Making & furnishing my first bin

[Esmy]

Good luck with your surgery!

[Dotty]

Good luck with your surgery!

[LifeWithPets]

I'm sure your syrian will loooove his/her palace. I can't wait to see how he/she gets on. Good luck with surgery by the way!

[shoshannah]

Originally Posted by humfry

give me a few days recovery & I'll give more details of stuff.was very inspired by those knuff box fences but the willow was so cheap. might also be off work for a while so good to have some projects. sorry can't post much now as limited access via phone.
planning to have a Syrian btw.

Good luck and what a lucky syrian! Hope to hear more soon, have a safe recovery

[humfry]

What a lovely friendly community here! As a relative newcomer I do appreciate all the kind thoughts. Everyone's hamsters are very lucky to have such great homes!

Surgery went well. Thumb repaired with stitches/wires/pins etc but will be stuck with splint & cast for several weeks so DIY on hold for now! Reduced to typing with one finger so I will be reading but not saying much.

[LifeWithPets]

Originally Posted by humfry

What a lovely friendly community here! As a relative newcomer I do appreciate all the kind thoughts. Everyone's hamsters are very lucky to have such great homes!

Surgery went well. Thumb repaired with stitches/wires/pins etc but will be stuck with splint & cast for several weeks so DIY on hold for now! Reduced to typing with one finger so I will be reading but not saying much.

That doesn't sound too fun at all. I'm so squeamish of stitches and staples etc, they make me feel so grossed out LOL. I hope you're okay!

[nalalove992]

That's amazing! Great job!

[humfry]

I've got a handy hint for anyone making a bin cage using nuts & bolts. Guess I have suddenly become safety aware! When you have fixed the mesh you end up with the sometimes slightly rough/sharp end of the bolt sticking up/out & could easily scrape a hand on one of them. A friend got me something called Dome Head Nuts to screw onto this excess thread - like this:

M3 M4 M5 M6 M8 M10 DOME HEAD CAP NUTS A2 STAINLESS | eBay

You just pick the right size (check the bolt size you bought) & they are dirt cheap from above supplier (£1.30 for 20 inc delivery in UK!!!). Just got mine & screwed them on & apart from being safer they look really neat! Saw them in B & Q where they were £0.80 EACH!!!!!

[alanjamesblair]

humfry, I'm deeply impressed, both with your commitment and with the design. The one thing that makes me wonder about this setup is the size of the wheel for a Syrian. How big is that wheel in diameter?

I made a second bin for my ham Magellan, peace be upon him, and the first held his wheel which took up a bit of space, but it had to, to keep his spine from bending. What do you think?

[humfry]

The wheel in the pics is the biggest that will stand on the platform - 8 inches (made the platform at height to accomodate this) on basis of baby Syrian will probably be OK with it at first. But I can easily replace it as soon as necessary with a 12 inch wheel attached to front wall of bin or stood on base level as I left a wide enough gap in front of the mezzanine floor to accomodate. When I last had hamsters 8 inch would have been regarded as big but thankfully we have all moved on. Every past cage I bought I had to replace the tiny included wheel but 8 inch was about the limit that you could fit. These bin homes are so adaptable & it is so much easier lifting off a lid than working through a little door or disconnecting the wire structure from plastic tray for access.

If my hammy needs even more space I'll add a second bin. Heaven forbid I get one like my Harris (1985 vintage) who was the size of a small guinea pig, & even though I upsizeded her cage I now realise she was still quite cramped - but I made a large playpen & used to let her run around in the room every evening.