Artie, my Winter White... story and questions!

[fluffymunchkins]

Originally Posted by lykame

Thank you, thank you. Artie certainly thinks he is gorgeous. Or well, I hope he does, because he is.

I will watch him and see how he does with his mini duna. I would like it to be big enough for him but will take the necessary measures if it turns out that it's not big enough for him. I'm really really glad that he likes his wheel, because it eases my anxiety about the space he has.

What do you think of the Harry Hamster mix? Do you remove anything from it before you give it to him?

Thank you.
Lydia and Artie.

I've never had a problem with Harry hamster, though some bags do have a lot of corn in it. So for hybrids or those at a high risk of diabetes (such as my chinese, who's brother had diabetes) then I will remove the corn.
But I'm glad to hear you've bought Silvers mix, hope it works out for you

As for cages, it realy depends on the hamster for what benefits them best. For example: Squirt is better off in a 60cm long cage with a second level, than a 70cm long single level cage. As he enjoys having the two levels so much.

[lykame]

Hi.

I hope Silver's mix works out for me too. It will remove a lot of the stress associated with feeding him.

I've just been looking at bin cages but I don't think I have the DIY skills to do this myself. I'm also looking at the Zoozone 2 as getting the ZZ1 doesn't seem to add any space, just puts it on one level instead... but that is a super big area.

Artie does seem to like having more than one level and he likes the ledge under the shelf a lot. He only goes in the house to either pull bedding material out of it or if I come and see what he's doing, and then suddenly hiding in the house if it's closer than his nest is a good idea.

Ideally I want the best of both worlds... I would like a 70 cm long cage with a ledge on it... does such a thing exist? I haven't really spotted any that seem good like that.

I'm currently having a minor panic about the size of his wheel. It's six inches, and he loves using it... I'm just wondering whether it's too small for him? I've only seen him using it from in front and possibly his back is bent. If I can stay awake long enough tonight for him to come out I will have to see whether his back is bent or not. Argh. I thought 6 inch wheels were fine for dwarfs but maybe he needs bigger. *Sighs*

Originally Posted by fluffymunchkins

I've never had a problem with Harry hamster, though some bags do have a lot of corn in it. So for hybrids or those at a high risk of diabetes (such as my chinese, who's brother had diabetes) then I will remove the corn.
But I'm glad to hear you've bought Silvers mix, hope it works out for you

As for cages, it realy depends on the hamster for what benefits them best. For example: Squirt is better off in a 60cm long cage with a second level, than a 70cm long single level cage. As he enjoys having the two levels so much.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Just for the record - There is absolutely 100% nothing wrong with a mini duna for a lone dwarf.
We've kept dwarves in them perfectly fine, and while they have bigger cages now I can honestly say that Whizz was no happier at all in a bigger cage and will be back down to that size cage if she can't live peacefully with her "potential friend" Muffin unless she shows she's happy in bigger, and honestly, I expect her to be happiest in the mini duna/duna fun size cages.
Yes we also had Skip benefit from a cage upgrade, but he was happy in the mini duna and I honestly would not have upgraded him if I hadn't felt mean that his cage was smaller than that of our russian hybrids and syrian. He is happier now but he was happy then too.
So, just to be clear. The mini duna is and will be 100% fine.
Some dwarves benefit from keeping their cage that small - A great example being member Pompompoms Dasher the roborovski. He needs a mini duna and thats all there is to it, and the "bigger is better" rule can be absolute nonsense so don't worry about the cage size. It does meet the minimum for a lone dwarf, so unless he's unhappy I'd keep it exactly as it is.
You can upgrade if you want, but as others have said, it really depends on the individual hamster and plenty of people keep dwarves in mini duna cages without any problems, the dwarves are happy and the owners are happy so it works out well.

