house with removable lid?

[fluffychick]

can anyone recommend a good house for a syrian with a removable lid?

Teddy is currently in a Living World Hillside Home and he loves it but it doesn't have a removable lid-it is this one- Living World Hillside Home Burrowing/Sleeping Area > Hamsters > Small Animals > Main Section > UKPetSupplies

I would like to get a house for him with a removable lid, I feel bad if I have to move his house as it disturbs his bed. I can't check him or get him out of bed while he is in there without lifting the whole house off him then his bed falls apart and I don't want to make him feel vulnerable by just lifting his house off him while he is sleeping!

It has no base which I like as I can slide it while he is out and clean the floor where it gets a bit damp and messy, this doesn't disturb his bedding too much unless I lift it.

His bedding seems a bit damp though, not sure if it's condensation as the house is made of plastic or if he is peeing in it!

I would like to have a house that I can take the lid off while he is out playing and get some air into it, or to be able to check on him if necessary while he is sleeping.

Ideally a house with no base and a lift-off lid would be perfect.

Also the houses I have seen seem to have really small openings and I worry that he might get stuck one day when he is fully grown.

He is currently in a duna mini, I am upgrading his cage very soon to a duna Multy or zoozone so I will have more room to put a better house-if I can find one!

Any suggestions or recommendations?

[Lemming]

Sorry I cannot tell you where you can buy one, even over here in Germany it's really hard to find houses with no base an a removable lid that are affordable. Although over here it's recommended to use such houses. So most people build DIY houses. It's really easy and you don't need much tools.
Here is an instruction how to build a simple house of poplar plywood: Directupload.net - Dmyec4i5g.pdf
Unfortunately it is written in german, but I think the pics should help to understand it (and maybe google translate helps you to understand the text).
Here are some more examples of DIY houses: http://www.das-hamsterforum.de/index...ad&threadID=10

[Cunliffe]

This one from P@H has a removeable roof http://www.petsathome.com/shop/woodl...-cottage-31840, altho if your hamster likes to pee in its house then because its wooden im pretty sure it'll soak it up and start to smell after a while.

[Hope]

Im not sure that there is one on the market tbh. I use beds with no base, I am a meanie and lift off the whole house when I have to, but that is not very often, mostly they come out when they hear me scrabbling around.

The link to the german ones look good though, if you are ok with DIY.

I cant see your link Cunliffe

[$hAzZa]

Originally Posted by Cunliffe

This one from P@H has a removeable roof Woodlands Pickle's Cottage | Pets at Home, altho if your hamster likes to pee in its house then because its wooden im pretty sure it'll soak it up and start to smell after a while.

I have one similar to this, it's ideal
Heres mine Wooden House with Bridge Hamster Toy (6203): Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies
The ladder thing is removable

Heres another one from amazon, its a flat pack one with no baseflat pack wooden hamster house: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors
x

[KatiePillow]

I used to use a PG tips or other tea bag box, some of them come with flip up lids and I just cut off the base - once your hamster is tame you could go back to the current house.
I used to use one for my girlie, until she ate it..

[Lemming]

@Cunliffe: I think this house it a bit small for a fully grown syrian.

Over here we use only wooden houses (no plastic) and we have some tricks to avoid peed house walls. We usally build houses with at least two chambers, one for sleeping and the other one for the toilet. In the toilet chamber we put a corner toilet filled with chinchilla sand. Especially syrians are easy to toilet train and usally pee only in the chinchilla sand. Some hamsters tend to pee over the toilet edge, in this case we glue little mosaic tiles at the wall like you can see on this photo: http://i39.tinypic.com/ejy0cw.jpg

[fluffychick]

thank you everyone, great ideas, I am loving the homemade ones but I suspect mine wouldn't look like that once I have hacked at it with a saw

after looking at all the links and a bit of further searching these are the favourites so far. 'm not sure if the last one has a removable lid though but I have found it in some bigger sizes. The first one, the corner house seems to show the lid removed so I assume the second house does too as it's by the same manufacturer

HAMSTER MOUSE GERBIL CORNER WOODEN SMALL ANIMAL HOUSE | eBay UK 18cmx18cmx12cm

HAMSTER MOUSE GERBIL SMALL ANIMAL WOODEN HOUSE | eBay UK 18.5cmx13.5cmx12.5cm

Sharples & Grant Sml Ecco Wooden Hamster Cage House | eBay UK 18.5cmx14.5cmx10.5cm

this last one is available in other sizes here sharples n grant karlie houses, toys and beds the 2 bigger sizes are 26 x 19.5 x 15 cm and 29 x 23.5 x 18 cm

I wish they would put the size of the door opening on the descriptions.

Any preference out of these? Do they look big enough or do I need one of the bigger sizes?

[fluffychick]

Just seen the tiling in the photo you posted Lemming. wow, I love it!

[Lemming]

Don't you have the possibility to go to the hardware store and let them saw the wood? Over here every hardware store cuts the wood to the size you need for free. So you don't need a saw.