Vivariums

[Jinx]

I have been offered, for free, a 4ft vivarium by a friend who has 4 bearded dragons, and has just moved two of his girls into the same tank as one was getting lonely and depressed. It's in good nick and he bought it second hand anyway, either I get it or it's for the tip as he doesn't intend to expand his dragon collection!

In my mind, it would be perfect with some modifications (shelves, possibly some extra ventilation but I've only seen a picture of it so I don't know how good the vents are already), hanging things etc.

It would be right faff to fit it into my little flat, and the only way I can think of doing it would be to get rid of a bookcase so I could fit another cheap Ikea unit in the space to put the viv on top of, and redistributing the bookcase's contents around.

Freyja is a bar chewer and has worn away the paint in one corner from chewing so long. I put cardboard there as a temp solution but it didn't stop her, and I reckon it can't be too healthy for her to spend hours chewing metal bars. I was vaguely thinking of putting her in a tank or viv and now my mate says he's getting rid of his.

Has anyone here had any experience with keeping a syrian in a vivarium, and what is your opinion of them as cages? I can imaging they'd be pretty easy to keep clean (take everything out and scoop up substrate with a dustpan?). Do your hamsters like them and have you had any major issues?

On a side note, my mum may be adopting my cousin's poor neglected hamster in the next couple weeks and she would make good use of my current cage setup as we know the ham is currently in the tiniest space possible (the only consolation is that it isn't rotastak!). He fed it a sausage roll the other day (then posted it on facebook!) and a few months ago decided to leave it outside for a night. My mum offered to take the poor critter off his hands!

[hannahbubble]

I don't have any experience with tanks, but I would have loved one for my chinese dwarf! I agree that they would be easy to clean, but I imagine if it was heavy it might take two people!

That is awful about your cousin's hamster!! A sausage roll! How old is your cousin?

[KatiePillow]

samincittagazze keeps her hamsters in vivariums, Let's See Your Cages
She isn't on here that much at the moment, but she finds them fine, and I'm sure she'd reply to a PM about them.

Sounds like a really good idea to me though

Glad your mum will give the hamster a home, poor thing =/

[kyrilliondaemon]

I don't use them (would hate cleaning one) but it sounds like a great idea to me if you're ok with cleaning it.
I know most seem to love them

And I hope your Mum does adopt the poor ham, it needs a better home.

If I were you I'd go for it - but I think nothing of rearranging the entire flat for the sake of a hamster getting a better cage lol

[Jinx]

In my mind, I'd turn the place upside down if it meant my pet's homes were better, but my OH thinks I spoil her enough already and gets the grumps when I suggest rearranging (it doesn't help that the 'hamster's room' is also his computer/gaming space!).

She has alot of space as it is, but she's very active and I can see her loving the extra room.

With regard's to my cousin's hamster, some digging around and matching product pictures to his facebook photos has discovered that his ham is kept in a Ferplast Paula (recognised the tubes!) and therefore has 46x29.5cm according to their website. He's 18 or 19 I think and lives far enough away that I barely see him - for that I'm glad! I told him off on his status about the sausage roll, and was mentally trying to figure out how I'd fit in another hamster when my mum posted on there that she'd take him - she's not a fan of most rodents but DOES like hamsters (no tails!). My uncle is due to come and visit in a week or so and she's said she'll have a word about him bringing the hamster with him - my cousin admitted that he thought the ham was cute at first but now it annoys him. We also don't know if this ham is male or female, what colour it is, how old (probably only a few months) or even if it has a name!

[kyrilliondaemon]

lol yeah, we're the same
Fortunately my partner is happy to help rearrange the flat and such since the hams are shared pets. Hes even been the one to make the final call on some things to make them happy

And ah, makes sense. If she chews as much as she does something needs to stop her though. Scamp has such a better life now we've got her to stop
(Put her in a bar free setup for about a fortnight, and made sure she has other things to occupy her from the minute she went into it, right through to now and its working well so far for us.)

And ah... Poor ham... The paula is tiny
Good for you telling him off about the sausage roll though, and good for your Mum for taking the ham off his hands. Poor ham...

[samincittagazze]

Heya - like Katie says, I keep my hammies in Vivs, including my Syrian I like them a lot: have never had a problem with ventilation, easy to clean out and mine are stackable, which is the only way I'd fit them all in! I guess the only downside is the shape is a bit awkward, being long and not all that wide: Albi has a lot of large toys and there is only a certain amount of ways they will all fit in. But yes, I fully recommend.

[Lougarry]

I keep Dinah in a viv too and it works great for her. She loves to dig so I have very deep substrate and work on the German philosophy of regular spot cleaning and have only once in 4 months emptied completely. If you decide to go with it, at some stage a handheld vacuum cleaner would be a worthwhile investment, to help reach into corners once you have scooped most stuff out.

[Lougarry]

PS My avatar shows Dinah happily burrowing in the sand section. I've removed the sand for the winter, but she loved sleeping in a cool sand burrow when it was hot.

[Blueberry]

Hi,
i had some problems with the mites with my Hammy and started thinking to buy a vivarium. How you ventilate the vivarium? Are you keeping the lid? Thanks for help