As far as food goes, our russian hybrids are on a mix of tesco peanut and sunflower mix and harry hamster. We did try removing corn but have now decided to go for a balanced diet instead of risking removal of things.
They'd be fine on either mix, but we prefer to give our hams more variety and since we store food in containers instead of the bags its easy enough to mix two bags together and feed everyone from the result.
If we could afford silvers mix they'd be on that, but realistically its out of the budget if we want to eat and thats ok.


Oh and after writing my essay, I kinda forgot to ask something important. Probably not the case, but is the Artur/Artie thing from Shrek?

[lykame]

Dear Kyrilliondaemon,

Haha, I like your essay! Expect on in return.

There's an Artur in Shrek? Oh no! Gosh, I might have to change his name. (Seriously).

No, to be fair my thought process for his name was complicated and took a long time. I did a lot of name searching. I wanted a 'proper' name as all of my animals have had such names. My granddad's name was Arthur Eric, and he passed away a very long time ago. But he loved animals, and I have a child's ideolised memory of him, if that makes sense, so I like doing things in honour of him.

My childhood dog, a wonderful West Highland White Terrier who died at the ripe age of 15 in the middle of last year was called Eric, so that name was out. And to be fair, I couldn't call a hamster Arthur directly after my grandfather, because this little guy's lifespan is too short... which is mean I know, I'm sorry, but once it's used it's used and I might want to use it in future on an animal with a greater longevity (now that I've said this mean thing, if I one day name an animal Arthur he is destined to die young!!! ).

Anyhoo, I also wanted something perhaps Russian (corny I know), but honestly, the variety of Russian names turns out to not be so huge - I mean, Vladimir?! - and because he's a Winter White, I wanted something perhaps related to the cold. I got a bit side-tracked at this stage, and searched for a lot of the more epic names, and considered names like Storm, Thor, Mjolnir, or words meaning ice in Russian and such things. None of them fit this little guy, and I reminded myself that I still wanted a real name. Er, well all names are real, but the only Storm I know is from the X-men series, and she's a she.

I then went off that track completely and thought about some more charming names. He was nearly going to be a Tobi (short for Tobias), but I couldn't look at him and think 'Tobi', and I also knew I was always going to be saying 'He's a Tobi with an i'.

I then considered 'Artie' as a name being short for 'Arthur' with an h, but decided at that time that it didn't really suit him, because he's quite pretty and almost a silver/white/blue colour... and I wanted something to match that....

I spent a while feeling like I had his name on the tip of my tongue and couldn't quite spit it out, which was quite frustrating.

Anyway, eventually I was going down the Wiki page of famous Russians, and there was a Russian guy called Artur who had travelled to the North Pole. Russian, Ice, a bit of a link to Arthur but not actually Arthur... I mulled over it for a while, searched a bit more, but kept coming back to that, and over time it seemed to fit him more and more. So that's where I got Artur from.

Sorry! That was almost certainly TMI. But I enjoyed telling it.

The cage issue. Today I have added a wooden bridge into it and a wooden log as well, and he seems to like those additions. In fact he has literally just gone up the ramp and discovered a mealworm lying there so nicely for him. It has been devoured. I have also removed his food bowl and scattered his food to see how he handles it. I have also shoved some millet spray into one of those weird wooden things to provide him with a bit of a challenge, but he hasn't noticed it yet. A couple of the millet spray seeds fell off whilst I was doing this and they have gone. Aww he's so awesome.

It's rather cramped now, his cage, what with me setting it up to allow access to everything but also to provide obstacles and such, but hopefully he'll like it. It's just that when he's buzzing around actively it seems too small for him and like he would benefit from a place where he felt he could stretch his legs whilst still feeling safe. I am letting him out into my kitchen and that seems to freak him out somewhat.

I have been researching the cages heavily, and I wonder whether trying to get an extension for it to make it into a duna fun, with a third level, will work? That would add an extra shelf. However, when I first put him into the cage he was so freaked out about everything that he flung himself from the first level a couple of times before he figured out the ramp, and I really would not like a drop from a second level, so that makes me a bit nervous. To do this would cost about 25 quid. I have found a large version of the duna fun actually, which is 71.5 X 46 X 41cm... but this also makes me nervous with three levels (the falling risk) and it is very expensive.

