclosed, as i dont trust him fully on the landing

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb138/RachK_album/Hugo/DSCF6151.jpg
They get the landing to themselves, the syrians sometimes climb over the playpen at the end, so we just put them back over xD

[Jennithefluffy1]

Wow, I'd love to have that much floorspace for them! They must love it hehe
I haven't tried the bathtub yet, not sure if my parent's would approve...but we shall find out! lol

[kyrilliondaemon]

Yeah... Scamp hitting my foot was er... unpleasant lol
Now I'm on stronger painkillers and careful enough to avoid her hitting it hard even if she does manage to touch it :)

I hope you enjoy the bathtub idea when you try it :)
We considered it but since our runs are all big enough for us to fit at least one human as well as a hamster (or four of them :P) we've decided to try taming them in the runs instead.
Scamp loves us sitting in the run with her - Thinks we're extra-large toys lol. So we're hoping that in time we'll get all the boys confident enough to do the same :)

We've er... Got a lot of hamster toys too lol
Have a spare cage, three spare dwarf wheels, a bigger broken wheel awaiting either fixing or binning and four groups of outside-cage toys (one pile for each cage so no-one has to play with toys that smell of someone they don't live with). Plus a few egg boxes, cardboard tubes, and little hidey things that're for everyone to be given when we think they should get them. Oh and a load of plastic tubes and stuff too lol, they should go with the rotastak bit of Scamp's cage but she's always got spares, so they double as toys for everyone too :)

No-one is exactly short of in-cage toys either lol

Plus they're all getting new wheels and I'll soon be putting in an order for more hamster toys soonish... But then I'll be done buying hamster toys for a while.
I've bulk-bought consumables so that I can stay out of the local petshops for a while and not get tempted by any new toys they might get in lol. Only thing we might need before September is chinchilla sand and the local petshops don't sell it anyway.


(Disclaimer - Scamp's rotastak is joined to a bin cage with a large wheel, she loves it and is one of the cases where rotastak does work for a syrian.)

[fluffymunchkins]

very nice..
FM? could a syrian climb over that fort?

Most I would say could. Porridge certainly wasn't going to accept being put in it with a whole world to explore beyond it ;)

[Millie]

Looks nice and fun for them :)
This is the playpen I use while preparing them to be ready for floortime, its the hamsterfort celotaped together.
(thats Squirt sneaking in the picture, and you may noticed my overflowing toy box ;))

wow! love the big box of toys ;}