Hamster enclosure in the bath

[Hamsterhoney96]

Hi
Does anyone else keep their hamster in the bath? We have a nice big shower and barely ever use our bath so our little dwarf hamster now stays in there and he absolutely loves it it's so spacious for him and the sides are too slippy for him to escape.
I have attached a picture of the set up.

[JI54]

Pretty unique! I've been thinking about trying a similar set up in my 950 sq inch aquarium where one half is a big ol burrow box and the other half is a play area. However, I like to keep mine in my computer room so I can just glance over and watch my hamster from my chair.

[LunaTheHamster1]

Am I understanding this correctly, is your hamster permanently living in that setup? Or is it just playtime?

[Hamsterhoney96]

@LunaTheHamster1 he lives in there permanently so he always has the option to go in the playpen section if he wants. Before we were just putting his cage in there sometimes for playtime but figured we never used the bath so we'd just keep him in there.
Its working really well for him. He has nice deep bedding in the cage section and his bed and food then he uses the little ladder/bridge to get over to the playpen bit when he wants - usually at night time.

It works really well for mine so would recommend! He always has the option of borrowing and being cosy in all the deep bedding the cage part or going over to the playpen part for a run around.

@LunaTheHamster1 also Tony my hamster is very tiny I have attached a photo of him. Do you think this is enough room for him now? I know the cage was not really big enough for him before I got this setup.

[cypher]

That does look like a good set up for some play time but I'm also a bit confused as to if you mean that is his permanent set up? A bathroom is really not a suitable place for a hamster to live, tbh I even have my doubts about using the bathroom for play time.
Your ham needs a proper cage with deep substrate, more than you can get in that cage base, a larger wheel, more enrichment & a proper house or two to sleep in.

[Ria P]

How do you know that he absolutely loves living in a bath tub? I've put my dwarf in the bath tub once for play time but he hated it so i quickly took him out again. I think the relatively bright light in the bathroom bothered him as well. Bathrooms are too damp for a hamster and the slippery, sloped sides could feel scary to him, aside from the fact the he only has a small base as a home.
You could take the base out, fill up the whole bath with substrate up to about 6inches or more and add a proper house, lots of hides and tunnels so he can burrow, a wheel on a base like a flat roofed house etc if you really can't give him a proper cage.

[Hamsterhoney96]

He does have a proper house - the tunnel in the cage bit on the right goes up to a coconut which has cosy bedding in it. He also has a fleece house under the substrate which he gets to via an underground tunnel.
Also it's not damp or cold in the slightest in our bathroom or I certainly wouldn't keep him in there.
I only turned the light on for the picture the lighting isn't usually so harsh it is just lit by natural light in the day and dark at night.
I put lots of substrate in the right hand side it's very deep about 3 times the height of him - he is a tiny roborovski hamster.
Lastly the reason why I know he loves it is because he seems alot more relaxed than he did before he lived there and I see him running around the playpen at night using all the toys, playing on his wheel and burrowing deep in his substrate.

[Hamsterhoney96]

Attached is a picture of his coconut house

[LunaTheHamster1]

Is your shower in the same room as the bath? I think this would be ok as a temporary/ emergency situation, but I think long term a hamster deserves to live in a habitat more suited to their needs. They may be small, but they love to burrow and that base is not very deep. He probably does seem more relaxed than before as that blue cage is too small for any hamster, I know that because I adopted one of my hamsters that was living in that cage. So, yes you are probably right he is happier because he has more space, but that doesn't mean he does 't deserve to have a space that big that is more suitable for a hamster with proper substrate etc. I am sorry if I upset you but I felt this needed saying. I really hope you rethink this.

[sushi_78]

Have you thought about getting a Duna Multy or Maxi Duna Multy cage? It's a similar style cage to the one you have in the bath, but bigger. I think you could fit everything you have now in a Duna Multy and he'd still have plenty of space.