I can get a ZZ2 for £46.99 at a local petshop, and this seems to be a very good price. The ZZ1 is £35.49 but is basically like taking the shelf out of the mini duna and putting it all on one level. In fact I was thinking I could just put this mini duna with the top removed into the ZZ2 with some ramps to add some levels and such. I wonder if that would work? Knowing my luck he would just stay in the mini duna section and not venture out further.

I also don't really want to have to mesh the top, but he's a dwarf and not a syrian so I figure so long as I don't put anything too high up he won't reach the wire.

I'm really glad to hear that you have lots that are happy in the mini duna. That reassures me. Maybe I need to give it a bit more time; the pet shop had quite a few ZZ2s so although I'm wanting to rush out and get one I probably need to give it a bit more research and time.

I really am hoping that Silver finds a way to get the mix offered without the extortionate P&P. That was quite painful when I had to pay for that. But if Artie likes it and I'm not having to throw away more than half of the food (which I am currently doing) then I am happy. I feel that even though it's more expensive, it probably works out the same by the time I've removed the cost of food wasted and also from the stress of trying to figure out what to take out and what to put back in.

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

Just for the record - There is absolutely 100% nothing wrong with a mini duna for a lone dwarf.
We've kept dwarves in them perfectly fine, and while they have bigger cages now I can honestly say that Whizz was no happier at all in a bigger cage and will be back down to that size cage if she can't live peacefully with her "potential friend" Muffin unless she shows she's happy in bigger, and honestly, I expect her to be happiest in the mini duna/duna fun size cages.
Yes we also had Skip benefit from a cage upgrade, but he was happy in the mini duna and I honestly would not have upgraded him if I hadn't felt mean that his cage was smaller than that of our russian hybrids and syrian. He is happier now but he was happy then too.
So, just to be clear. The mini duna is and will be 100% fine.
Some dwarves benefit from keeping their cage that small - A great example being member Pompompoms Dasher the roborovski. He needs a mini duna and thats all there is to it, and the "bigger is better" rule can be absolute nonsense so don't worry about the cage size. It does meet the minimum for a lone dwarf, so unless he's unhappy I'd keep it exactly as it is.
You can upgrade if you want, but as others have said, it really depends on the individual hamster and plenty of people keep dwarves in mini duna cages without any problems, the dwarves are happy and the owners are happy so it works out well.

As far as food goes, our russian hybrids are on a mix of tesco peanut and sunflower mix and harry hamster. We did try removing corn but have now decided to go for a balanced diet instead of risking removal of things.
They'd be fine on either mix, but we prefer to give our hams more variety and since we store food in containers instead of the bags its easy enough to mix two bags together and feed everyone from the result.
If we could afford silvers mix they'd be on that, but realistically its out of the budget if we want to eat and thats ok.


Oh and after writing my essay, I kinda forgot to ask something important. Probably not the case, but is the Artur/Artie thing from Shrek?

[kyrilliondaemon]

Ah right... Sorry for mentioning Shrek then lol, but yeah its the "Artie" in the third film. Least I think it is...
The story of how you named him is good though, and I don't think it should change just because I mentioned a Shrek film really.

Ah, now I see the caging issue better. We actually extended our mini duna cages into duna fun cages and it did help with space but the wheels had to move to the lower shelf as they didn't fit on the floor anymore. Whizz adored hers and I almost felt mean taking it off her to try and reintroduce her to Muffin actually lol (She's happy now in half a ZZ2 too though)
I find the duna fun large to cost more than its worth really, I've looked into it and its not a cost I could justify. They should be ok falling from the top shelf in a duna fun though. Ours dived happily off the shelves in the mini duna but then behaved well and didn't leap off the duna fun shelf, but even if they did the drop shouldn't be big enough to do any harm with a healthy amount of substrate on the cage floor.

