Cages. Height vs floor space

[Stealers Wheel]

What would you say is a priority for Syrian hamsters? A good tall cage with a deep base for digging or a long/wide cage for running?

[AmityvilleHams]

A cage needs both,with true floor space being most important as long as there is enough height for adequate substrate(I personally think 12 inches or more being ideal as it is known to be best for burrowing,plus some hamsters don't burrow until substrate is that deep)along with a proper upright wheel.

Of course,there are some situations where you may be able to get a direct connection with various cages(in particular this is easiest with bin cages but you can get a direct connection with wire cages,whereas modular connections like tubes do not offer any increase in floor space)if one is not capable of holding a wheel and substrate.I don't think you'll ever find a completely perfect cage that is premade for Syrians though!

[flowerfairy]

A long wide cage for running. You can create deep substrate areas with bendy bridges on their sides or a cardboard box for example.

[Pebbles82]

I'd say both too. If you had to choose between them (as there is never the perfect cage usually!) I'd go with floorspace. Width of the cage is as important as length. It allows for a lot of enrichment and toys and tunnels and levels. It's nice if you can give them deep substrate as well, but as Flower Fairy says you can section off an area to have it deeper (if it's a cage you can put cardboard or something inside the bars so the substrate doesn't fall out in the deep area).

I wouldn't say running was the greatest priority - they run in their wheels They need interest and texture and stimulation in a cage, hidey places, and a set up that's safe if they monkey bar across the roof and fall off, so they can't fall too far or land on anything hard or sharp.

Did you have a cage in mind? I went round the houses trying to find the ideal cage and came back to the one I first looked at! The Barney cage from Zooplus. It's a good size, lots of floorspace (wider than most at 54cm), a good price at under £50 and has 7mm bar spacing so the substrate doesn't fall out Well hardly any falls out.

The only way to have really deep substrate with a Uk cage is either a glass tank (extremely expensive) or a diy cage. As for running - you can have a roof run in a cage as well as the floor space. This is the set up I had for our last Syrian - plenty of substrate, shelves and levels and a tube across the roof and sputnik linking them, so he could get from one side to the other with different routes. All that substrate on the floor didn't fall out I had just set up the cage and made a big mess.

[Stealers Wheel]

This is her cage after a clean and rearrangement which we do regularly to keep her occupied.

[IMG]Stealer's Cage by Larry Shone, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Pebbles82]

She looks to have lots of fun things to do there. My only comments (if you don't mind ) would be that possibly the wheels might not be big enough (hard to tell from the photos) - although nice that she has two. An 11" wheel is a good size for a Syrian so they can run with a straight back (or they can develop back problems and pain or just avoid the wheel and bar chew). Anything smaller than 8" diameter is not suitable for a Syrian.

The toys seem securely tied and done nicely for her - I'm a bit paranoid about rings and chains in case they get their feet caught, but there aren't any long chains in there. Even so I'd probably swap them for sisal string - it's safe for hamsters to chew, and they can't end up hanging by a broken leg if they get a foot caught!

If you were thinking of a cage upgrade something with more floorspace and less height would be better. The Alaska, Barney and Alexander cages on Zooplus are good ones and popular, but her current cage has lots to do

Hamster Cages | great selection at zooplus

[Stealers Wheel]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

She looks to have lots of fun things to do there. My only comments (if you don't mind ) would be that possibly the wheels might not be big enough (hard to tell from the photos) - although nice that she has two. An 11" wheel is a good size for a Syrian so they can run with a straight back (or they can develop back problems and pain or just avoid the wheel and bar chew). Anything smaller than 8" diameter is not suitable for a Syrian.

The toys seem securely tied and done nicely for her - I'm a bit paranoid about rings and chains in case they get their feet caught, but there aren't any long chains in there. Even so I'd probably swap them for sisal string - it's safe for hamsters to chew, and they can't end up hanging by a broken leg if they get a foot caught!

If you were thinking of a cage upgrade something with more floorspace and less height would be better. The Alaska, Barney and Alexander cages on Zooplus are good ones and popular, but her current cage has lots to do

Hamster Cages | great selection at zooplus

Yea we know about the wheel and we plan to get a bigger one very soon. And we do get her out everyday in the ball and are trying to socialise her.
We are thinking of getting her a a burrowing tower called a Trixie. Fill it with sawdust and she can have a good burrow. How about a sand box, or is that just for Russian hamsters?

[Stealers Wheel]

@Serendipity7000

Where did you get the Silent Runner from and how much?

[Pebbles82]

Some Syrians like a sand bath, but ours didn't They do tend to use it as a potty though, which can be useful as it helps keep the cage clean so you don't need to clean out so often. Hamsters get stressed being cleaned out too often and can develop unusual behaviours. It's another reason to have deeper substrate (4 to 6 inches maybe) so you can just "spot clean" mainly - take a handful or two of soiled substrate out and replace it - the bottom half tends to stay clean. Then you only need to do a clean out every few weeks or even 2 to 3 months in larger cages. You actually can end up using less substrate that way. Another tip is don't clean everything at the same time. Do the toys a different week from the substrate and the wheel a different week again. So something always smells familiar. Plus if you clean all their natural scent away they tend to start peeing on everything (as a territorial thing and to re-scent things).

People have different views on swapping toys around. And some may depend on the personality of the hamster as well. Generally they prefer things to stay the same so their environment is familiar and they can have routines and little routes. Adding the odd new thing tends to go down well though.

[Pebbles82]

The Silent Runner isn't that cheap - it's about £25 - but it's a good wheel. A cheaper one is the 28cm Trixie wheel which is also very popular. It's not silent but most people don't find it too noisy. The Sugarglider shop sell the Silent Runner (I think they're out of stock but they tend to come back into stock quite quickly).

Silent Runner 12 Inch

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trixie-Exer...xie+28cm+wheel