Just joined the forum

[glitterkate]

Hi! I'm Kate and I'm new to the forum and hamster community in general. I have four hamsters: one syrian, two russian dwarves and a robo. Yesterday, I made a 15 min vlog style video of our day upgrading all of our hamsters into bin cages from the "large" cages marketed in pet stores.

here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKs1_YAP0w

Hoping this video helps anyone new to the community like us feel more at ease with the masses of information you get when you first start watching hamster videos! There's also a couple of clips of the hamsters in there as well.

x

[hisnameispip]

How cool! Your hamsters are really cute

[cypher]

Hi & welcome to the forum
Well done getting nice bins for your cages, I'm sure your hams will enjoy them, if you can I would suggest making the substrate deeper, basically as deep as you can manage so that they can enjoy digging & burrowing, I wouldn't use the shredded paper either, the inks may not be good for your hams better to just use substrate & lots of shredded plain white toilet tissue that they can collect up for nesting.

[glitterkate]

Originally Posted by hisnameispip

How cool! Your hamsters are really cute

Thank you!!! I'll let them know!

[glitterkate]

Originally Posted by cypher

Hi & welcome to the forum
Well done getting nice bins for your cages, I'm sure your hams will enjoy them, if you can I would suggest making the substrate deeper, basically as deep as you can manage so that they can enjoy digging & burrowing, I wouldn't use the shredded paper either, the inks may not be good for your hams better to just use substrate & lots of shredded plain white toilet tissue that they can collect up for nesting.

Thanks for the advice! yes i'm thinking 2x those size bags of carefresh next time! I'd seen on my youtube research that most inks are now soy-based so hammie-safe, but obviously better safe than sorry. we love to use toilet paper for them, and they appear to enjoy picking it up and taking it to their nests! x

[cypher]

Carefresh is expensive & I know the bags don't go a long way, with four hams it might be worth thinking about trying Fitch which is a great substrate that comes in really large bags, 10 or 20kgs, the larger bags are out of stock at the moment but maybe worth considering, Kaytee clean & cosy comes in larger bags too.

[Pebbles82]

Or Boxo if you're in the US Also sold in bulk and paper based.

[glitterkate]

Originally Posted by cypher

Carefresh is expensive & I know the bags don't go a long way, with four hams it might be worth thinking about trying Fitch which is a great substrate that comes in really large bags, 10 or 20kgs, the larger bags are out of stock at the moment but maybe worth considering, Kaytee clean & cosy comes in larger bags too.

oh brilliant! that does look good, as with four hamsters its good to buy in bulk! thank you for this!

[glitterkate]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Or Boxo if you're in the US Also sold in bulk and paper based.

i'm in the UK but thank you!

[Pebbles82]

Fitch is great stuff. Like Carefresh but better and cheaper and no dust I get the 10kg bag.

Watched your video and the bin cages are a great size. I love the idea of the bars on top for the ventilation. However, without wishing to be picky - bin cages do need a lot of ventilation and most people cut two side panels and mesh them as well as the lid. So at some point it could be good to increase the ventilation. Hamsters can be prone to respiratory problems without good ventilation.

Also the shredded paper from shredders can be a bit sharp and give paper cuts, so not really recommended. Plain white toilet paper sheets torn into strips and in a big heap in the cage, goes down well - and they pouch it and take it to the nest. If you use Fitch they use a bit of that for nesting as well as the toilet paper.

The hamsters look to be enjoyng their new cages and exploring them and look lovely and tame Youtube can be a funny place so you may get some comments about always using chinchilla sand and not dust As well as the nice comments!