We've actually moved ours out of the mini duna cages now, but both in them were happy (or in Whizz's case not less-happy than in any other cage as the cage wasn't the problem), and I do know someone else who I really value the opinion of and who needs to keep one of hers in a mini duna as he isn't happy in anything bigger.

If you want to give him more space then go for it, but I was worried you may be feeling pressured into it and er... kinda went off on one about it lol. Sorry about that.

Its a ZZ2 that Skip moved into from his mini duna, but he's since moved to an Alexander instead after we got it cheap on ebay lol. The spare ZZ2 became the russian hybrids home instead. We did mesh the tops of our ZZ2 cages but found it fairly easily done which was good.

And I'm glad Silver's mix proved worth the money for you

[lykame]

Sam,



Haha, don't worry, I won't change his name. I just don't like naming things after popular culture, which is obviously a personal thing. Just gosh, the number of rabbits etc I have seen in pet shops with names like Harry, Ron, Percy, Shrek, Fiona... argh!!!

The wheels, please, let me ask... I immediately ditched the wheel that came with the mini duna, it was awful. Instead I am using one that I have just measured with a tape measure and it's six inches, maybe even only 5.5 inches.

I have tried researching this, and I cannot for the life of me figure out if this is too small for him? I have only seen him running on it from the front and have a suspicion that he may be arching his back a bit. Certainly I don't want this. However I got this size because the next size up seemed to be 12 inches, and I wasn't convinced he would be heavy enough to make something like that move!!!

Also, I have seen silent wheels attached to the sides of the cages like ZZ2, and I cannot figure out how that's done. Are they on their own stands or are they attached a different way?

You're very sweet. I think that everyone on this website is lovely and that clearly everyone wants the best for their hamsters and also for everyone elses hamsters. I am now finding it very painful to walk through Pets and Home and see how small the cages are for the hamsters that are there and it makes my heart hurt. I expressed this even to one of the workers and she said that they were all sold so quickly, which I'm sure is true... but god knows if those hamsters are lucky enough to go to a good quality home! Many of the cages in that place that they recommend are awful!!!

I also think that the nature of this website is that if you're on it, you want the best for your hamster and seeing these big cages really makes you feel that you should be offering that for them. So it is nice to see the other side of the story, that hamsters are often fine and happy even if they're a bit more cozy.

Anyhoo, I know I am doing the best by him, and I can see that this mini duna cage is a really good cage. I like that it's multi-level and he likes that it's multi-level. I like that it fits in my utility room very nicely and any bigger and I will have to store it on the floor instead. However, his behaviour when he's awake and buzzing around does make me feel he could do with bigger. It might be that if I provide him with more he won't use any of it... but I have a feeling he will.

I hadn't realised that a single little creature would cause me so much anxiety about doing right by him.

I'm really looking forward to Silver's mix arriving and for Artie to test it out. Hopefully he likes it as much as I like the idea of it!!!

Lydia and Artie.

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

Ah right... Sorry for mentioning Shrek then lol, but yeah its the "Artie" in the third film. Least I think it is...
The story of how you named him is good though, and I don't think it should change just because I mentioned a Shrek film really.

Ah, now I see the caging issue better. We actually extended our mini duna cages into duna fun cages and it did help with space but the wheels had to move to the lower shelf as they didn't fit on the floor anymore. Whizz adored hers and I almost felt mean taking it off her to try and reintroduce her to Muffin actually lol (She's happy now in half a ZZ2 too though)
I find the duna fun large to cost more than its worth really, I've looked into it and its not a cost I could justify. They should be ok falling from the top shelf in a duna fun though. Ours dived happily off the shelves in the mini duna but then behaved well and didn't leap off the duna fun shelf, but even if they did the drop shouldn't be big enough to do any harm with a healthy amount of substrate on the cage floor.

