Pebbles82
05-09-2016, 05:07 AM
Here's a review of the Syrian sized labyrinth house from Rodipet. It is a large house/nesting box, 41cm wide by 26cm deep and 11cm tall. Internal height is 10cm tall. The roof lifts off for checking inside.
https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/rodipet-wohnlabyrinth-davinci-41x26cm-7cm.html
I would recommend a cage be at least 100cm x 50cm to use this house as it would take up too much floorspace in a smaller cage.
It has three main "rooms" in it. As expected, our Syrian opted to use the room on the left for nesting in, and the centre room at the back for his toilet. I think they instinctively nest in the darkest part away from the door and where they can have a wee corner nearby. The room on the right at the front is basically a "run" to access the top hole door.
There are three smaller compartments. The one left back is presumably intended for hoarding - I think Charlie has buried some hoards in there but has also buried some under his nest (but it's early days). The small compartment at the front is basically to stop light getting into the rear compatment. And the small compartment right back is basically to stop light coming in through the top entrance door.
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/9a333483-fc6f-40ee-86f7-9b1c7c639375_zpsqmsiea4r.jpg
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/75916412-89a8-4aa9-9826-702044bd7b30_zpslrwo7mh2.jpg
There is no internal ramp up to the top door, but it's not too high for a fit hamster to pull themselves up through and it's a good way of going back down into the house :-)
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/5c1f0390-7d2b-406f-84e4-bdc386dc0654_zpsv3u4ay9t.jpg
The flat roof is a good place for a food bowl, but for an older hamster it would be better to have the food bowl nearer the floor area/front door of the house, or make sure they have a ramp up to the house roof (as I've recently discovered!) in case they struggle climbing out of the top door.
The house is made of birch plywood and Rodipet say they use petsafe glues in making them. Although this makes it fairly light, the size of it still makes it quite heavy if it fell on a hamster if they tried to tunnel under it, so I reckon there are two ways to use the house.
The first way would be to have it almost as a subterranean house - sat on about half an inch to an inch of substrate (ie not enough to be able to try and tunnel under) and pile the substrate up around the house so it is only just above substrate level - then scoop out the substrate round the front door for access or put a tube or tunnel down to the front door.
I opted to put the house on short legs so it sits on top of the substrate and is the right height for a shelf in the cage. For that I used 25cm dowels stuck to the outside with pet-safe glue. To make the most of the floorspace, I have the right and back sides of the house sitting on the rim of the cage base, and just three legs to support the other sides - one about half way along the left side (too near the back and the curved cage base would be an issue) and two at the front. It's quite stable like this, but I did need to saw a little bit extra off the three legs to level it with the cage base rim.
10cm of the dowel is taken up by the height of the house so it is raised about 15cm.
This is the house upside down (so it looks like the legs are on the wrong side)
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/a7f846a9-d47a-4303-a9c0-cfe1c0102c75_zpstp2rvchq.jpg
Right way up
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/b24dbb61-0fc5-4b55-95d3-21cfc692ecb2_zpsyrwgxsex.jpg
https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/rodipet-wohnlabyrinth-davinci-41x26cm-7cm.html
I would recommend a cage be at least 100cm x 50cm to use this house as it would take up too much floorspace in a smaller cage.
It has three main "rooms" in it. As expected, our Syrian opted to use the room on the left for nesting in, and the centre room at the back for his toilet. I think they instinctively nest in the darkest part away from the door and where they can have a wee corner nearby. The room on the right at the front is basically a "run" to access the top hole door.
There are three smaller compartments. The one left back is presumably intended for hoarding - I think Charlie has buried some hoards in there but has also buried some under his nest (but it's early days). The small compartment at the front is basically to stop light getting into the rear compatment. And the small compartment right back is basically to stop light coming in through the top entrance door.
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/9a333483-fc6f-40ee-86f7-9b1c7c639375_zpsqmsiea4r.jpg
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/75916412-89a8-4aa9-9826-702044bd7b30_zpslrwo7mh2.jpg
There is no internal ramp up to the top door, but it's not too high for a fit hamster to pull themselves up through and it's a good way of going back down into the house :-)
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/5c1f0390-7d2b-406f-84e4-bdc386dc0654_zpsv3u4ay9t.jpg
The flat roof is a good place for a food bowl, but for an older hamster it would be better to have the food bowl nearer the floor area/front door of the house, or make sure they have a ramp up to the house roof (as I've recently discovered!) in case they struggle climbing out of the top door.
The house is made of birch plywood and Rodipet say they use petsafe glues in making them. Although this makes it fairly light, the size of it still makes it quite heavy if it fell on a hamster if they tried to tunnel under it, so I reckon there are two ways to use the house.
The first way would be to have it almost as a subterranean house - sat on about half an inch to an inch of substrate (ie not enough to be able to try and tunnel under) and pile the substrate up around the house so it is only just above substrate level - then scoop out the substrate round the front door for access or put a tube or tunnel down to the front door.
I opted to put the house on short legs so it sits on top of the substrate and is the right height for a shelf in the cage. For that I used 25cm dowels stuck to the outside with pet-safe glue. To make the most of the floorspace, I have the right and back sides of the house sitting on the rim of the cage base, and just three legs to support the other sides - one about half way along the left side (too near the back and the curved cage base would be an issue) and two at the front. It's quite stable like this, but I did need to saw a little bit extra off the three legs to level it with the cage base rim.
10cm of the dowel is taken up by the height of the house so it is raised about 15cm.
This is the house upside down (so it looks like the legs are on the wrong side)
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/a7f846a9-d47a-4303-a9c0-cfe1c0102c75_zpstp2rvchq.jpg
Right way up
http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/b24dbb61-0fc5-4b55-95d3-21cfc692ecb2_zpsyrwgxsex.jpg