My preferred hamster enclosure

[babyboos]

Christmas is coming and many people get new cages for their hamsters or as presents. Which would you recommend

[Bunsey]

without a doubt, the gabber rex for syrians. the only one that can equal it is the zoozone, but you have the fuss of putting chicken wire over it.

the reason i choose the gabber rex is because it's really spacious, you can fit a large hut and 8" wheel (comfort, wodent, jumbo rolly etc.) and still have lots of space. they love the plastic insert as it feels like a burrow. you can also hang tubes and bridges from the bars, which they also love. it's perfect!

For dwarves i'd say the ferplast duna is the best, followed by the gabber lux and savic rody. similar reasons to the gebber rex, they are spacious, easy to clean etc. and the hamsters love them. i find that robos dislike a cage without an opaque bottom. with wire cages you risk babies escaping or a trapped leg. however, chinese hams love a wire cage. i think there's a bit more to debate about dwarf cages, but for syrians there's a clear winner in my eyes.

[Holly]

I don't really know how to vote now. If you'd asked the same question a few weeks ago I'd have voted exactly the same as Bunsey - I've got several Gabber Rex cages and really love them for the same reasons as her: the space they offer, the shelf for making a nest under and the fact that you can hang roof runs and toys from the overhead bars. I've also had issues with two bar chewers (Mocha, who used to have a wire cage and Caramel, who's always been in a Rex but chews the roof bars and Minnie, our new sable girl who seems to be becoming a compulsive roof bar chewer :? ). I do think it's the best breeding cage there is - I now have two spares and I'm keeping them for future mum's to be and litters.

However in September I discovered the joys of the Savic Cambridge and a couple of weeks ago, the joys of the Imac Fantasy and now I'm less sure what I like best.

Rolo, our LH Satin male lives in the Cambridge and seems to love it. He's got a large wodent wheel in there, plus two potties (one is his house, bless him), a roof run, hanging bridge, Savic Sputnik and other toys. He climbs all over the cage and seems to love it.....and, amazingly, he's never chewed the bars. I suspect it's because he finds the cage stimulating enough not to feel the need to chew but who knows.

We now have three Imac's ( and I'm planning on getting one or two more). I think they are absolutely fantasic cages that seem to have so many pluses - space (with two full levels), deep base, wire parts for climbing, tubes, a built in ventillated "bedroom:" etc. We've got Milly, Smartie and Kitty in them and they all seem happy in there (though Milly has been bar chewing a bit, the other two haven't as far as I've seen). I'm really impressed and a major plus for us with a few hamsters is that I can fit two on one shelf making utillising the space I have a lot more efficient.

So, in summary and for Syrians, I recommed the Gabber Rex, Savic Cambrige and Imac Fantasy as being wonderful cages for any new hamster person to get for their little friend :)

[souffle]

I still go for the Gabber Rex. If you buy one of the other types and you have a bar chewer you have to buy a whole new cage to solve the problem. However I realise not eveyone can find the space for a large cage like this.
With the roof chewers we have always stopped them with the weighted tiles but never stopped anyone chewing a barred cage no matter how hard we tried. :roll:

[Jane]

I voted for "Ferplast Duna or Gabber type tank (Rex, Lux etc)"

However, I don't actually have one of these..I have my zoozone 2 which is similar :) I love it, it's massive so loads of room for him and toys, can have really deep bedding etc. A lot of people don't have room for it though.

After that, I love bin cages and imac fantasys. Both are great to me but a bar chewer in an imac would send me crazy!

[Basia]

I voted Imac because I think on balance they are my favourite cages.
I also really like the Cambridge cages which some of my hamsters have and I have 3 Rex cages which I think are great breeding cages but despite the large floorspace my hamsters seem to get bored in them more easily and 2 of my hamsters refused to live in one. Strangely the only bar chewers I have are the ones who live/lived in the Gabbers and Berry stopped as soon as I moved her into an Imac.
I think value for money, overall floorspace and the fact that you can extend it the Imac is the winner for me.