We've actually moved ours out of the mini duna cages now, but both in them were happy (or in Whizz's case not less-happy than in any other cage as the cage wasn't the problem), and I do know someone else who I really value the opinion of and who needs to keep one of hers in a mini duna as he isn't happy in anything bigger.

If you want to give him more space then go for it, but I was worried you may be feeling pressured into it and er... kinda went off on one about it lol. Sorry about that.

Its a ZZ2 that Skip moved into from his mini duna, but he's since moved to an Alexander instead after we got it cheap on ebay lol. The spare ZZ2 became the russian hybrids home instead. We did mesh the tops of our ZZ2 cages but found it fairly easily done which was good.

And I'm glad Silver's mix proved worth the money for you

[kyrilliondaemon]

*shudders* Yeah... I hate those sort of names too. My cousins kid is likely to be called Harry forever (regardless of what actually she names it) after someone joked about Harry Potter... Now the entire family knows it as "Bump" or "Harry" so she can't win - either its sharing a name with one of our hams or its being named after Harry Potter lol. The poor thing isn't even born yet but it will grow up as one of those two names to my family now.
Am glad you won't be changing your hams name though

We ditched the mini duna wheels too, and I think the one you're using now is Skip's spare-spare wheel actually (he came with it as a rescue). Sadly I'd get bigger for anything other than a small robrovski as chances are a hybrid will outgrow it (ours use 6.5" silent spinners and those are fantastic).
So yeah, I'd go for a 6" minimum for your wheel size really.

Er... In the ZZ2 we always use the stands. If there's a way of attatching them to the sides of a non-barred cage I'm afraid I've never heard of it.

Oh I avoid our local branch of P@H. If I go in again I'll just get myself banned I think. They're exceptionally bad even for P@H and I hate the place. We do go to the one 2 hours away if we're in the area though, and to be fair they do actually seem to care at least a little about animal welfare (like most syrians have a tank to themselves) so thats good really.

And yeah, if you're on this site I hope you want the best for your ham anyway lol. Everyone here does and its one of the reasons I love it here
With cages each hamster needs something different really, we've tried a few cages with most hams now and are near finalising caging for everyone (6/8 are finalised) but there's about a 50-50 chance that if Whizz can't live with Muffin she will at best have a duna-fun complex for caging. (We use duna fun cages as travel cages for lone dwarves and if Whizz doesn't want a big cage she'll get them joined together if she likes that.) Muffin on the other hand will probably be happy in the ZZ2 that they're being reintroduced in at the moment.

If you think he'll use more space then I'd go for it and try and get him more space. Extending the duna into a duna fun is an easy start, and then it has tubes so can easily be attatched to other things if needed (like I want to give Whizz a few of them if she doesn't want a bigger cage, as I think she'd like that).

And yeah... I know what you mean about the amount of concern a hamster can cause. The amount of time I've spent debating everything from caging, to food, to bedding, to substrate... Its insane lol

Best of luck with Silver's food and deciding what you want to do with caging

[lykame]

Poodles, I bought the wheel on the first day, knowing the one that came with the cage would be pants and although it wasn't expensive, it's annoying getting something that needs to go.

Artie is three months' old so I'm not sure how much bigger he's going to get. He's a little fuzz ball when he's holding food in his paws but is quite small really.

Ok I've measured the wheel three times and it's definitely five and a half inches. Will that extra inch make such a difference? Or should I go for one even a bit bigger again? It's a nice wheel as well, not noisy or anything with a touch of olive oil on the mechanism.

See I thought about upgrading to a duna fun so that I could get the wire bit that tubing could be put on, and then getting a second duna fun so that I could join the two cages together. Or another cage that could be joined to it, etc. But by that time it's again starting to add up to the £100 region so possibly if I want to get bigger I just need to go for the ZZ2 and go with that. How will he get out through the wire though if I don't put any toys in that are climbable?

