Rearranging Alfie's Cage

[AlfredHam]

I need to rearrange Alfie's cage badly, it's just not working for us. He is in desperate need of a new house as he's made peeing on his hoard a habit and despite the cardboard prevention he kicks his sand all down the back of the cabinet his cage sits on which is difficult to move and clean behind. I want to get him a bigger house that can fit a potty in and move it all around a bit but I can't work out where I would put everything! I'm thinking of getting a smaller shelf to go along the back of the cage and getting rid of the plastic one too as its so bulky but I'm a bit stuck, help!
This is his current lay out

[spacebyte]

In Lunas alaska We have the wheel (29cm size) in the same place but as close to the door as possible if that makes sense? and the back corner on the same side is where her sandpit is- there's no substrate underneath it (She didnt like a box, though you can probably put a box in the corner) so she can't kick it out.

We also have a litter box underneath her shelf in the corner furthest away from the door- which is pretty much the only area under the shelf where her nest isn't. At first she peed right next to the entrance of her nest, but she's managing the box now (Although she doesn't seem to want to nest in a hut or anything- a nest box might make fitting a litter box in awkward). It's strange that your ham would pee on/near his food? Poos makes sense, but peeing on it is a bad habit and I don't know how you would stop that..

[Pebbles82]

Hi! Is that his potty in the front right corner? I was thinking maybe you could have a sandbath there in the form of one of those glass cookie jars. You could sink it down a bit in the substrate and they are angled so it would be very difficult to kick the sand out.

One option for the shelf/house would be this rabbit house I used until recently. It's big inside so room for a nest and a potty. It's quite tall so I had sat right on the base of the cage and put about 2" of substrate inside it, then piled the substrate up round the outside of it so it was part under the substrate. It needs a bendy bridge over the door though because the door is so big. But the bendy bridge gives access to the roof as well as making a tunnel entrance. The roof lifts off the house for emptying the potty and the roof also makes a big shelf.

It's not too expensive either - they come flatpack and you fit them together like a jigsaw so there are no nails.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001MZUY...PHTDZ9GSMAX73Q

I found it needed to be right on the bottom of the cage as it's quite big and heavy so could fall on them if they try and tunnel under it. Your cage is taller than my old 80cm one though so you might still have room for another corner shelf or something over it. The house would virtually fill the width of the cage though with just a small space at one end, so then it would be difficult to fit a sandbath in.

ImoT had this house and recently changed it for a 3 room rodipet house, which could work out better as it has 3 small roofs that lift off. Coco has this one too.

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...monoporta.html

It's not cheap though - with postage it works out around £29 and apparently a standard hamster potty doesn't quite fit in it, but you could use something else for a potty. That would also go most of the width of the cage, bar about 15cm though, assuming you had it in the right back corner along the back and right side of the cage, but would leave more useable floor space than the rabbit house - still tricky to fit a sand bath in.

How about having the wheel are as a sand area? The bit that is fenced off.

Actually Charlie started putting his hoard in the potty in the rabbit house (and hence peeing on it) so maybe the room idea is best.

You could probably make a cardboard house with rooms by sticking partition walls in it

I went round the houses with things like this with Charlie's old cage. I began to think I'd be better spending the money on a new cage that had a good house with it like the Alexander or Barney, rather than spending the money on a house that took up a lot of space in the 80cm cage.

That might be an option - upgrade to a Barney cage. That would cost £50 but you'd have a good shelf and house with it More space to put a sandbath where you want and plenty of space to put a bigger house in later even if it's only a cardboard one. He might change his habits with a cage change.

