Flick's Wonderful Viv, all thanks to you lot!

[kittyp]

I thought I would join so I could thank this forum for helping provide Flick with a much better life. Let me explain:
Although 2005 isn't long ago, my family 'went by the book' back then and all our hamster knowledge came from a strange orange and brown printed 'Hamster Manual'. Obviously knowing no better, we followed the book and bought our old hamster, Harry, an old version of the Rotastak Creepy Castle (which, I must note, is strangely about twice the size of the current Creepy Castles on sale). He did seem happy in it and so my parents, not being the hamster fanactic of the family (who you might have guessed is me!) just assumed a Rotastak would be fine for Flick. I thought otherwise and argued continously, and this forum finally bought it home to them!
My Dad spends alot of time away for work and becuase he was home for Christmas he got really into the whole thing of being a Dad and went on a world mission to make sure Flick had the best cage in town!
IMG_0532[1].jpg
We completed this (well I took pictures and watched and did the appaling layout) in one Saturday and that included going to a glass cutter only to find out we couldnt cut the viv front because it is 'toughened safety glass', spending 3 hours in B&Q choosing mesh and finding the safest screws (only my dad could be that picky) and going to the cinema to watch Les Mis.

Basically he just hacked a hole in each end, cut up the mesh sheet, put about a third of it on each end to cover the hole and neatened the rough end by plating on a aliminium strip then screwed a vent thingy to the other side of the hole.
The pictures will probably explain a lot better!
Flick loves it and is a lot safer from the cats now (should they break in).
The only problem we had was fixing the water bottle to the decorative mesh but I think we put a keyring in the mesh then clipped the bottle on?
Oh and the sucker cups on the front is our temporary lock which we had to improvise until our new lock that doesnt need drilled glass to fit comes! Its actually working rather well though...
Oh and for the IKEA hackers out there, we used GLIMMA, MAGASIN some other things plus our own hack, a MIXTUR 15 x 15 serving dish to make a sand tray!

[kyrilliondaemon]

It looks really good, I'm glad Flick is enjoying it

[Lougarry]

It's great. I bet Flick really loves it!

(Just one thing, though. In the first photo, I might be wrong but it looks like you might have that fluffy cotton wool type bedding in Flick's house. If so, please remove it and replace it with shredded loo roll or similar as it can cause internal obstruction if swallowed and injuries to limbs if it gets wrapped round them.)

Welcome to HC

[Dandelion07]

Great DIY skills - it looks really professional. If Flick likes digging you could bank up some substrate nice and deep as you have plenty of space. I really like how you can see in with those glass fronts.

[kittyp]

Yep,you would be right and this is being dealt with at the moment. The first night we put her in her playpen she spotted some cotton wool and went mad dragging it through the bars but I wouldn't let her have it for obviously safety reasons. We had noticed that she wasn't nesting very happily since we got her but I though it was just stress from moving and so thought nothing of it. Them we made the connection that she must have had fluffy bedding at some point in her life so we gave in and got her some 'pet safe' cotton wool bedding and she settled much better and what we are doing now is giving her strips of paper that she can shred smaller and she adds them to her fluff and then we confiscate some of her fluff. We are down to a 3:1 ratio of paper to fluff and Flick hasn't really noticed yet so we are just working towards the no fluff at all nest which I suspect will happen in the next week or two. We used to use Neestex j cloth stuff with our old hamster but I haven't really heard of it being used nowadays. And yes, flick loves digging but prefers to make our own cage layout and so has made herself her own little digging area. We think she may be allergic to wood chips though so I fear another bedding battle may be coming our way! x

[Biscotti]

Wow that is a great looking viv for Flick, I'm sure he's very happy in it!

May I ask what is the type of lock you guys will use? I'm planning an Ikea hack with glass door and would rather not fuss with drilling the glass, so ones not needing drilled holes seems like a great idea.

[strawberrysmom]

Fantastic! What a beautiful habitat!

[Lougarry]

@kittyp - ha, crafty! I think Wilkos still have the J cloth stuff if you wanted to use it again.

@Biscotti - what about the adhesive child safe locks you can buy for fridges etc?

[Queen Of The High Teas]

That is awesome you have exactly the same viv as mine! I find them fab cages for syrians, especially chewy ones. I'll post some pics when I've finished kitting it out!

[Biscotti]

Originally Posted by Lougarry

@Biscotti - what about the adhesive child safe locks you can buy for fridges etc?

Thanks for the advice, I will look into those as well.