Hi, me again!
I made a homemade bin cage that has 709 square inches of floor space.
However, I'm looking to add another box for my hamster to explore that's connected via tubing. Reason being that I'm wanting to add on another box is because the main cage he has is filled a good way to the top (with enough space to do his hammy things and sit on his two back legs and stare into oblivious like one does) with his shavings so it contributes to about 10 inches of burrowing depth which he LOVES to dig around in!
The issue with this is, I've had to add a plastic box that his sand bath and hidey house can just about sit and fit on so it makes a wall between a shallow place and the deeper depth, this is because of his drinking bottle and wheel which I had to do to make it fit in. I don't like the uneven bedding he has because it gives quite a steep slope to go down as well as a possible fall which I'm stressed about.
I want this to be even all throughout his cage so that he can dig around the entire bottom of the enclosure instead of limited just over half of it when he could benefit from the full lot of it.
Not only this, since I've filled it up. His dangling toys can no longer "dangle" or his little wooden swing doesn't swing well because it's brushing against the shavings. I wanted to add another box so that I can easily fit in a wheel and have it be a bit shallower than the main compartment to be able to hang some fun toys. I will probably lower it a slight bit once I can add on the box to be able to manage some shorter dangling toys but wouldn't like to reduce the shavings to less than 8cm since I feel it's important for him to carry that natural behaviour.
I looked at some hamster tubing via ebay or pets at home but they come in a big bundle with either a cage or some other un-wanted items and are way too far to collect in person. I looked at some brand new tubing but you get so little for £9 as well as £3 each for one section?!
I've seen people with tubing that has a nestling box in the centre of the tubing which I really liked as you can see in if they're in there but I can't seem to find that or perhaps it comes with a particular cage?
If not, what are some good alternatives to tubing? Preferably transparent so I can see the little guy is ok and can easily see where he is.
I should probably add that he's a male Syrian and he is pretty big. I found with tubing when I owned a female hamster as a kid they can range on the small side and not be comfortable for them to fit in if they're quite a natural biggish size.
I'm also wondering how to fill the holes from where the glass water bottle is hanging? I'm planning to switch to a water dish so it's more comfortable and natural and can make it even throughout all his enclosure.
The enclosure was even at some point, but I had to revert back my idea because the wheel was just brushing against the top and it wasn't as deep as I had liked.
