hamster heaven cage set up ideas!

[Shannonmcn]

This was mine for Cc the syrian, ages ago



Poe the dwarf is in it now

[candice clews]

Originally Posted by Shannonmcn

This was mine for Cc the syrian, ages ago



Poe the dwarf is in it now

Great set ups thank you for the ideas! Looks great

[candice clews]

Originally Posted by M3gan

viovet, zooplus, are great websites. My hamster loves bendy bridges sand and his wheel.

Thank you!

[candice clews]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

My cage is almost identical to the Hamster Heaven - it's basically the same cage but with smaller bar spacing and without the contents, tubes and penthouse. The measurements are identical and it has the same big front door. So I started out with a blank cage basically. I did have one of the Hamster Heaven platforms in at one point (the one with the pod house) but took it out and set it up from scratch.

This was the first set up



I had his Karlie Wonderland wheel back left with the substrate sloping up away from it towards the front of the cage where it's deeper. Before I had the vine branch front left the floorspace was open here and Charlie liked to leap out of his wheel while it was spinning and lie on that bit of substrate. But he didn't like the bare open corner and was much happier when I put the vine branch in there. It also provides access to the far side of his rat sputnik. The house is a guinea pig house which doubled up as a shelf and the bendy bridge was over the door to a) provide a ramp up to the top of the house and b) cover the door to the house which was really large with it being a guinea pig house. But it also made the house much darker inside and he went straight in there and built a nest.

The cardboard tube is the medium 10cm boredom breaker tube. I put it there because Charlie kept jumping out of that side of the sputnik and it was a bit close to the bendy bridge. He loved that as it was a roof run between his house roof and the sputnik. He likes the big sputnik now I've lined it with a cut out circle of hemp mat to make it cosier.

Back right, the purple thing is a small lava ledge - he likes sitting under there and it also is something to climb on from the far side of his small sputnik.

I like the big sputnik where it is near the front because the front hole is near the big front door, just offset to the left of it a bit, and he likes to climb out of the cage from there, and be put back in near it so he can climb into it.

Here's Charlie sitting in the big sputnik (waiting to come out!)



This is his current set up. It's virtually the same, but the house is slightly bigger and the bendy bridge is smaller. The house has a lift off roof which I really like as it easy to check on him, his nest and his hoard, while leaving the rest of the house part buried in substrate. His wheel has changed to, to the Wobust wheel, which is huge and a bit too big for the cage really, but his Wonderland wheel broke and it took so long for another one to get here (I had two faulty ones sent) that I got the Wobust wheel quickly and he liked it so much I left it in. Charlie is a particularly large Syrian so you'd do better with a 27cm wodent wheel or Karlie wheel, but the wodent wheels fit very well in these cages as you can hang them from the top bars. With the 27cm one you'd still have a fair bit of space under it for substrate so wouldn't lose as much floor space as you would with the Karlie one.



He moved his wee corner into the big house, so it also has his potty inside, which works well as the rest of the cage stays clean.

So I'd recommend a large-ish house with a flat roof that lifts off, and doubles up as a shelf/platform, plus a wodent wheel and a rat sized sputnik.

Rodipet do some really great houses for hamsters, with lift off roofs. It's fairly easy to order from them - they take paypal - you just need google translate to translate the ordering page.

I think the third one down on this page is good (3 compartments)

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/rodipet-granit/

This one is also good - it's about the same size as the first guinea pig house I had

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...-duoporta.html

They also do very good labyrinth houses, but they would take up a huge amount of room in my cage/the hamster heaven, so I got the Ferplast Sin Rabbit house instead, which is completely open inside and smaller than the labyrinth houses.

They now have a slightly smaller labyrinth house though which is a similar size to my house - lots of compartments for hoards, a nest and a potty.

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...x28cm-6cm.html

The Trixie Leif Labyrinth house is popular too, and is ok unless you have a large Syrian. For a Syrian it's probably best to knock out the centre divider so it's not so cramped.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trixie-6201-...abyrinth+house

The advantages of the labyrinth houses are they are already dark inside so you don't need a tunnel over the door. Plus hamsters really like them

I have also had one of these in the cage at various times - Charlie didn't use it much as a hide, but he did use it as a step up to the far end of his house and out of the far side of his sputnik and he liked sitting on top and nibbling the roof.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosewood-Nat...ottage+hamster

Thankyou! Some great information. i love your set ups. I will be sure too check out the links and see what i can find i was going to put in an order for viovet but the postage is expensive if you dont spend £29 for free delivery at the moment my cookie has:
A hamster sized sputnik,
a chew toy,
a coloured bendy bridge,
a metal ladder,
a lion bed (she doesn't use),
Hamster puzzle playground pieces,
a wooden climbing toy,
a wheel
a coconut bed and
some carboard tubes,
she also has the penthouse and tubes connected to the cage.

