Size of Nesting Box

[Pete145rugby]

Success!

I placed a corner shaped potty in his new pee corner late this afternoon and put the wet substrate in it. A little later he woke up for a while (which he sometimes does for 20 mins or so early evening), wandered around, ate, groomed, sniffed his potty and did his business in it without a second thought!

Our last hamster had a favourite toilet corner but would never use a potty, despite repeated attempts to introduce one. So in the space of a few days we've gone from our new ham peeing in his nest box to using a potty!

This'll make life much easier for us, and I'm sure more hygienic for him!

Not sure what to do when the Rodipet Labyrinth arrives now. I'll probably quit while I'm ahead, keep his set-up like this, and send it back.

Thanks for your advice on this thread everyone.

Pete

[Pebbles82]

Didn't realise you'd actually ordered a Rodipet house. Which one did you get? There are different sized ones. There are two Syrian sized ones - the others are for dwarf hamsters.

This is one of the Syrian sized ones - too big to fit in the Hamster Heaven. It might fit but there wouldn't be much room left!

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...x26cm-7cm.html

This is the other Syrian one - it could fit quite well in the Hamster Heaven. If it's this one you could just put it in the corner his litter tray is and put the litter tray inside it and take the little house out and he'll probably just move into it. The good thing about them is you can just lift the roof off to empty the potty or check on them inside and their nest doesn't fall apart then. Less cleaning needed too.

https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...x28cm-7cm.html

If it's any of the others it's probably too small - in terms of the size of the entrance holes and room sizes - a hammy with full pouches needs a 6cm or 7cm entrance door.

If it's one of the Syrian ones, I'd keep it and use it - hamsters do seem to like them and it would make an additional platform (house roof). But it's a good idea to paint the inside with plastikote in case pee splashes. It's a pet safe water based paint that waterproofs the wood.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Pete145rugby]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Didn't realise you'd actually ordered a Rodipet house. Which one did you get?

Thanks for your advice Serendipity7000.

I was pretty careful to ensure it was Syrian friendly (with the 7cm diameter doors). I ordered the second one that you linked to, which you say is probably good for a Hamster Heaven:

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

I realised that the bigger ones would just fill the cage too much. This might still be too big, but I'll have a look at it and make a choice. In hindsight the two chamber one would probably be better, but hey.

My concern now is whether or not to even put the new one in yet, even if the size looks OK size wise. I've already taken his big next box away and introduced another one, as well as a putting in a 'strange' potty. We've only had him for about 5 weeks (he's still only 11 weeks old), so I don't want to freak him out with too many changes in quick succession, just as the taming is progressing really well.

Pete