Cage height requirements and wood

[Noxoy]

Hello!
I dont own any hamster but hopefull I will in roughly 1,5 years. So meanwhile Im doing research! Im planning on getting a Syrian, and Im planning on making it roughly 75 x 110. And there have been two things Ive been thinking about.

1: How tall should the cage be?
Im planning on having a lid but like how tall need it to be to fit the bedding requirments and still fitting the wheel in?

2: My intentions id using wood and not having any "edges" in the cage what is the likelyhood of the hamster chewing through it?
How thick should the wood be?

Well thanks for any answers

[Pebbles82]

Hi there. Is the cage going to be a tank style or have mesh/bars? If it's solid sided like a tank (perspex eg) then the height isn't as relevant as long as it's tall enough. It can't be too tall really as you can fill the base with deep substrate up to 30cm or so if you want. In terms of fall height - hammies shouldn't fall more than 30cm. So you'd need 30cm height between the top of the substrate and the roof. Slightly over 30cm fall height is ok as long as they can't land on anything hard - you'd actually need more than 30cm to fit a 12" wheel in - although you could have substrate slightly lower in the wheel area and keep to a 30cm fall height in the rest of the cage.

If it's not a solid sided cage - eg meshed - and you have a limited depth of substrate then you wouldn't want the cage too tall. Again a 30cm fall height plus the depth you have for substrate.

Some hamsters would chew wood edges, some wouldn't. If it does get chewed you might be able to fit metal corner guards inside. Ideally something like melamine sides would avoid having thinner wood strips for edges.

[flowerfairy]

Erinsanimals on youtube has some great hamster care videos including ones about diy cages. Great that you are doing research in advance.

[Noxoy]

Thanks both of you!

The plan is to have plexiglas so no mesh exept on the lid.
So preferebly deep and plus 30 cm from the bedding to fit in a wheel!
My plan was using melamine wood for the walls, and having the inside box-shaped which I suppose make it harder for them to get a chew-grip.


Ive been watching Erins and Hoppinghammys and some other tutorial.
Im not the most advanced with DIY and since I might not get the same materials so I cant exactly recreate them.

Thank you both

[Pebbles82]

You could use two Lack tables The larger ones. Someone on here made one with the less large tables. One table on top of the other (glued I guess). So it was like a cage on legs. The bottom tabletop was the floor of the cage. The top tabletop is the roof. The legs make the corners and you just need to fill in the four sides with perspex or mesh. Except you need a door which could be the tricky bit. I know you can get u-runners to take sliding doors.

LACK Coffee table White 118x78 cm - IKEA

Melamine already cut to size by using a table

[JaysAnimals]

Hey, I have a Ikea Billy Hack Cage and i made a video on how i made it on my channel if you are interested it is quite a cheap cage to make and looks really modern too

Link To Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgsMEmTXd6w

[Pebbles82]

I sometimes think the hardest bit is working out which wheel, how it will attach or be stable and whether it will fit The Silent Runner is a very good 12" wheel - totally silent and safe and stable. It's 35cm tall so you'd need a bit of clearance from 35cm and then any wheel would fit. If you're having deep substrate though, a wheel can't stand on top of it really in case it is tuneled under and falls over onto the hamster. Plus it isn't very stable like that. In that case you would either need it supported underneath (eg standing on a platform that sits under the substrate), or have it attached to the side somehow, or have an area of lower substrate in the cage that is "fenced off" (bendy bridges on their side make a good fence) so the wheel can stand on the base. The Silent Runner does have a cage attachment you can buy separately - I have this to attach it to the bars - I'm not sure if it would work through the thickness of wood (ie a hole drilled to put the bolt through) but it's possible. A wodent wheel works well hung upside down from cage bars on the roof although I don't think mesh would be strong enough for this. I have gone with the wheel standing on a platform in my other cage. And if you're good at diy you can easily make a platform the right height so it just clears the substrate, for the wheel to stand on. Also this can make a hide under the wheel