Baby Ham's DIY cage

[laiyenha]

Finally got around to share the pictures of the DIY cage I made in May 15. Originally I designed the cage as 2 adjoining rooms with 2 interconnect doors (that could be closed off if need) because my kids wanted 2 robo hamsters. Unfortunately, Baby Ham's brother, Fluffy, died only 5 days after we got them :(; so now Baby Ham has the entire place to himself.
Since my kids wanted a pet, they have the responsibility to clean it. Knowing my kids' propensity for making a mess, I tried to design the cage with feature to ease the cleaning task:
- The bottom of each room is a removable tray so wood shaving can be change without much effort.
- The trays are lined with plexi glass so urine wouldn't soak.
- My kids can isolate Baby Ham in one room while cleaning the other. Although we abandoned this method due to inefficiency and clean both room at the same time while Baby Ham runs around in his hamster ball.
I bought bird houses at art & craft store and cut extra holes in them. Baby Ham uses the large houses as his storage rooms.
I love the look of Karlie Wonderland wheel but I can't get them in the US (with a reasonable price) so I had to make my own using 6 in diameter cardboard shipping cylinder. I salvaged the spinning hub out of a hard drive to use as the hub of the wheel - this hub is technically a generator that outputs tiny voltage when spun so my future project will be making a speedometer when Baby Ham does his exercise :grin:

[Elliiy]

wow that cage is so nice and wow you made everything up to the wheel thats pretty cool. the layout is so nice your hammy must be very happy

[Jenibelle]

It's so cute! You're quite the wood-worker. It reminds me of some of the things my grandma used to make, she was a carpenter.

I suggest filling up the side without his wheel at least 3-4 inches with substrate. That will give him some room to dig and burrow, and it appears that all of his toys on that side can sit on top of the substrate quite easily. The extra substrate will also make cleaning easier on your kids ;)

[laiyenha]

Another member suggested the same thing about adding more substrate. Thanks for your advice as I should have figured that out given the clue: Baby Ham would gather a mound of wood shaving in the corner and dig a hole in it to sleep.

[flowerfairy]

What a gorgeous cage. How did you fix the Plexiglass to the wood?

[laiyenha]

What a gorgeous cage. How did you fix the Plexiglass to the wood?

Thanks. I cut a groove in the border pieces of wood; slip the plexiglass in, then glued the wood pieces together trapping the glass inside. The plexiglass pieces are somewhat free floating inside the wooden border in case the wood expand or contract - but I don't think that was necessary (it is more of a common practice for wooden cabinet door).

[Pebbles82]

The slide out base is clever :-) I guess that wouldn't work quite so well with the deep substrate, but you can always scoop it all out from the top and then slide the trays out for the last bits :-) I think some people use a dustpan to scoop out substrate for cage cleans.

It looks so nice, it's like something from an expensive catalogue!

[freyashamsters]

That looks really cool! The slide out base looks very practical but might be inconvenient for deep substrate as Serendipidity said :)

[Pebbles82]

And he has that amazing hand made wood wheel as well FreyasH!

[abby99jones]

This is amazing.... Might have a go with the help of my grandad!!!!

[Tazius]

This is an amazing idea. This is the type of cage I would love!

[freyashamsters]

And he has that amazing hand made wood wheel as well FreyasH!

Lol yes I forgot about that! I can barely make a toilet paper roll toy, let alone a cage and wheel ;):oops:

[ChamP]

Your kids are lucky to have such a talented and creative parent! That cage looks fantastic and so well thought out. Good luck making a speedometer to see how fast Baby Ham runs!