My snowy has:
a cardboard frame,
a wooden cube,
a cheese house,
a seesaw
a wooden gnaw toy,
a wooden climbing toy,
a coloured bendy bridge,
a wooden block,
a wheel,
some puzzle playground pieces and
some carboard tubes
she doesn't have the tubes or penthouse on hers!

Sounds like a lot but they dont use the beds, cookie uses her penthouse and snowy uses the beds on the shelves. There not really hamsters who bother with chewing on wood they prefer activity instead.

The cages look bare and snowy tends too chew bars at night so something too stop that would be good!

They have a playpen too play in when they wake up , but they climb straight out of it! they like there exercise balls too. There not really hamsters who love being on hands either.

[Pebbles82]

I don't know what kind of house they have for nesting but I know Charlie loves his big house that is nice and dark inside. He used to seem nervous in the cage before that. I don't know about other syrians, but ours isn't that interested in toys at all really - unless they have food on them! Just his house, nest, wheel and food. I put a bit of food on the lava ledge each night as well as his food bowl, and his veg in the hamster sized sputnik so that gets him using things . I found that access is important to various things. eg he didn't really use the large sputnik until there was a tube that led to it, and he has a kind of roof run now.

Amazoon sell the boredom breaker tubes and the Leif house. You could make a house from a shoebox maybe, with a door cut in. I think anything that makes them feel more settled in their environment will help stop bar chewing.

What wheels do you have for them?

[candice clews]

Hi, thanks for your reply snowy sleeps in the plastic beds which clip onto the shelves in the hamster heaven cage and cookie sleeps in the penthouse - bit of a pain but she likes it! snowy has a savic rolly wheel, which came with the hamster heaven cage from pets at home:

This is it -

Screenshot_2016-01-23-19-01-22.jpg

Cookie has the exact same sized wheel however it is the pets at home version.

This is it -

Screenshot_2016-01-23-19-01-04.jpg
Screenshot_2016-01-23-19-01-09.jpg

[candice clews]

Not sure if those pictures are clear however the dimensions are "19x19x9cm"

[Pebbles82]

Aw - Charlie adored those little plastic pods on the HH shelf - trouble for him was he was too big for it and the top kept popping off lol.

I'd suggest a bigger wheel might make a difference. Either the 27cm wodent wheel or 28cm Trixie wheel (of 29cm Karlie wheel). I know it means a bit of a rearrange to fit them in. If the wheel isn't right it could be one reason for bar chewing as it might be causing discomfort. 19cm isn't that small but if you think the 29cm Karlie is a whole 10cm (4 inches) bigger diameter, I'm sure it would be more comfortable to run in.

So if you get anything new, I'd try a new wheel each first. Which shelf does snow use for her bed? Whichever it is, I'd suggest taking the other shelf out and having a bigger wheel. So if you take the left shelf out (leaving the one with the slide), you could have a larger wheel and rat sputnik on the left (similar to the way mine are). The rat sputnik hangs so low, when the substrate is deep, that Charlie can climb into it straight off the substrate.

[candice clews]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Aw - Charlie adored those little plastic pods on the HH shelf - trouble for him was he was too big for it and the top kept popping off lol.

I'd suggest a bigger wheel might make a difference. Either the 27cm wodent wheel or 28cm Trixie wheel (of 29cm Karlie wheel). I know it means a bit of a rearrange to fit them in. If the wheel isn't right it could be one reason for bar chewing as it might be causing discomfort. 19cm isn't that small but if you think the 29cm Karlie is a whole 10cm (4 inches) bigger diameter, I'm sure it would be more comfortable to run in.

So if you get anything new, I'd try a new wheel each first. Which shelf does snow use for her bed? Whichever it is, I'd suggest taking the other shelf out and having a bigger wheel. So if you take the left shelf out (leaving the one with the slide), you could have a larger wheel and rat sputnik on the left (similar to the way mine are). The rat sputnik hangs so low, when the substrate is deep, that Charlie can climb into it straight off the substrate.

Thankyou! She tends too sleep in both beds lol! but at the moment she is sleeping in the bed on the pink shelf. I will think about buying a new wheel then! I will think about buying some things then and altering her cage soon

[Pebbles82]

I think that would be a good change. When you take the other shelf out, you could keep the little plastic house and put it on the substrate. I kept Charlie's little house and it's in his pet carrier now, and I sometimes put it in his playpen. He still likes to curl up in it. Basically then you'd be swapping the green shelf for a larger wheel, with the sputnik in front near the front of the cage and the little plastic house on the floor underneath. It might make the cage more interesting, and most hams go potty for a new larger wheel. You could do the same with both cages.

If you got two 28cm Trixie wheels and two rat sputniks from Zooplus, it would come to £30.95 including postage (I just checked! )