Setting up cage ...Oliver can come home next week :)

[hammyadventure]

Hi All, I have bought the Alaska cage for our new baby hammy. I'm about to set the cage up this weekend as he will be old enough to come live with us. We already besotted with him and haven't even met him yet lol. Any way daughter have the Slavic? Little house for her first hammy, we knew nothing really the first time round. This time we want to make everything perfect for him. Is this house ok? I've read about wooden houses with no base etc?
I'll list questions as prob easier.

* How do we know the right size hideaway to get him- last had a dwarf and pics on websites can be deceiving.
* What do you put in the hideaway/house? With our last hamster we used wood shavings then his his hideaway / houses we used shredded paper and fluffy stuff (again I know this is not good$
* I've watched Erin's Animals and she uses soil as part of her substrate, should I use similar? Been reading about hamsters natural habitats and Syrians like to burrow in soil??
* we've bought carefresh too? Would you do a mix of substrate or stick to one? He's currently on fitch?
* would you fill to just below the bars with bedding materials? I'm worried he would have enough room to burrow?? We don't have space at the moment to to the diy detolf of billy extension sadly. (Hopefully one day)

Thanks in advance xx

[AmityvilleHams]

I wouldn't recommend soil.It would trap humidity,which could lead to respiratory problems.Fitch is a much better choice with practically no risks,plus it's very cost effective and is higher in quality than Carefresh.

For now if you must use the Carefresh you've already bought,air it out first before even using any of it in the cage.Carefresh is a very dusty substrate(Fitch is dust free though),so to be usable it would at least need airing out.

As far as wild behavior goes,a high quality paper type substrate would be perfectly fine for burrowing.Fitch on its own for example would be completely fine for burrowing,without the serious health risks that soil brings.

Plastic houses are best avoided.No matter the design,they can always be chewed which is never good(plastic ingestion can lead to impaction,plus it's not digestible at all).Plastic as a material also traps humidity,which just as with the soil is a massive problem.Even plastic houses that have holes and such still end up with the same problems,plus these holes tend to encourage hamsters to chew even more!

A DIY wood house(sealed with a natural DIY hamster safe wood seal and using Elmer's glue or flour glue if any glue is necessary,Google for a recipe and check here if you're not sure of safety,this is much less risky than any storebought alternative!)is a great option as long as it's made from untreated hamster safe wood.

[cypher]

Wooden houses are better but they do need to be painted with plastikote inside to protect the wood, you really want to be looking at rat size houses & toys for a syrian as most houses sold for hams are too small.
The house should have no base & be on a deep layer of substrate.
I'm not sure which are the best for syrians (dwarf owner!) but someone here should be able to recommend one or two for you.
Use lots of shredded plain white toilet tissue for nesting in the house.
I wouldn't use soil, difficult to keep clean, problems with damp & humidity & it can be very hard to find something totally free of fertilisers or other chemicals, in a cage the size of the alaska you wouldn't have space for an extra digging box with something like soil that could be kept separate from the rest of the substrate.
I would just stick to fitch as your substrate, you don't need to mix it with anything & it's about the best there is.
Fill the base right up to the bars with substrate, as much as you can get in there really.

[velma]

I use plastic houses quite a bit and have never had a problem with moisture but none of my houses have had bases - so you're not creating a moisture trap & I've not had one chewed yet. That's something you'd want to observe as you go. Some of the houses can be a bit small but I've found that without the base hams will dig down anyway. I currently am using a Living World Dome house and I think (not 100% sure) I got the medium which is "Guinea pig size" so it's pretty big. Pip seems to like it as he has space for a nest and space to sit and eat from his hoard if he wants. I've used smaller igloos too. My previous Cleo used to use hers like a "roof" for her near underneath. I also used half a large Sputnik turned upside down as a house for her which she seemed to like.
I've not tried Fitch yet but I'm quite interested too . I tend to use wood shavings or carefresh but I tend to prefer carefresh. I've found the carefresh naturals( the brown one) can be a little dusty straight from the bag but I've not had that problem at all with the colours or the white one. For me it's more convenient as I can pick it up locally and at the moment it's easier for me to store. I've found if you put a deep enough layer in, hams will dig through most things and the carefresh seems to hold a shape. And having seen my friend's Alaska, the base looks deep enough for that. It looks like a lovely cage of a really good size. I have mixed shavings and carefresh (either together or in zones) but you don't need to - I mainly did it because I had bits of bags to use up. Like cypher said, ripped up loo roll is great for a nesting material. It's nice and soft and they can rip it up if they like. Like you already said, hammyadventure, definitely no fluffy stuff!
All hamsters have different personalities so I have found the best thing is to not stress too much, get in the things you think and as you get to know your little ham, he'll "tell" you what he does and doesn't like and you tweak as time goes on.
No wonder you're getting excited! You'll soon have Oliver home!

[hammyadventure]

Thank you guys, I'll get the kids shredding tissue they will love that