Preparing for my hamster

[CMB]

My first hamster had a cage, but it was about 30 years ago and was so small, even though it was the biggest cage sold for hamsters. She had a litter of ten babies and once they were about 14 days old I moved them into a large grey plastic box (I did a bin cage without realising. Lol). It was three times the size of the cage.

I used tanks after that due to them being bigger, no bar chewing, deeper substrate for digging.

My return to liking cages is due to larger sizes available, bars mean hand feeding can be done from outside the cage, platforms can be added easily, front doors mean your hand doesn't have to come from above. I can see pros and cons in both styles of cage.

[Pebbles82]

Me too. I think my ideal cage would be part tank and part cage with a front opening door There are some a bit like that but the barred bit is too tall and no front opening door.

[Fluffagrams]

Originally Posted by cypher

Admittedly I've only ever had one of mine in a tank for a limited amount of time but she seemed so much happier when I moved her to a barred cage, interaction & taming is so much easier too, I totally agree that some thought has to go into any set up but all of mine have seemed to really enjoy life in their cages.

In some ways I wish I'd have given May a barred cage when I moved her out of the Mini Duna that she had when she first came to live with me instead of putting her in the bin cage. Don't get me wrong, she liked her bin cage but a barred cage would have given her more opportunities to climb.

I'm not sure that James would have been happy in a barred cage though so it just goes to show that every hamster is different but you don't know what they're going to be like until you meet them and get to know them so it's difficult to decide what kind of cage to buy.

[CMB]

I have my Barney cage and have put things in it. After some recommendations there have been some modifications as suggested.

I have attached the water bottle in the cage.It is a classic 75ml bottle. I have a spare and used the wire from that to make a small loop that the spout goes through. It also stops the bottle sliding down by supporting lid of the bottle. It hooks over the bars and I tightened the ends so it can't be removed without pliers. The second wire goes around the bottle as normal. It may be fiddly to get the bottle in and out so may change it. I will wait and see.

I have Velcro and was going to have a loop around the bars and a strip on the bottle. This may be easier to get the bottle off and on when refilling.

I also have more chew toys that I saw in other people's cages and a hole coconut hide.

[flowerfairy]

Looking forward to seeing your barney cage all set up!

[CMB]

I did a photo of the initial setup, without substrate. It may be in the Barney cage thread or let me see your cage thread. I thought I added it here, but It didn't work.

[CMB]

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[CMB]

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