Feeling at a bit of a loose end this morning, I've decided to review one of my all time favourite cages - the Gabber Rex. It's also a firm favourite on this, and other, hamster forums.
The Gabber Rex is a large tank type cage measuring approx. 71cm x 43cm - which gives a great floor area for a Syrian hamster or a pair of dwarf hamsters. It's around 26cm high. It costs around £30.00-£35.00 to buy new but often comes up used on ebay.
It comes in varous colours with a large plastic ventillated shelf running the full width of the back, two plastic ladders, a food dish, small house and a plastic wheel:
The wheel is rubbish (with knobs on!) and is IMO only suitable for the bin - this isn't necessarily a bad point just for this cage as almost every cage on the market has a fairly rubbish wheel that is too small for a Syrian and too hard to move for a dwarf. It just worries me that people new to hamsters don't realise this.
The house is also too small and too badly ventillated to be used as a home for a Syrian - I remove mine and my hamsters climb up onto the shelf directly through the gap! The steps aren't really needed by a Syrian but I leave mine in as they sometimes use them.
The roof is covered with a large metal grille - this fits into grooves in the plastic and can be slid sideways to open or remove (a bit fiddly) and there is also a small hinged door:
There is a hole in the shelf to fit the food dish - a good size and great if your hamster usually tips it's food bowl up. For water there is a pre-drilled hole in the side of the lid - we fix our bottles to the side using tape and a zip tie:
Pros:
*Large floor area, not too high so not far to fall. Loads of room for toys etc.
*Shelf makes a great, well ventillated bedroom area
*Ease of cleaning - you can't get an easier, quicker cage to clean out!
*Sturdy construction and well made - I have six of these (soon to be five) and do have a couple with small cracks in the lid - however these don't go all the way through the plastc and don't seem to be getting any worse.
* High enough to fit a Syrian sized wheel - it fits a Wodent Wheel and Savic Jumbo Roly etc.
*Excellent safe breeding cage.
*Can be good for bar-chewers to be kept in a tank type cage. However I will say that all three of mine currently in these cages DO chew the roof bars
...however this can be easier to remedy than in a wire cage. I have made a tunnel out of cardboard tubes which runs the length of the shelf in Mocha's cage - this prevents him reaching the bars, although he sometimes climbs round them! Other people also use heavy tiles or objects placed on top opf the grille above the shelf area.
*Good ventillation without risk of draughts
Cons:
*Wheel and house too small - easily remedied.
*Limited climbing opportunities compared to a wire cage. This can be remedied by adding climbing toys and all of our hamsters in Gabber's climb and swing on the roof bars! I also hang wood chews and treats from the bars - they climb and swing for hours trying to get the treats down!
*The major drawback is how difficult this cage can be to find - it isn't stocked by P@H or any of the major on-line retailers so unless you have a local petshop that stocks them, ebay may be the best bet. It is worth noting that the Gabber Rex seems to have recently been relabelled the
Montagna Rex for some reason and there seem to be several new colours.
*I find that a wodent wheel can rattle around in the cage causing noise from banging on the floor and a metallic rattle from the grille moving. This is easily remedied by clothes pegging the wodent stand to one of the ventillation holes in the shelf, like so:
Here are pictures of my different coloured Gabbers:
Red:
Grey/pink:
Green/red:
Blue/yellow:
White/pink:
All in all a BRILLIANT Hamster cage and highly recommended by myself and lot of people here - the "cons" are all easily remedied with a bit of inventiveness and I think it's one of the best cages out there
Gabber Rex - Cage review
Hybrid Mode
