Not a really a hamster owner... but...

[erayser]

A couple weeks ago, my wife said, "I'm taking Kyle (10 yr old) out, and buy him a hamster." He's been wanting a pet for a while... mainly a dog, but I'm not a pet type a person... especially a house dog. I would tell him, "you can have a pet, only if it's in a cage/tank, and can be flushed down the toilet if it dies." Before people get upset with that comment, I don't mean it... I was just trying to limit his options. In other words, maybe not a dog, but a fish.

Anyhow, my wife took him to buy a hamster without any research, and my son picked out a male Syrian with one of those pet shop starter kit cages. To my surprise, my kid really loved that hamster, and was able to hold him and play with it outside the cage in a week. He fed him daily, and was able to hand feed his hamster.

I wanted to reward him for being responsible, and without research again... I went to Amazon and searched for hamster accessories and cages, and bought him the Hamster Heaven Metro cage since it already came with a lot accessories. I added a 9" and 12" Silent Runner wheel because that starter kit wheel was noisy.

If I found this forum sooner, I probably would have opted for a Tank or DIY IKEA furniture cage. However, something happened to our cage order on Amazon. It was delayed, and it was rescheduled to come on Friday. Big problem since we are out of town going to Disney World this week (leaving tonight). I talked to Amazon support if they could somehow contact delivery to expedite the order from where it was... but they couldn't. Customer Service said (and this is why we love Amazon), they can do a one day shipment on another cage (no charge) so we can get in time... and if the other cage is still here when we get back, we can just keep it. I love Amazon's customer service.

We actually got both orders in time before our trip to Orlando. I was planning to set the second cage up when we get back from vacation, and connect it with the tubes it comes with. Would that be a good idea? or overkill?

Sorry for the long introduction... but looking forward to learning things on this forum. Just want my son to have a good experience... and give the attention and proper care for his hamster. BTW, my son named his hamster "Bubbles". Grandma will be taking care of Bubbles while we are out of town.

[AmityvilleHams]

Instead of using tubes and making it a modular cage which would not truly increase the actual floor space(and the tubes are too small for adult Syrians anyways)you could just remove the panels off the sides of the cages on one side each and zip tie them together.This would make a cage that is twice as large in floor space and would definitely be worth the minimal cost of zip ties and possibly wire cutters and sandpaper.

[Hamsterita]

People around here aren't very prone to tubes. However, If Bubbles doesn't have nasty habits related with tubes (as hoard there, or built his nest there) I wouldn't try to modify the cage. Metro Heaven is already a good cage with a reasonable floor space, so anything you add is an improvement over something that it's already good. Yeah, a bigger floor space would be better, but connecting them with tubes should be easy enough and it would do the trick anyway.

It doesn't have to ve overkill, usually the bigger the better. However, some hamsters can't stand big spaces, If so, you can always dissasemeble the tubes and problem solved.

If the tubes are set vertically you have to be very careful with falls, specially if he's young or really old. Try no to set them too sloping.

And make sure that they're big enough for your hamster's size

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to HC.

A lot depends on the individual hamster really, I would give him some time to get used to the one new cage first before adding the second cage, maybe let him play in the second cage a few times before you try joining them so it will be familiar to him.
Tubes can be a real problem with some hamsters, if Bubbles is already tame & doesn't take to sleeping, eating, peeing & everything else in the tubes & the tubes are large enough for him to move around freely then they may work out ok.

[erayser]

Just arrived at WDW... taking kids to Epcot. Love all the great suggestions. Appreciate it... thanks.

[Thin Lizzy]

I agree with Cypher.
I tend to avoid the narrow tubes and go for rat tube/tunnels.