Let's See Your Cages (May 2016)

[Pebbles82]

Sorry also to put a damper on things - but tall cages are very risky for hamsters with fall risks. They shouldn't fall more than 30cm and then need a soft landing, or they can be seriously injured. So tall rat cages need setting up very carefully - with full levels ideally and no gaps between the shelves. At the moment your hammy could climb to the top, monkey bar across the roof and fall the full height to the bottom and maybe bounce off a shelf on the way down. They like climbing but aren't good at getting down again and don't see well, so they tend to just drop. Some people say - my hamster doesn't do that - but none of us see what they get up to in the middle of the night!

As Amityville says - they need more floor area and less height. They like to dig and forage so a large floor area and lower height to avoid fall risks is safer and allows them to have more natural behaviours.

Having said that, if you could put some full levels in the rat cage it would still give a fair amount of enrichment, and free up some of the floor area by having the wheel on one of the levels.

Could you get someone who is good at diy to cut some wood levels to fit - you need a gap down one side for an access ladder, and then something over the gap - eg another shelf, or the next level. It's very risky at the moment.

Petco are doing a dollar per gallon sale at the moment - I think it ends tomorrow! So you could get a 40 gallon breeder tank for $40, and that's a very popular choice for hamsters in the US - it has the floor area without the height, and also the ability to put very deep bedding in for tunnel digging (hamsters like to dig and burrow so the deeper the substrate the better!)

[AmityvilleHams]

Another option would be making a combination bin cage!Instead of doing just one bin,you could use several different bins to make one massive cage.An example of this is a 90 qt sterilite bin(roughly 590 square inches)with a Christmas tree bin(a bit over 1000 square inches)and then cut at least part of the wall from each bin and zip tie them together that way.Making something like that means you can have an extremely cheap cage that is far larger than any tank at that price,and you'd save a lot of money compared to a 40 breeder with a lid(this might cost up to $80 even with the sale going on,as lids cost about the same as the tank in my experience)and you'd get more than twice the floor space

[Hamsterita]

Here's Blacky's old cage




At some point he had a sputnik, a seesaw and a tube system there, but I removed the sputnik and the seesaw because everything was to crowded, and the tube system because it was a pain to clean and assemble.

I learnt that It was too small (50 x 30) so I looked for another one.

This is his new cage and set up



I struggled to set it up, because yes, it was bigger, but I had too many things and they didn't fit, so I had to put aside the seesaw, a big bendy bridge and some kind of ¿rattle? that you can see in one of the pictures below. Anyway, he wasn't using them. So this is the final set up.









Tbh I don't know if he likes it, because he only uses half the cage. I don't know If he was happier on the small one. On the small one I could see him use the whole cage, but with this one he usually stays on the left side and he only goes to the right side to eat, drink and sometimes to bath. But in the bigger cage he doesn't care about the bridges, caves, or tunnels. I've never seen him clim to the top of his house and so on.

I'm thinking about adding a second floor on each side made with ikea knuffs, but I'm not sure about that, because as I said before, I don't know if he thinks that this is too much. Maybe that way He would feel more confy and cozy without so many open spaces, or maybe it would do things even worse because he would feel too overwhelmed. So i'm very lost.

[cypher]

I think you've done well with the set up, smaller tanks aren't the easiest thing to set up well but that looks fine to me.
I can see that he would mostly use the left side & just go to the right side to eat, drink or use the sand bath as most of the fun stuff is on the other side, I don't see a problem with that though.
How long has he been in the new cage? It can take them up to a couple of weeks to get really comfortable in a new cage & set up so give it time.
Is that slate under the water bottle? If it is keep a close eye on it as it can chip or splinter quite easily & be very sharp, also keep a check on whether he tries to burrow under there as that could possibly be a bit risky too.

[Hamsterita]

Originally Posted by cypher

I think you've done well with the set up, smaller tanks aren't the easiest thing to set up well but that looks fine to me.
I can see that he would mostly use the left side & just go to the right side to eat, drink or use the sand bath as most of the fun stuff is on the other side, I don't see a problem with that though.
How long has he been in the new cage? It can take them up to a couple of weeks to get really comfortable in a new cage & set up so give it time.
Is that slate under the water bottle? If it is keep a close eye on it as it can chip or splinter quite easily & be very sharp, also keep a check on whether he tries to burrow under there as that could possibly be a bit risky too.

Yeah, the wheel is on the left side, but on the small cage he used to like to burrrow, and for some reason in this one apparently he only did it twice, and he did it on the left side, turning the wheel upside down and the potty, instead of using the right side where there's plenty of room to do it, and more substrate. And on the old cage he used to use his sand bath A LOT, and now he usually uses the potty as sand bath area (dirty little ball of fur ) and not much the real sand bath area. And he doesn't use the hay tunnel either. I don't know, I told that because he used to do a lot of things that now he doesn't, and I thought that he enjoyed them

He's been staying there for two weeks (maybe a little bit more, maybe less, I can't recall the exact day). Maybe you're right and he needs more time.

Yeah, it's slate, thank you for the advice. I bought it on a pet shop, they were selling them for terrariums. As you said, it had sharp edges, but I used a industrial file to file them, and now they are flat and smooth. Then I cleaned it with water and baked it. Anyway, I will check often its condition

[CMB]

It does look good. You could occasionally swap the grass tunnel for the seesaw or a large cardboard tube.

You could have a diy removable platform or two and see if they are used. Hope your hamster settles in well.

Questions for everyone. Do you have a sand bath and potty? And do your hamsters use both or just one? I asked because if they just use one. Then the other could be removed make room for something else.

[Hamsterita]

Originally Posted by CMB

It does look good. You could occasionally swap the grass tunnel for the seesaw or a large cardboard tube.

You could have a diy removable platform or two and see if they are used. Hope your hamster settles in well.

Questions for everyone. Do you have a sand bath and potty? And do your hamsters use both or just one? I asked because if they just use one. Then the other could be removed make room for something else.

I was thinking about the platform, but I'm going to let him settle for a while and I would think about it as a christmas present.

That's a good question. Mine used both. The potty to pee and the sand bath to dig and bathe. He never peed on the sand bath and I know that he used it because I could find sand all over the place near the sand bath area. now I've seen him use the potty as a sand bath a couple of times but I want to think that's a phase and that he really doesn't like to clean himself in urine

[Hamtaro8888]

https://s4.postimg.org/dq24naf25/WP_..._53_59_Pro.jpg
Temporary set up for my girls I have a divider In the middle and they seem to love their new home!

[cypher]

If it's a temporary set up I guess you'll be adding more things for them later?
All hams need a good wheel & it needs to be big enough for them to run with a straight back so anything from about 8-10" for a syrian & 6-8" for a robo.
They also need a good depth of substrate, a few inches at least, something they can burrow, dig & nest in.

[Hamtaro8888]

Yep i ordered everything from amazon and both hamsters have balls to run in and they love it.