Hamster ball?

[Turrican]

Hi everyone. I'm struggling a little bit to keep my hamster Kenneth fully entertained in the evenings! He comes out every night for a play session, it used to satisfy him bit recently he's not happy to go back to his cage and wants out all the time! If anybody goes in the room he appears at the cage door begging to come out! It is very cute, but, obviously I can't have him out of his cage all the time. Anyway, I was wondering about getting him a ball so he could maybe roam around when I'm doing stuff in the house. I'd just like to hear opinions on them really. I'm not too sure about them myself but willing to be told otherwise! My last ham had one but we never used it as she didn't like it and just tried to chew her way out. Another ham I had years ago did seem to enjoy running around in one but I always felt like I just wasn't sure if she really liked it or was simply running in it to try and find an escape if you see what I mean. Thanks in advance for your opinions!

[Fluffagrams]

There's a lot of mixed opinions on the use of exercise balls but for me it will depend entirely on the hamster. I don't use them at all for my Chinese as a couple of years ago, I had a Chinese get her foot caught in the ventilation slits. Thankfully I was supervising her and she wasn't hurt but she was a bit nervy of her ball after that. Chinese do have rather dainty feet though and my sister's Hybrid enjoyed a short run in an exercise ball every so often. My sister's Syrian also enjoys a little run in his ball. For those that enjoy running in balls, I'll keep the time brief, about 5-10 minutes maximum in a supervised area and will then let them play with some toys in a playpen for the rest of their playtime.

If you were to introduce an exercise ball, I'd keep the time brief and make sure that he's supervised so that he doesn't get himself stuck or keep crashing into things.

[AmityvilleHams]

From my perspective when there are much better alternatives without the safety risks I just can't see balls being worth it.

Could you make some sort of enclosed run instead that would be secure enough for that?This would be a better solution,as it would actually allow for enrichment.Hamster balls do block off senses unlike other solutions,which is very important to consider along with their lack of providing any true enrichment and being a very forced method.

[Turrican]

Thank you for your replies Fluffa and Amity. I agree that it seems a 'forced' method. I like the idea of making some sort of enclosure for him to explore. He definitely needs more stimulation than he currently gets as he's started to chew the bars again at night despite having a fairly big cage (Hamster Heaven) with a good amount of hiding places/toys/interest and nightly play time out of the cage which he seems to love. Just want him to be a happy ham and not a stressed out bar - chewer!

[Gibbs]

I hate hamster balls. The hamster always looks arched. I button up a room and let him roam free. I leave his cage open and when he’s had enough he climbs back in himself and goes to sleep. If you try this keep any cords raised. The only downside to this is occasionally one of my shoes is filled with some bedding and food

[SimonandSyril]

I recommend free roaming in a safe room. Even when in a hamster ball hamsters do still need supervision.

[EelKat]

I'm not sure about hamster balls. I've never used one yet and was debating if I should buy one or not, thus how I found this thread. Anyways I was reading about your troubles with Kenny and got to this part of your post here...

Originally Posted by Turrican

Thank you for your replies Fluffa and Amity. I agree that it seems a 'forced' method. I like the idea of making some sort of enclosure for him to explore. He definitely needs more stimulation than he currently gets as he's started to chew the bars again at night despite having a fairly big cage (Hamster Heaven) with a good amount of hiding places/toys/interest and nightly play time out of the cage which he seems to love. Just want him to be a happy ham and not a stressed out bar - chewer!

And I was thinking, maybe there is a better option to a hamster ball?

My thought is, isn't the Hamster Haven extremely small? I'm not sure if you are talking about the same cage as I'm thinking of or not.

We just got our first hamster this week, so I don't know too much about them yet, but I was just looking at cages in the store last week trying to figure out which one to buy, and I remember one called Hamster Haven. It was very similar to the CriterTrails (had lots of bright colored plastic do-dads inside it), but was only maybe 6" wider and longer. I don't think a full grown cat could even stand in it and turn around. We ended up not getting any of the cages they had on display, because the biggest one was only about 18" long.

You don't mention what type of hamster Kenny is.

Well, the reason I thought the Hamster Haven was small, was because I was getting (now have) a Syrian Hamster, and they get 7" long, and the cage we say was only like 10" wide, which means once he's full grown, he's not even gonna be able to lay down and stretch without hitting both ends of the cage. And a Syrian needs a 10" to 13" hamster well, but the cage was only 12" tall. Meaning, after I put in 5" deep of bedding, there's not room for the wheel! And the wheel that came with the cage was only a 4" wheel, barely big enough for a mouse, and would cause serious spine damage to a Syrian hamster. So that was why I did not buy the Hamster Haven, even though it was bigger than the CritterTrail, it was still just no where's near big enough for a Syrian.

So, I got him a parakeet cage for now, as it was bigger than any of the small animal cages, and still had small enough bars for a hamster. But I still think even that is too small. He's just a baby still so it's okay for a few weeks, but he'll go bigger fast so he'll outgrow it very quickly. After Christmas is over, (3 weeks from now) I'm building him a bin cage. (Local WalMart always has big 100+ quart rubbermaid bins for storing Christmas trees in, on sale day after Christmas, so I'm planning to get one of those.)

But, like I said, I only saw the one on display at the store, and I know the CritterTrail had like 5 different sizes (all smaller than the Hamster Haven!) So I don't know if the Hamster Haven comes in different sizes or not. I didn't research it. And also you didn't say what type of hamster Kenny is. If he's a small Robo or Russian or Dwarf hamster, it might be okay, them being so much smaller then a Syrian.

But, anyways, you said Kenny was bar chewing, which is stress behaviour, and I was wondering, if maybe, your Kenny is stressing because he just needs more room over all? Not just more playtime, but, more space all day long? If the Hamster Haven you have is the same one I saw in the store last week, it's barely big enough for a mouse, let alone an adult Syrian hamster, so perhaps he's just outgrown his cages and needs it upgraded to a bigger one? Not sure if they make other models then the one I saw, so yours could be bigger than what I'm thinking of.

But I'm thinking, maybe he's outgrown his cage and needs more room to move around, and while a hamster ball would give him some more exercise and perhaps be helpful it still would only be used 15 to 20 minutes a day, so it wouldn't really help fill his desire to move around more long term. So perhaps a better option, would be to build him a bin cage instead? A 80 to 100 quart bin only costs about $10 to $20 (depending on brand), and the wire mess is about $10. You could drill holes in the sides of it and use pipe cleaners to attack all his toys and stuff from his current cage. It's not that much more money then a hamster ball, and it'd give him more room all day long instead of just for a few minutes a day.

That said, I'm not sure how you could tell if a hamster was happy in a ball or trying to run away from it. That's exactly the thing I was thinking too which is why I have not bought EggNog one yet. If I thought he'd actually like running in one, I'd get him one, but, I wouldn't want to scare him by putting him in one and then stress him out by him only running to try to get away from it. Like you, I just don't know if I should get a ball or not.