Getting ready

[Jasmine2016]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

It certainly can be a giggle lol. Especially when the Alligator is dragged across the cage and won't fit through the house door sideways I get the mini sized ones for our Syrian. He seems to like the toothbrushes slightly more than the Alligators and some people stick little treats like the odd sunflower seed between the toothbrush 'bristles' to make it a bit more interesting/fun.

Are you in the Uk? If so, and just for future reference, there are a number of beddings available that work out cheaper the Carefresh If that's what you have for now, that's fine too. There's the hemp bedding that Cypher mentioned, and there's also Fitch which is a paper bedding made from food grade paper. It's only sold in bulk but works out really quite cheap buying it that way. It's very much like Carefresh but no dust. They sell it in 10kg or 20kg bags - I get the 10kg which lasts me about 6 months (with deep bedding, a litter tray and spot cleaning mostly) - the 20kg is too big for me to fit in the bedroom lol. I think it needs to be stored indoors or could go damp and mouldy. My 10kg bag is the size and shape of a small beanbag seat so I have it in the corner of the bedroom with a throw over it so it looks like a beanbag seat lol. You can squish the bag low and flat or tall and thin as well to fit in different places. It's only available online though - from the manufacturers and from Amazon who charge a very small extra amount for it - unless you happen to live near Chester and can collect free.

Fitch Recycling - 10kg Single Bale Fitch Paper Bedding For Smaller Critters - Bedding - Rabbit,Guinea Pig & Hamster - Fitch Pet Store

Nesting material - torn up strips of plain white toilet paper (not kitchen roll) is safest and hams can pouch it and take it where they want to build a nest with (our Syrian even weaves it into a ball sometimes! Although now he has the Fitch substrate he uses some of that in his nest as well).

You can make hidey places and toys as well as buy them. Cardboard tubes from inside kitchen rolls, old cardboard egg boxes, a shoe box can make a house/hide (cut the floor out of it and a hole in the front for a door - the lid can make a lift off roof for checking inside). Or you could make a shoebox into a platform or open hideout as well by turning it upside down and cutting a long side out so it's open at the front.

What cage do you have by the way? Always important!

Wow, thank you for this! Really helpful.

Yes, I am in the UK. I will certainly look at the fitch bedding, I've been abit unsure about using the woodshavings I have and I only have a small bag of carefresh, might see if I still have time to return the woodshavings and then get the fitch, and finish off the bag of carefresh, then just stick with the fitch.

I like the sound of making hideouts etc. I'll have to ask people to save any cardboard boxes and tubes.

I have this cage:
Hamster Cages: great selection at zooplus: Small Pet Cage Falco

Just to be 100% sure the hamster won't be able to escape I will be putting a fine mesh round the bars and going to make one big shelf that will be fitted at the lowest bar, that way plenty of digging space and then the shelf can be used for food, water, wheel etc.

[AmityvilleHams]

Originally Posted by Jasmine2016

Wow, thank you for this! Really helpful.

Yes, I am in the UK. I will certainly look at the fitch bedding, I've been abit unsure about using the woodshavings I have and I only have a small bag of carefresh, might see if I still have time to return the woodshavings and then get the fitch, and finish off the bag of carefresh, then just stick with the fitch.

I like the sound of making hideouts etc. I'll have to ask people to save any cardboard boxes and tubes.

I have this cage:
Hamster Cages: great selection at zooplus: Small Pet Cage Falco

Just to be 100% sure the hamster won't be able to escape I will be putting a fine mesh round the bars and going to make one big shelf that will be fitted at the lowest bar, that way plenty of digging space and then the shelf can be used for food, water, wheel etc.

The 80 is on the small side but the 100 seems great.Not sure which one you have though Otherwise it seems like a decent cage,especially if you have as much bedding as you can fit into the cage.

[Jasmine2016]

Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams

The 80 is on the small side but the 100 seems great.Not sure which one you have though Otherwise it seems like a decent cage,especially if you have as much bedding as you can fit into the cage.

I have the Falco 80 and it is huge. It was fine for two gerbils and from the research I have done the size is fine for two robos (I will only be getting one).
I hope I don't suddenly find my cage is too small!

[AmityvilleHams]

Originally Posted by Jasmine2016

I have the Falco 80 and it is huge. It was fine for two gerbils and from the research I have done the size is fine for two robos (I will only be getting one).
I hope I don't suddenly find my cage is too small!

Hopefully not,but you'll know if it is.Just watch out for chewing on any kind of sealant,trying to escape obsessively,bar chewing,etc.It should be fine for a travel cage anyways,but if you need a bigger cage it isn't too hard to find a decent cage online

[Lala Noma]

Originally Posted by Jasmine2016

I have the Falco 80 and it is huge. It was fine for two gerbils and from the research I have done the size is fine for two robos (I will only be getting one).
I hope I don't suddenly find my cage is too small!

