New Hamster Wheel?

[AbiChan]

Hello all, I posted about my new hamster Paddington about two months ago? I have sorted out him a large glass tank now instead of his tiny pet-shop cage and he seems a lot more livelier and happier now, and a lot more social! I found myself however with more problems, one being his water bottle, second being his wheel.

I did find myself pushing my mother to convince her that his wheel was WAY too small, to the point where he couldn't run in it, it was just too small for him and I took it out because I couldn't bare watch him struggle like that, we ordered a new one off of Amazon two days ago and it arrived today! ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trixie-Exerc...+hamster+wheel I didn't realize how big it would be!) and being concerned about my hammy as I've ever been, I just wanted to make sure with people who are more knowledgeable with hamsters that this is an O.K wheel and is safe for him, he was a little bit unsure at first but for the past four hours or so that hes had it hes been running happily!

And I also got him a new bottle, apparently suction cupped, I looked at it when it arrived with his wheel and immediately thought "is this a science testing tube" and apparently it does work, and after a long raged battle trying to get it to stick high enough so he can't chew the bottom of it yet can still drink comfortably it is finally up! but if anyone could post any links or ideas of something they've done for water bottles in glass tanks I'd really appreciate it.

And basically thats it, but I'd really appreciate some good toy ideas of what to put in his tank and how to make it the best and I can do for my hamster to really just keep him entertained and happy as can be.

[kyrilliondaemon]

We have that exact wheel for all of our syrian hamsters Some have other wheels too but the 28cm trixie is the one we use the most.

We use heavy duty velcro to hold water bottles secure in tanks

[bbbarker]

For the water bottle you could try getting a toilet roll tube putting a hole through and slotting the water bottle in that way, hard to explain and I have tried to get a picture but can't seem to find one. I have seen loads of youtuber's using this with there glass tank cage

[kyrilliondaemon]

When we tried that the hams just chewed the bottle or piled substrate up under it, either way we ended up with bottles on the floor and water everywhere lol
Our more sturdy alternative was to get 500ml drinks bottles, cut the top off, pierce a hole for the bottle spout, fill the bottom with pebbles and put the water bottles in there but the heavy duty velcro is easier and works better for us now
Some people put bottles in the yellow cubes from P@H but that never worked too well for us.

[bbbarker]

Oh ok was worth a try, glad you found something that worked for both you and your hamster

[kyrilliondaemon]

Thanks, it might be it works for some but none of our hams let them last long at all. We were changing them three times a day and gave up pretty quickly lol

[Gatsby]

I've got sticky back Velcro on my bottles, you can also use 3 cable ties, one round the water bottle with another looped through it, the second one is pulled to make a small loop.
You then thread the third cable tie through the second make a loop about the size of a 50 pence piece.
Snip all the excess ends off.
You will be able to adjust height sliding the bottle up and down the first cable tie.
You use a sucker hook to hold it to the glass.
You need three ties to have the bottle in a nice position.
Its easy to remove.