Perfecto tank suitability for having a litter?

[souffle]

We have never had any of the babies get trapped either but I must say I have often worried about it We find the big hamsters can just climb on to the platform so maybe just leaving the ladders out so the babies could not go up till they were bigger would solve the problem.

[Basia]

I don't have any ladders in any of my gabbers. Truffle built a volcano type nest at the one end of the shelf so the little ones were walking up the side of the nest onto the shelf and then falling through the hole where the house should be to get back into their nest or walking along the shelf and falling through the hole at the other end. Truffle refuses to have the house or the food bowl block these holes. This one managed to get its leg trapped as it was trying to drop down into the nest. I was afraid they would get brain damaged just falling down head first into the nest but when this happened it was the final straw.

[Mollz]

Originally Posted by Basia

I don't have any ladders in any of my gabbers. Truffle built a volcano type nest at the one end of the shelf so the little ones were walking up the side of the nest onto the shelf and then falling through the hole where the house should be to get back into their nest or walking along the shelf and falling through the hole at the other end. Truffle refuses to have the house or the food bowl block these holes. This one managed to get its leg trapped as it was trying to drop down into the nest. I was afraid they would get brain damaged just falling down head first into the nest but when this happened it was the final straw.

Just for peace of mind I think I will take it out and find a big cardboard box/house instead. Hope they are ok Gill!

[Gust0o]

Could you not remove the rear, house-part of the Gabber, and the bars - without the shelves it would surely serve fine as an open-cage?

Would make it easier to introduce food without disturbing the brood - certainly what I was planning to do

[Holly]

Originally Posted by Mollz

Just for peace of mind I think I will take it out and find a big cardboard box/house instead. Hope they are ok Gill!

Just do it before she gets pregnant - if you leave it too late she'll likley get very stressed.

I think maybe it's too late for my girls now - I'm leaving it in. I'll just be very careful once they start moving around and try and give piles of substrate under the holes so there's not far to fall.

[Mollz]

Originally Posted by Gust0o

Could you not remove the rear, house-part of the Gabber, and the bars - without the shelves it would surely serve fine as an open-cage?

Would make it easier to introduce food without disturbing the brood - certainly what I was planning to do

I don't think I would be brave enough to leave it without the bars on the top Gus, Amelie is a big girl and my titch of a pet shop ham (Buttons at around 100g) can reach his bars without the shelf - so I wouldn't want to risk it with a monster like Ams (10 1/2 weeks old and 170g!). Plus I have cats...

[Tammy22]

Hi Mollz,

A lot of my Roborovskis live in Perfecto tanks, some of them have three shelves too - i think they are great cages for hamsters, but i always remove them if i am letting them have a litter.

I usually put them in a Gabber Rex, a Rody Savic or a large bin cage - i know the Rody would be much too small for a Syrian with a litter, especially if she had a large litter!

I would not recommend the Perfecto to have a litter in as i find that the hamster will usually nest under the lowest shelf, which makes it very inaccessible and not easy to check on at all! (can't blame them though, lol!)

Also, quite a lot of condensation tends to build up in only a week, before they are cleaned out, so i would imagine that it would get very messy with a litter under there - especially for the first period before you can clean them out.

It has already been said that they can be difficult to clean too if they are the big ones as they can be quite heavy and you definately dont need that stress while you have a stressed mother and a litter waiting to go back in!

Kind Regards,

Tammy x