Hi.. Newbie looking for Advice

[dapex]

Hi all... I am pretty new to hamster owning.. My 13 yr old daughter really wanted a hamster and we ended up in Pets at home and came out with 2 russian dwarfs and a cage.. The women we dealt with in Pets at home was actually really good as she owns russian dwarfs and so she stopped us buying the cage my daughter wanted as she said it would be to small...

The cage we have is pretty basic... no metal bars. large plastic base with plastic lid... We have added some toys and stuff for them to play with..

What I wanted to know is if dwarfs could make use of the cages with plastic tubes? I think they look good and hopefully make the cage a good place for the hammys to explore??

Both the hammys seem to get on with no trouble at all (they were caged together in the shop)

And then to top it all a friend of a friend had to get rid of their syrian as the kids had lost interest... So I collected that today.. it came with a cage but I think the cage is way to small (its about half the size of the cage the 2 dwarfs are in) but we have noticed the syrian loves climbing up the bars...


So.. would the dwarfs prefer a metal bar cage to allow them to climb?
2. Woudl the dwarfs be able to make use of the plastic tubes on many cages (the women in P@H said the dwarfs are not big enough)
3. I need a cage for the syrian.. I have been offered one of these free of charge but I dont want to use it unless it suitable I cant post links so its the Windsor_Hamster_Cage from cagesworld

Cheers

[Amethyst_ice]

Hello and welcome

Congratulations on your big addition to hammiess!

In general , dwarf species prefer a plastic/tanked cage which is safer for them. Some syrians do indeed like climbing so wire cages are suitable, some are fine in plastic cages like a zoozone as well.

The windsor cage is ok but floorspace over height would be better. Have a look at the housing review sections and members show your cages for ideas.

Some popular cages include the barney, alexander, zoozone2, hamster heaven for the larger (also some rat cages like the mary and criceti 16 measure the same 70 x 50 cm approx which is popular with members)

smaller cages popular inclue the savic cambridge and some of the duna cages.

Ebay is a great place to find bargains, some cages as little as 99p!

I cant comment on the dwarfs and tubes sorry, hope that helps and look forward to hearing more about the clan!

x

[dapex]

Hi and thanks for the warm welcome... Well.. I bought the windsor cage just because it was local and very cheap and to be honest the cage that the syrian was in was way way to small.. At least the Windsor cage will give him much more room over this weekend and I can get a much better cage early next week

[kyrilliondaemon]

For the dwarf hams I'd say it depends what you want to do with the tubes, pairs (and groups) can fall out so there're a few basic things that its best to follow. These include having a wheel each, making sure all toys have two entrances and exits, having no shelves and a reasonable amount of floorspace (generally at least 70cm by 40cm is reccomended). Tubes as a toy are fine, but modular setups are best avoided with pairs of dwarf hamsters, they can end up falling out over the compartments.

For the syrian I'd go as big as you can really, most people use cages with at least 70cm by 40cm of floorspace for syrians.