Lol, I remember the same feeling when I started to talk with people in forums... To small? Are you INSANE? Now I believe that it depends on the hammy. And, of course, the number of toys that you want to put in the cage, hehe.
But I think that 80 is ok, my cage is 80x50 and my hamster only use half of it ( and that is because her wheel is far from her nest)
If I upgrade, it will be because I really want more space for all those beautiful houses, toys, treats, plants, etc that I want for my girl
Edit. Of course, the bigger, the better

[AmityvilleHams]

Originally Posted by Lala Noma

Lol, I remember the same feeling when I started to talk with people in forums... To small? Are you INSANE? Now I believe that it depends on the hammy. And, of course, the number of toys that you want to put in the cage, hehe.
But I think that 80 is ok, my cage is 80x50 and my hamster only use half of it ( and that is because her wheel is far from her nest)
If I upgrade, it will be because I really want more space for all those beautiful houses, toys, treats, plants, etc that I want for my girl
Edit. Of course, the bigger, the better

Bigger cages have a lot of benefits.I think it depends,since you can modify a guinea pig or rabbit cage very cheaply in the UK if you order it online and just mesh it all to prevent any escapes with the huge bar spacing.100 cm by 50 cm is a good in between size,since a lot of people are scared away by the square meter cages that Germany tend to have(excluding manufactured cages that are considerably smaller),and it's actually very cheap to get a 100 cm by 50 cm guinea pig or rabbit cage through Zooplus.

[Lala Noma]

Of course bigger cages are good, I am on your side in that, and I will upgrade my girl in the future. But Jasmine has a cage now, and it isn't a tiny little cage, but (I think) a acceptable one. I just don't want her to feel bad about her hammy.
(Please remember english is not my first language. I try to put things very politely and nice, and I don't want anybody feeling attacked, it is just my point of view )

[Pebbles82]

The Falco is a fantastic cage for hammies. It does need some thinking about setting up though. Do you mean having like a full level?

I thought about getting the 100cm one for our large Syrian and spent ages working out how I'd set it up lol. The 80cm one will be fine for a pair of Robos and it's good you have it! Did you have it for gerbils before? My only concern is the idea of a level, as usually it's recommended not to have levels or shelves with pairs as it can make them territorial and lead to fights, which can be fatal.

An alternative could be to fill the base with substrate to within an inch or so of the top of the glass part - and then treat the top part like a normal cage. Then they would have a cage with very deep substrate for tunneling. It would still be a bit of a drop (about 20cm to 25cm) from the top without shelves or levels so again setting up would need to be done carefully so they can't land on anything hard. But having it set up that way would also mean access would be easier through the large top door.

With all that deep substrate to land on it should be fine, so the main thing would be making sure they can't land on anything hard, so maybe light cardboard or grass houses and so on or plastic dishes for sand baths rather than ceramic ones. And they will each need their own house, wheel, food bowl and water bottle, so two of everything (again to avoid territorial behaviour and fighting).

It might even be easier to have them in separate cages and set up the Falco for one Robo with a full level.

I expect if you've had gerbils you'll be used to deep substrate and tunneling! Keeping a pair of Robos isn't quite the same as keeping gerbils in pairs though (sorry if you already know that). They can fall out and fights can be fatal, so setting it up so they can't get territorial is quite important.

So I reckon there are two options with it. Either treat it as a standard cage with very deep substrate and no levels, and have two of everything at floor level. Or put in a full level and use it for one Robo and keep the other Robo in a different cage.

Two of everything will take up extra floor space, but unless you have particularly big houses for them it should be absolutely fine.

Meshing the bars sounds like a good idea. I would have thought the bar spacing was ok as it is 8mm, which should be ok really, but meshing will be a good belt and braces solution, especially as there will be areas where the spacing is bigger than 8mm (round the door maybe and the edges).

Re substrates - you can mix them - you could still use the Carefresh and mix it in with Fitch or a few of your kiln-dried shavings. Some people mix 2 or 3 different substrates and it's supposed to help with holding tunnels.

If you went for the deep substrate, no levels option, you could use flat house roofs for food bowls maybe or scatter feed instead.

[cypher]

Jasmine2016 robos generally love to dig & burrow so yours will have plenty of opportunity to do that in there!
I highly recommend fitch too but find it holds tunnels better mixed with hemp, you might want too many big bags of substrate lying around to begin with so if you just go for one I'd get fitch.

Serendipity I'm pretty sure she's decided to go for just one robo.

[CMB]

Jasmine your cage sounds fine for a single robo. It can has deep substrate to dig and there is room for toys, hides, toilet etc. Robos can be nervous and hide a lot. Yours may like extra tubes in so it can go through them to and from different parts of the cage without being in the open all the time.