Firstly, I do hope this is in the right place, if not I'm more then happy to have it moved or I can delete it and move it myself, mods, just say the word and it shall be done!
Now Pixie and Tinkerbell have both passed on (I miss you both loads!), I have two single IKEA Billy cages (see ErinsHamster's guide video
here).
Now I'm only interested in homing Dwarf Hamsters, these cages aren't suitable for a Syrian, even if they were joined up.
So, my question here is what would you do in my situation, given the fact that a cremation with urn returned to me is costing between £80-£90 a time. (So that's been £80 for Pixie's and £94 for Tinkerbell's) in the past 4 months alone, I didn't have time to build back the vet fund prior to Pixie's passing so I've had to loan money for it. I have three options that I'm considering, I just need some help picking the right one.
Please bear in mind my vet fund gets £10 every month (at least, I get my money fortnightly so I make a point of a monthly deposit at the very least, I'll add another £10 each month IF I can afford to)
1) Get another two hamsters considering I have two cage set ups with enough food / treats / accessories to keep an army of hamsters.
2) Get one hamster and just keep one at a time for the rest of forever by making one long cage by joining the two current single IKEA hack cages.
3) Donate everything I have to a local animal charity to avoid this absolute faff.
Now, cremation costs. I do not have a garden. I live on a park to the back of my flat and a car park to the front, I don't really want to bury my furbabies in a park for obvious reasons. I'd like the hamsters home when they do pass away, at the moment I have Tinkerbell's casket in a glass cabinet where Pixie's will soon join her, however, my friend has pointed out that I will eventually run out of space and up to two new caskets every two years will soon mount up and become overwhelming and eventually more depressing then helpful. So the idea I had was to get a planter outside of my door and get them cremated and put their ashes into the plant pot so they are "home" but, also not going to build up a casket collection in my (one bedroom) flat.
So, with that I ask this question. What would you do?
1) Get one hamster so it's near enough half the cost
1a) Casket
1b) Plant pot idea
2) Cremate the hamster(s) but get a scatter tube instead of a casket and do the ashes in plant pot idea. I think it's estimated at £40-£60 each for a scatter tube)
3) Get them cremated but don't get the ashes (still around £10-£30 if I remember rightly)
NOTE: I will call the vets I use tomorrow (Thursday UK time) and see if I can get exact costs and edit this post with a little more accuracy.
I am sorry this is so long winded but I have literally got two people in my social circle who have both (that's the joys of a couple I guess) basically said "get one, cheaper on death and don't get ashes back on cremation, cheaper and less creepy" which I felt was SERIOUSLY unsympathetic and overly biased due to money, despite the fact I will be saving up a vet fund in a couple months (got to pay back the £100 I loaned before I can restart the vet fund), and I figured you guys would be able to offer more help due to some of you being in the same situation if not similar.
Thank you in advance.