I've been away for a while, life's been very busy, but now Carlos' new cage is finally here and she's moved out of the tiny little mini duna one
We ordered the Alaska cage form Zooplus, which is on sale just now, and I also picked her up a Karlie wheel (the 20cm one) in the sale.
The wheel arrived from Germany in three days, and a cage came along with it. Unfortunately it was a guinea pig cage! The zooplus website says something about paying to send it back to Germany, but when we phoned the helpline they organised for a courier to come pick it up, so that was okay. It took a week for the cage we had ordered to arrive (because it didn't go anywhere on the weekend, and parcelforce decided Glasgow was in Wales and sent it to a Wales depot instead of a Scotland one.) But it got here eventually!
It is a big cage, but not too wide, so it easily fits on the same sideboard as the mini duna did. The base tray also reaches quite high up, so we haven't had any woodshavings kicked out onto the carpet.
I found it difficult to assemble. The hooks to hold the wire part together didn't slip on very easily, I had to use a pair of scissors to widen them enough to fit the bar. It was also hard to get the second floor in, it kept getting stuck at an angle (But maybe I should have put it in before I attached the wire top?)
Carlos really loves this cage. It has a darker corner for her to hide in and make a nest, and there is plenty of room for all her toys. She's gotten used to the slide and comes up the the top floor, though she doesn't seem to bother with the little house thing. (Which is not as creepy as it looks on zooplus) She keeps climbing up the sides of the cage though, and it is quite a tall cage, so I'm going to have to go pick up a few hammocks after school tomorrow to try and stop her from falling from too great a height.
The cage doesn't come with a bottle, which was great for us as Carlos has a habit of chewing on the spouts (She recently broke a tooth on the mini duna bottle). But the bars are quite narrow. I tested the duna bottle and there was no way the spout would fit through the bars, so if your hamster drinks from a bottle rather than a bowl, you may have to find one with a smaller spout.
Maybe a slightly waffle-y review, but we are all very excited! I will post pictures sometime soon