[Pebbles82]

To be fair, the Rodipet ones don't need customisation and are very good quality. The big syrian labyrinth house is just right. It's only when our hamsters are older that I've cut one of the very small compartment walls out - so they can manage easier. Likewise with the door bases. By then it's a couple of years old so I don't mind so much!

The only rodipet house that, in my view, needs some customisation, is the long 3 room one. The only entrance is on top so neither of the other rooms are dark - so it doesn't quite work well. I liked the shape of it though - fits well at one end of the cage - but it would be better with a normal door at one end and no rooms inside. I ended up cutting mine up and making a really nice hide/platform out of it! But again had used it for a couple of years by then.

The other thing is, on most of the rodipet houses (apart from the labyrinth house), the rooms aren't big enough to fit a toilet in and not quite big enough for a large nest. Although a toilet fits in the two room and three room granite houses, it fills the compartment! So the hamster has to walk through it to get out of the house - the only other place to put it is in the far compartment which is where the hamster wants to nest, because it's the darkest room. So again the three room corner house with top and front entrance isn't great from that point of view either - no dark compartments.

Their labyrinth house Dalani is great. It works - there is a large compartment front left that is dark it's through three doors and round a corner. (the little tiny one beyond it is a bit pointless but they seem to like it). The middle back compartment they usually use as a toilet and a toilet tray fits in and room to walk past it - it leads directly from the nesting compartment on the left which is why I think they use it. The rest is just "walkway". The right compartment sometimes doesn't get used for much except coming and going through the top hole - but they do it all in the dark which seems to be the attraction.

So I really like the smaller granite roof houses - but they can't be expected to fit a toilet in where a hamster will use it (they just end up nesting on top of the toilet if the toilet's in the compartment furthest away from the door).

But the labyrinth house is big and expensive. I do love it though - hamsters love it and use it. And it can double up as a shelf when raised on legs. 40 euros odd is a lot (but some of the houses on Etsy cost that too).

I'm not keen on the Getzoo houses. The three room one is very similar to the rodipet ones but I think the rodipet ones are better quality. Their Syrian labyrinth house doesn't quite have the right layout and there a door under the ramp that's very narrow at the top - it has always put me off as I think a hamster using that would end up with fur rubbed off! And the layout isn't as good as the dwarf sized one - they have to turn in a tight angle to get from the passage into the nesting area after going down two passages - but probably ok. They are all jigsaw like so don't stay stable and together very well (unless glued). Some reviews also say there's a hazard in the gap beyond the ramp (hamster getting stuck in there). Hamsters do try and squeeze themselves into tiny gaps.

The dwarf sized one is very good - the rest - not for me - I prefer the rodipet one.

One thing I would like to see is a house like the long three room rodipet one with a door about a quarter of the way along - so the toilet goes left (or right) of the door and the rest is one open room with just one divider/door (so like an entrance and a room).

Because that is space saving in a cage - hamster gets a great house in the dark - lots more space in the cage.