Yeah let's not get started on the bedding and substrate, I can't cope with that. Any recommendations? Hahahaha. Actually now that you say that, he has been scratching a bit, and I don't know whether that's just part of his grooming process or whether because he's itchy from something else....

Lydia and Artie.

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

*shudders* Yeah... I hate those sort of names too. My cousins kid is likely to be called Harry forever (regardless of what actually she names it) after someone joked about Harry Potter... Now the entire family knows it as "Bump" or "Harry" so she can't win - either its sharing a name with one of our hams or its being named after Harry Potter lol. The poor thing isn't even born yet but it will grow up as one of those two names to my family now.
Am glad you won't be changing your hams name though

We ditched the mini duna wheels too, and I think the one you're using now is Skip's spare-spare wheel actually (he came with it as a rescue). Sadly I'd get bigger for anything other than a small robrovski as chances are a hybrid will outgrow it (ours use 6.5" silent spinners and those are fantastic).
So yeah, I'd go for a 6" minimum for your wheel size really.

Er... In the ZZ2 we always use the stands. If there's a way of attatching them to the sides of a non-barred cage I'm afraid I've never heard of it.

Oh I avoid our local branch of P@H. If I go in again I'll just get myself banned I think. They're exceptionally bad even for P@H and I hate the place. We do go to the one 2 hours away if we're in the area though, and to be fair they do actually seem to care at least a little about animal welfare (like most syrians have a tank to themselves) so thats good really.

And yeah, if you're on this site I hope you want the best for your ham anyway lol. Everyone here does and its one of the reasons I love it here
With cages each hamster needs something different really, we've tried a few cages with most hams now and are near finalising caging for everyone (6/8 are finalised) but there's about a 50-50 chance that if Whizz can't live with Muffin she will at best have a duna-fun complex for caging. (We use duna fun cages as travel cages for lone dwarves and if Whizz doesn't want a big cage she'll get them joined together if she likes that.) Muffin on the other hand will probably be happy in the ZZ2 that they're being reintroduced in at the moment.

If you think he'll use more space then I'd go for it and try and get him more space. Extending the duna into a duna fun is an easy start, and then it has tubes so can easily be attatched to other things if needed (like I want to give Whizz a few of them if she doesn't want a bigger cage, as I think she'd like that).

And yeah... I know what you mean about the amount of concern a hamster can cause. The amount of time I've spent debating everything from caging, to food, to bedding, to substrate... Its insane lol

Best of luck with Silver's food and deciding what you want to do with caging

[lykame]

I'm just watching him run in his wheel now, and his back is not quite straight... instead of a 180 degree flat line, it's more like it's out from that by about... maybe a tiny amount. Five degrees? And he's having to hold his head up 'proudly'. I can't tell whether that's an okay position for him or whether it's bad for his back, and I can't get a picture for it in the kind of light he's happy to run in with my stupid camera phone.



... Okay so it's five minutes later. He's happily run for a while and I dared turn the light on. Initially just outside the room, which he tolerated, but still it's not good enough for a picture. Then I tried again with the light in the room on but as soon as it was on he went diving back into his nest. Clever cookie.

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

*shudders* Yeah... I hate those sort of names too. My cousins kid is likely to be called Harry forever (regardless of what actually she names it) after someone joked about Harry Potter... Now the entire family knows it as "Bump" or "Harry" so she can't win - either its sharing a name with one of our hams or its being named after Harry Potter lol. The poor thing isn't even born yet but it will grow up as one of those two names to my family now.
Am glad you won't be changing your hams name though

We ditched the mini duna wheels too, and I think the one you're using now is Skip's spare-spare wheel actually (he came with it as a rescue). Sadly I'd get bigger for anything other than a small robrovski as chances are a hybrid will outgrow it (ours use 6.5" silent spinners and those are fantastic).
So yeah, I'd go for a 6" minimum for your wheel size really.

Er... In the ZZ2 we always use the stands. If there's a way of attatching them to the sides of a non-barred cage I'm afraid I've never heard of it.

