Rotastak Genus 200

[ChocolateCream81]

When I got my first hamster; I had researched everything about hamsters but nothing about cages-I went ahead and bought the Genus 200

Pros: Easy to assemble
Cheap enough
Came with wheel, food bowl, water bottle, tubes and house

Cons: Water bottle slips down so your hamster has to bend down to sip and drips
Wheel is noisy, only a 6inch and scratches easily
House is too small for him to sleep in;especially with a layer of substrate
The tubes were hard to assemble, broke after amonth and was to small for him ( although may work for a dwarf)
The bridge that goes to the 2nd level falls off very easily and would be a problem for dwarfs, my hamster pulled himself up ( i ended up making my own bridge as he got older and it got harder for him to get up)


Conclusion: I would not reccomend this cage because of the reasons above: although it would be allright if attatched to another cage to give more space.

I am unable to attatch a photo but the name is in the title and you can go ahead and look it up on Google

[HamsterLady]

I also don't recommend this cage. I found it fiddly to assemble, the wheel and tubes were too small for anything bigger than a Robo - yet the bars were spaced too far apart to keep them in! The little igloo / house is tiny yet quite exposed where the door hole is so big, and I don't think any of my hamsters would like that, and the platform wasn't secure either. A pointless cage in my opinion, looks great in the photos but in reality it's not been properly designed for a hamster's needs.

[Hamsters4eva x]

Great review! This cage looks exactly the same as the Pets at Home Pick'n'mix cage (is it the same!?) and I agree it is a terrible cage, I have my Campbell dwarf (she is old and struggles to walk around so she is in a smaller cage) in the pick'n'mix cage and It took 1 hour to actually just get the cage up and put the tunnels together! It was so annoying and once it was put together I was so disappointed with it, the base and the level was flimsy, the water bottle leaked and the bars where a great size but in the corners they would bend so a hamster could easily get out! (Luckily my hamster has never tryed to escape as she's too weak but a young Syrian could easily escape!)

Last but not least it is WAY too small to house a hamster, it would be ok for a temperaray hamster cage or for a young or elderly hamster like pip but its only 64 cm when the minimum size is 80cm....

The size would be ok IF attached to another cage like you said!

Thank you for doing this review hopefully people will see this before buying this cage!!! :)

[Johnpitcairnskilt]

I also veto ban this cage as well. I used a few of them for the first hamsters I got three years ago (what a tool I was thinking that P@H knew what they were talking about) and they were just terrible; too small, tubes that didn't fit securely and a ridiculous second level platform that never sat properly. They were such wastes of money and my boys were just so unhappy in them.

-9000/10 would not buy again.

[racinghamster]

Many of us (in the know) now recognise the cheaper end of the market and that usually reflects the size of the cage and the quality. Most people buying a hamster as their first pet can get hoodwinked into buying these types of cage because (a) they are within their price range and (b) pet shops will always stock them in favour of decent, more pricey cages.

Anything smaller than a Zoozone 1 (just as an example) is too small as a permanent living space. Even old hamsters that have lived in a Zoozone 1 for example don`t necessarily need downsizing. The Ferplast Duna was the cage of choice years ago and is still used today for dwarf hamsters and in some cases, this is okay IF the hamster seems happy enough with his lot, but I would still go that bit bigger to a Zoozone it as I enjoys that bit more floor space and room for change. Smaller cages are restrictive. x

[Pebbles82]

I nearly went for that one after starting out with a Rotostak set up and realising it wasn't big enough - I thought I'd get one of the Genus 200's and attach it - but came to my senses and recognised it would be better to to get rid of the rotostak and buy a big cage! My only regret is I didn't buy 100cm instead of 80cm cage.

[henrythefish]

If you can't replace this seemingly awful cage, then a good tip for the water bottle problem is use a bowl. These are usually ceramic, but put it on a platform because of contamination from substrate. it gives a nice, natural position for your hamster to drink from. Hope you found this useful.