Cages I have

BluerayDarkes · 03-01-2015, 12:38 PM

First cage is the one I have Cindy.

Orginally there was two hamsters to live in it, after Sandy got sick she was put in to a smaller, temperary cage in order to recover and get better. Sadly she passed away. Cindy has this entire space to herself, two platforms and a deep plastic bottom. I do happen to love Ferplast duna cages.

This is Lunar's second cage as I accidently broke his first one taking the tubes out, snapped off some plastic tabs and lost them. Bf was adamant he could fix it yet doing so would have cracked the plastic, I had wanted to get Lunar a Ferplast duna mini. I rather like this cage above we did end up getting him. It has a lot of room at the bottom and an entire top level for him to run around on, the house for sleeping is also up there which he has taken to sleeping in. Which is good as he used to just make a nest in a corner. The pink circles come off for access to that level and there is a side door on the cage.

They both need more toys but money is tight right now, we get them what we can when we can. Lunar is currently loving his new cage.

kittokitty · 03-01-2015, 05:43 PM

Unfortunately, both of those are too small. They need a cage of at least 80x50cm - I know some people say that dwarves need less, but that's completely wrong. I think that they make a larger version of the duna fun, but I have no idea how big it is. A duna multy or duna maxi would be your best bet.

BluerayDarkes · 03-02-2015, 01:09 AM

We don't have any money right now, both hamsters are happy with no signs of stress.

Thin Lizzy · 03-02-2015, 02:40 AM

I know there's the recommended cage size but, believe it or not some hammies can be fine in a smaller cage, if they get plenty out of the cage time then this situation will do until you have money to upgrade.
All if us have had our hammies in a smaller cage at some point.

BluerayDarkes · 03-02-2015, 06:47 AM

They get handled every day whenever they are up and in the evening, hamster ball time in the evenings and even the playpen gets set up sometimes during the afternoons, they tend to climb the bars to get out of it.

kittokitty · 03-02-2015, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thin Lizzy

I know there's the recommended cage size but, believe it or not some hammies can be fine in a smaller cage, if they get plenty out of the cage time then this situation will do until you have money to upgrade.
All if us have had our hammies in a smaller cage at some point.

I only agree with that for old hamsters or hamsters that have a need for limited exercise - well, and that we have all had hamsters in smaller cages. However, that was a mistake, corrected by people on forums and stuff :P While the odd few hamsters can live happily in a mini duna or something of the likes, they're usually happier in a bigger cage.

If you want to upgrade then you only need about £20 for a bin cage with a lid, or you could just get the biggest SAMLA bin from IKEA and leave the lid off for £13

You could probably attach the other cages to it.

Handling, ball time and playpen time unfortunately doesn't make a smaller cage okay.

Hamsters don't really show many signs of stress, although even if your hamster is fine with the amount of space they have, they would be much happier with a bigger cage

BluerayDarkes · 03-02-2015, 05:35 PM

Well since my boyfriend has lots of wood laying around I've decided I'm going to ambitious and build diy cages, mesh doors gonna be the hardest to do. He wants to throw the wood out, and im lije b ut we can use it. It will need to be painted. What's a safe non toxic paint use?

EmilyS_79 · 03-02-2015, 08:31 PM

Plastic one and some acrylics. Maybe even tempura paint but don't quote me on that...

EmilyS_79 · 03-02-2015, 08:32 PM

Plastikote** my bad

Pebbles82 · 03-04-2015, 09:03 AM

The second cage is the Imac Fantasy I think - about 60cm by 40cm, so although it's a bit on the small side, it's not as bad as some small cages. The Ferplast Duna I can't tell if it's the standard version or the larger one, but the standard version is too small to keep a hamster in. But as Thin Lizzy says, if they're used to their cages and have a lot of out of cage time, they will be fine until you can sort something else. Your project sounds interesting! It is very annoying when we are sold these cages and then find they're not really suitable! The same thing happened to me - I bought a Rotostak set up and thought it was great, but it ended up being a waste of money. Your Ferplast duna would be good to keep as a travel cage maybe, or a spare cage when doing cage cleaning.

How about a detolf? Could you scrape together £40 odd for that and use your wood to make a lid? You could put a divider in and they could have half each - some people have done this I think. And it would look great too! As for toys - toilet rolls and kitchen rolls make good toys and there's a great video on making toys out of toilet rolls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuPeyD6w-CI