Oh I avoid our local branch of P@H. If I go in again I'll just get myself banned I think. They're exceptionally bad even for P@H and I hate the place. We do go to the one 2 hours away if we're in the area though, and to be fair they do actually seem to care at least a little about animal welfare (like most syrians have a tank to themselves) so thats good really.

And yeah, if you're on this site I hope you want the best for your ham anyway lol. Everyone here does and its one of the reasons I love it here
With cages each hamster needs something different really, we've tried a few cages with most hams now and are near finalising caging for everyone (6/8 are finalised) but there's about a 50-50 chance that if Whizz can't live with Muffin she will at best have a duna-fun complex for caging. (We use duna fun cages as travel cages for lone dwarves and if Whizz doesn't want a big cage she'll get them joined together if she likes that.) Muffin on the other hand will probably be happy in the ZZ2 that they're being reintroduced in at the moment.

If you think he'll use more space then I'd go for it and try and get him more space. Extending the duna into a duna fun is an easy start, and then it has tubes so can easily be attatched to other things if needed (like I want to give Whizz a few of them if she doesn't want a bigger cage, as I think she'd like that).

And yeah... I know what you mean about the amount of concern a hamster can cause. The amount of time I've spent debating everything from caging, to food, to bedding, to substrate... Its insane lol

Best of luck with Silver's food and deciding what you want to do with caging

[lykame]

I'm such an idiot! I just realised how to make him more comfy in the expanse of my kitchen! Turn the lights down...!!!

Dooohhh...!

An idiotic Lydia, and a very clever and sensibly cautious Artie.

Originally Posted by kyrilliondaemon

*shudders* Yeah... I hate those sort of names too. My cousins kid is likely to be called Harry forever (regardless of what actually she names it) after someone joked about Harry Potter... Now the entire family knows it as "Bump" or "Harry" so she can't win - either its sharing a name with one of our hams or its being named after Harry Potter lol. The poor thing isn't even born yet but it will grow up as one of those two names to my family now.
Am glad you won't be changing your hams name though

We ditched the mini duna wheels too, and I think the one you're using now is Skip's spare-spare wheel actually (he came with it as a rescue). Sadly I'd get bigger for anything other than a small robrovski as chances are a hybrid will outgrow it (ours use 6.5" silent spinners and those are fantastic).
So yeah, I'd go for a 6" minimum for your wheel size really.

Er... In the ZZ2 we always use the stands. If there's a way of attatching them to the sides of a non-barred cage I'm afraid I've never heard of it.

Oh I avoid our local branch of P@H. If I go in again I'll just get myself banned I think. They're exceptionally bad even for P@H and I hate the place. We do go to the one 2 hours away if we're in the area though, and to be fair they do actually seem to care at least a little about animal welfare (like most syrians have a tank to themselves) so thats good really.

And yeah, if you're on this site I hope you want the best for your ham anyway lol. Everyone here does and its one of the reasons I love it here
With cages each hamster needs something different really, we've tried a few cages with most hams now and are near finalising caging for everyone (6/8 are finalised) but there's about a 50-50 chance that if Whizz can't live with Muffin she will at best have a duna-fun complex for caging. (We use duna fun cages as travel cages for lone dwarves and if Whizz doesn't want a big cage she'll get them joined together if she likes that.) Muffin on the other hand will probably be happy in the ZZ2 that they're being reintroduced in at the moment.

If you think he'll use more space then I'd go for it and try and get him more space. Extending the duna into a duna fun is an easy start, and then it has tubes so can easily be attatched to other things if needed (like I want to give Whizz a few of them if she doesn't want a bigger cage, as I think she'd like that).

And yeah... I know what you mean about the amount of concern a hamster can cause. The amount of time I've spent debating everything from caging, to food, to bedding, to substrate... Its insane lol

Best of luck with Silver's food and deciding what you want to do with caging