Those Rodipet houses with a granite roof...

[Pebbles82]

I sawed the round logo off mine too, so I could put the house near the shelf without it getting in the way. I just sanded the edges afterwards

[BorisPasha]

I have that house too, I got it for Pasha but he's always seemed happy with how things are so Boris has it now. I have the corner loo in it too but Boris just fills it with fitch and pees on that lol.

Happy Gotcha day and enjoy your new house

[Scarlett Empress]

Thanks for your comments everyone and sorry to be so long catching up!

Serendipity it's hard to know what a hamster is going to approve of isn't it! Shame we can't try before we buy - still as long as Newtie has fun paying with the house, at least it hasn't gone to waste!

Coco61 hee hee I will be happy if Marty is even partially accurate using her loo! I bet she will just fill it with food - and pee on that. She gets the hump if I clean out her toilet area and does it somewhere else.

CMB the round bit would be more in the middle if I put the roof bits on like Rodipet intended, but it's rather on the large side! Not really sure why they make it that way - must make a lot of waste wood when cutting them out!

cypher yeah I know, can't believe she has been here so long! I reckon I will chop my round bit off too - it's not like you need it really to lift the roof off as there's a good overhang to get hold of.

BorishPasha thank you! I do hope she will use the loo, I hate that I have to disturb her nest because she often pees under it!

Well the house has not gone in yet as I am working on Marty's new shelves first - I don't want to change everything at once and upset her. I would have liked to leave it unpainted but as she's likely to pee on it, it has had a coat of Sage Cuprinol inside and partway up the outside walls.

Now, I can't decide whether to put it on little legs...I put legs on her bigger labyrinth so she could have plenty of fitch under her nest, but she moved out of the labyrinth because I had to keep cleaning it out! She is currently in a wooden house which I made to go under her wheel, and which is only about 10cm deep - can't have that one any higher because then the wheel would be too tall! She makes what looks to me like a very inadequate nest but I suppose she must be happy with it. Even though I have to of course clean that house too, she has stuck with it - well a couple of times she got grumpy and moved back into the labyrinth, but she changed her mind after a couple of hours.

So I don't know what to do really!

[Pebbles82]

I didn't really need to clean inside Charlie's labyrinth house. He used the potty so I just used to empty that. I think you could go either way. It's nice if they can tunnel out of it. But if it's too much hassle then you could have it partly submerged. I don't think they just sit on top of deeper substrate well as could fall on them if tunneled under, with the weight of the roof. Or you could go midway and put ickle legs on lol. Maybe just 2" legs so it can't fall but isn't that easy to tunnel under. Sitting it on an inch of substrate and partly submerged is probably fine too.

I've gone with a tall house sat on the base of the cage at the moment, and a couple of inches of substrate inside it (the Ferplast Sin rabbit house). Newtie can't tunnel under it so he built a Fitch mountain in front of the door and tunnels into it through that

[Scarlett Empress]

Serendipity yes I agree they don't seem like they would just sit on deeper substrate - quite likely she would have a dig under it! Her current house has tiny legs that give about a half inch gap under the walls, and she sometimes seems to push all her peed on fitch under the gap! Plus she has done a bit of DIY and chewed the bottom of the walls - probably wants a bigger gap to stuff her rubbish under...

Yeah I think just some short legs would probably be the best thing! She's got short legs on her big labyrinth, but of course I can't tell how well that works as she doesn't live there - I think she just throws random Stuff through the hole in the roof!

I am actually thinking, I may take a saw to the big labyrinth...I really think she finds it too big, as when she had it in her old cage, she did nest in it but she stuffed most of it with Fitch. Maybe I could make it smaller and then she can have a choice of houses.

I do like those Ferplast Sin houses and have been tempted! I wish the Rodipet houses were just a little taller like that.

I wonder if Marty would like to tunnel out of a pile of Fitch when I put her new house in? She currently has a tube in front of the entrance to her house and she often stuffs that with Fitch - I am never sure if she is blocking the entrance for security, or if she's using it as a waste disposal chute, as she sometimes puts her peed on Fitch, monkey nut shells etc in there (she spreads her peed on Fitch a long way...)

[Pebbles82]

I think they all have slightly different habits maybe. Charlie never tunneled really - except once when he only had a small house and didn't like it! He did like to burrow down in the room where his nest was though and chewed through one of the legs a bit (because it was in the way). He did like/use the rooms though. Newtie ignored rooms in the rodipet house and just used it as a "porch" to tunnel up into from his nest under the shelf. So I tried the bigger open house submerged because I didn't want him getting too reclusive and buried underground all the time (meany that I am). He still likes digging and building Fitch mountains though.

[Scarlett Empress]

It's so hard to tell how, or even if, they are going to use the things we buy for them! Well, I stuck little legs on the house today - I fully expect Marty to chew through a leg! I still haven't decided exactly how to rearrange her cage so it's still not in place!

Marty liked burrowing when I first got her - she dug down in several places to makes nests under shelves, before deciding to make a nest on TOP of the box that I had put in for her first bedroom! Well, when I say a nest - it was a pile of fitch and loo roll and I could see the top of her little head sticking out - it seemed very un-hamster! I am hoping she will have more room to dig, if she wants, when she's all rearranged.

[Pebbles82]

They do have their little quirks lol