[Spuds Mum]

gosh, there probably isn't a cage we haven't got/tried (apart from the Imac) and I voted for Gabbers. They are so spacious, easy to clean (even more so that Ferplast Dunas with their annoying ridged floors) and are interesting for hamsters too.
The Cambridge is a good cage as long as you dont have a bar chewer too though

[DonnaB]

I'm a complete novice (well its years since I last had a hammie) but I chose a Gabber Rex, by complete fluke, for my new rescue Syrian. Mainly because I wanted a non barred type, just in case the cage goes ino my daughters bedroom, I didnt want bar chewing to wake her, so I just looked for the biggest tank style I could get... even though the pet shop didnt advise it for a Syrian, they showed me one half the size! I also looked at the Zoozone, but you didnt gain a lot more headroom and the price was about the same.... plus you get 'stuff' in the Gabber and dont have to add extra wire.

Its a good job I got the bigger cage though, she's a big girl and would have had nowhere to turn in the smaller one!

[lau200]

gabber rex and zoo zone all the way! except the rex can still have bar chewers- like my Lavender nick-named Tarzan as she hangs from the roof! the zz's are definately my favourite :D

[Spuds Mum]

gabber rex and zoo zone all the way! except the rex can still have bar chewers- like my Lavender nick-named Tarzan as she hangs from the roof! the zz's are definately my favourite :D
Oh yes, I have some of those too! I do tend to find though that because they are high bars the hamsters dont tend to spend hours doing it like they will on fully barred cages. A great idea I got from Holly though was to construct some roof runs by attaching tubes to the barred part over the shelf which gives them somthing really interesting to climb through and also less annoying to chew!

[Bailey-Benji]

I have a Gabber Rex, Zoozone1, Imac Fantasy, a Rody and a ferplast Laura. (and I only have 3 hamsters, 2 of which live together :oops: )

I'd definitely recommend the Rex, Zoozone (mesh didn't take much effort - just cut it to size and attached it with cable ties) and the Imac Fantasy. They are roomy and the hamsters love them!

I bought my ZZ from ebay, so it was in second hand (but still useable condition) but then my Mum broke all the clips that held the wire grill on, so I'm currently looking for an imac extension so Marley can move into my un-used Imac Fantasy.

I'd say the Laura and Rody are okay, a bit on the small side though.

[daffee]

Not sure how to vote actually...

As we're robo owners i think we have a slightly different perspective on hamster cages then most other hammie owners. Our robos live in a Rody hamster which we love. It has sufficient space (although we would prefer it to be a bit bigger), gives excellent access for picking up speedy little rascals and it's a doddle to keep clean.

Having said that, we love the imac fantasy cage which we have with 1 extension for our 2 mice. Although we have never kept hamsters in it I do think it would make an excellent hamster cage. Don't think it would be suitable for little robos and am not convinced that all syrians would cope in it (have a friend who's son has a very large syrian and am not sure he could get up the tubes!). Reckon it's be good for dwarves though. Just love the way it can be expanded as necessary.

[Pouchy]

My hamster won't live in anything but his Pennine Rat Starter Cage so I have no reason to bother wasting money trying to get him anything else. Dwarfy seems happy in his miniduna- much better than a cage.

[jayne]

I'm not sure how to vote either :oops:

I bought the Savic Rody de Luxe for my two chinese then bought just the normal Rody when they had to be separated. For the dwarves i think they're great cages, easily cleaned, gives your hamster space but doesnt take over your room :wink:
Last night I just attached the two of mine together with the tubes that came with the de Luxe cage as Sour died last week :cry: I thought i would give Sweet some more space and have one cage for sleeping/eating and the other for playing in. (will try and post pictures soon)
Having not had a syrian, I'm not sure as to what cage to choose. Although going by some syrian owners, i would be more inclined to go for a tank type cage rather than a wire cage.