From the bit of photo that shows it does look a bit on the small side - maybe 50cm wide?
We have a big syrian too and he needed such a big wheel I upgraded him from his 80cm Savic cage to a 100cm Barney cage, which is a great size for him. But an 80cm x 50cm cage is also a good size (mine was quite low, hence the wheel not fitting well).
The recommended minimum size is about 80cm x 50cm for a Syrian with welfare groups (used to be that with the RSPCA). The German recommended minimum is 100cm by 50cm. The idea being that they need a lot of floor space and depth of substrate rather than height as they are diggers and burrowers and they can roam and have lots of hidey places with more floor space.
The Alaska cage is a good size for a Syrian - it's 84cm wide and a good height for a Syrian sized wheel. It's also one of the cheapest cages you can buy, but only available on line. It's about £33. It comes with a shelf but the white house with holes in could do with taking out, as the entrance holes are too small for a syrian - especially a large syrian - they can get wedged in holes that aren't big enough. The house just lifts off though and the shelf is fine without it.
Alaska Hamster Cage | Free P&P on orders £29+ at zooplus!
If you have space for a 100cm cage (which would fit on top of a chest of drawers - doesn't matter if there's a bit of overhang) - then the Barney is a great cage and also not hugely expensive - less than £50. it comes with a shelf and ladder and a good sized house for nest building.
Barney Pet Cage | Great deals at zooplus!
I also started out with something too small (a 3 tier rotostak thing). It had lots of tubes and within 3 weeks our syrian grew huge and started getting stuck in the tubes, which was awful! I did some googling and found the recommended cage size and bought an 80 x 50 cage.
The Alexander cage is lovely - it's about the same size as the Barney but a bit taller and has almost another full level, so more places to run around in.
It comes with a lovely big long house at one end of the base, good for nesting, plus two smaller houses (although one of those has a tiny round window and Bec's Neptune got wedged in that, so I'd be tempted to take that one out, or block off the window with a piece of wood stuck on or something).
Great deals on small pet cages at zooplus: Alexander Small Pet Cage
We're lucky having Zooplus selling hamster cages as they are good cages and not as expensive as some for sale in the Uk on Amazon and in pet shops. They also sell the Hamster Heaven, which is the same size as my old cage - but I wouldn't recommend that for a large syrian as it's quite low and difficult fitting a large syrian wheel in.
They need a wheel that's about 11" or 12" diameter so they can run with a straight back. Our hammy was a bit too big for the 11" wodent wheel so he has a 12" one.
Basically, when you have the floorspace you can give them lots of enrichment. Enrichment seems to be the key word these days - so it means they can have enough substrate to dig in, and pile up where they want it, a house big enough to build a good sized nest in, that's nice and dark inside, enough floorspace to do hamstery things and run around, after toys, houses and wheels are added, hidey places and a shelf to sit under and on, is good too.
You can also make different levels by tying things to the roof.
Although the Alaska is the cheapest of the Zooplus cages, the Barney is good value because it already comes with a house and a good shelf and ladder. You just need a wheel and a few toys like cardboard boxes and tubes, some things to chew and other toys. Toys don't have to be expensive as you can make some and a lot of the ones sold are badly made or too small for syrians. I like the rat sputniks and rat sized tubes. Rat sized things generally are a good size for a Syrian. The sputnik makes a large plastic hammock type thing.
You can also make a bin cage out of a large plastic bin with a lid, by cutting out the front and top and meshing them - but if you need to buy tools and bits and pieces it could work out as cheap just to get an Alaska cage
Also I think it would be difficult to buy a bin big enough for a large syrian without it costing as much as a cage.
Hope this helps! Have a look at the "Let's see your cages thread" for some ideas
Let's See Your Cages (May 2016)
I also love this video on toys to make from toilet roll tubes (from Erin's Hamsters)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuPeyD6w-CI
Substrate doesn't work out more expensive with a larger cage either, if you use Erin's cleaning method. I adopted that as it worked well for our Syrian who got very stressed by cage cleans. Most hammies find cage cleaning stressful as it removes all of their scent and they scent mark to find their way around as they don't see well. With the method Erin uses, you just spot clean mainly, and clean the toys at a different time to the substrate, so something always smells familiar to the hamster. Also by having the substrate deeper, you just need to replace the top third and can re-use the bottom 2/3 and mix it all in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jVnEjrXbww
It seems such a simple thing to do "partial" cleans, rather than one big clean everything type thing, but I wouldn't have thought of it without Erin's video - and it works really well for me and our hamster
Is my cage big enough?!
Re: Is my cage big enough?!
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