[AlfredHam]

I have been considering a cage change, I'd love a dettolf but we're a bit stuck for space, the only option with a bigger cage would be to put the cage in the spare room but I like having him in the sitting room so I can keep an eye on him
I like the idea of the sand in with the wheel area, that's something I hadn't thought of! I was considering getting the cage attachment and making the substrate level to increase the space I have to play with as the bendy bridges take up a lot of the floor space - nearly a 3rd of his cage is dedicated to the wheel and I'd like to add a few more toys!
I like the rabbit house serendipity thanks! I could keep his food dish ect up there and he could probably still reach the Sputnik from there too
I'd have to get some plastikote too as the inside corner of his house is all stained and I don't want that happening again! It's such a shame because he uses his litter tray too but seems to get lazy in the daytime

[AlfredHam]

Spacebyte, I've just looked at your cage on the cages thread! I'm jealous it looks amazing! I'm gonna have another look for ideas that I can pinch

[Pebbles82]

I've found that when they have a bigger house they move their wee corner inside the house - so the house needs to be able to fit a litter tray then. I have this one and it fitted fine inside the rabbit house,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00178PJ...=hamster+potty

He was very happy in it. If I hadn't upgraded his house I'd have put a small partition (just half a cardboard box or something) part way across to separate the potty end from the nest end, to discourage hoarding in the potty. Hoarding in the potty isn't that bad though - if they pee on it then they lose the hoard when the potty is emptied! Peeing on it in his nest is a total pain though.

That house could work if you had the wheel area with sand in. I'm not sure what you mean by the cage extension.

The cheapest and easiest option for now would be something like that rabbit house and have the wheel area with sand in. Yes it would be a good idea to plastikote inside it, but mine didn't get spoiled because Charlie just used the potty inside it. It wouldn't take long to give it a couple of coats inside, but I wouldn't paint all the way to the top - maybe stop an inch short - because I found the lid doesn't fit well if the plastikote goes up to the top (on my current house that is).

[AlfredHam]

Ah I meant the cage attachment for the wheel so it's not on the base any more I stupidly decided against it when I ordered it! Thanks for the potty link too, it's good to know what works as I always think I have more space than I do

[Pebbles82]

That would be a good idea because the wheel can sit higher then. I don't think it was stupid not to order it - it blooming costs £4.50 extra on top of the wheel! It does mean you can have the wheel only just below the top of the cage though, and more space underneath. But if you were having that area as a sand area you maybe wouldn't need that much extra depth under the wheel. The main reason for the sand is so they can keep their claws in trim and possibly have a roll in it. If you left the wheel as it is, with the fence round and had 2 or 3 cm of sand inside the fence that should be fine - enough to play with, roll in etc - but not high enough that it would come out through the bars. Although it wouldn't be as deep there would probably be a wider area for it.

Or if you did have the cage attachment for the sand, the substrate would go right under the wheel and you wouldn't need the fence. You could have the wheel in the back left corner (ie on the back bars) and free up the front left corner for something like a cookie jar sand bath

Or something like this salt pig. With the back to the bars in the left front corner and entrance pointing in to the cage. You could part bury it under the substrate up to the opening level so it doesn't fall over and makes for easy access. It would be much harder to kick the sand out and any that did get kicked out would go inside the cage not outside

Any sand that goes on the substrate just sinks to the bottom and I tend to just leave it there

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Cra...words=salt+pig

It would double up as somewhere cool to go in hot weather. Charlie used to have a very small salt pig (it was all I could fit in his cage at the time). He didn't like the sand though and used to fill it with substrate. In the summer he would sit in it to cool off and really liked it being enclosed I think.

[AlfredHam]

That's a good idea I like his sand being deep because he loves digging in it, which is why it ends up everywhere I think I'm going to get the cage attachment but with postage it's going to be so expensive and make a sand pit like spacebyte's in one of the corners, if I put one of the bendy bridges around the edge of the cage as well as the part to section off the substrate that should help with the kicking out too and I can possibly have it slightly deeper too without him throwing it all over the place
I've got the house, potty and a pot of plastikote on order now and I'll order the wheel attachment tonight so I can hopefully have a rearrange on my day off if it's all here!

[Pebbles82]

Excellent The door is really big on that house, but once it's got substrate piled up round it and a bit scooped out near the doorway it's ok and makes like a low wide door (ie just the top bit of the door showing). I still put a bendy bridge over it though as it makes it easier to get on top and dark inside.