Opinions on Hammocks and Fabric Beds Gratefully Received!

sparrowarms · 01-07-2013, 01:15 PM

Evening!

I'm a seamstress by trade, making sock creatures and purses normally, but after seeing all the amazing goodies in everyone's cages I've decided I'd like to add some hamster bits and bobs to my repertoire. So far I've made a hammock, snuggle sack and round bed for both my Syrian Mary and Russian Dwarf Princess Cutie Pie and I've found that Mary has limited interest in any of them, although she did go into the snuggle sack a few times, whereas Princess immediately transferred her bed into the snuggle sack, so fast in fact that when I went to put some bedding in there after cleaning her cage, she scared the life out of me as she's already moved in! Mary did venture onto her hammock momentarily but seemed thoroughly unimpressed.

So what I'm asking is, what do your hammies like? Do they use their hammocks? What kind of sewn items do you find are successful?

I'd be very grateful for any help you could give me! I'll also need some testers I think...

Here's Mary's round bed:

[IMG]

Handmade Hamster Bed by jennysews, on Flickr[/IMG]

And Princess Cutie Pie's setup:

Hamster Cage Accessories by jennysews, on Flickr

Ellie · 01-07-2013, 01:22 PM

My personal opinon is I would be to scared to leave beds etc in their home as I know they would chew them and I would be concerned they would ingest it - I'd be happy with a fabric material hammock though

linford27 · 01-07-2013, 01:22 PM

Charlie ignored her hammock apart from chewing it, which is a health hazard, so I had to remove it.
However she once had a snuggle sack a little like yours (but smaller - she grew out of it) and loved sleeping inside it. She actually built a nest around it!

Do you mean other peoples hams to test it? Where are you?

Linford
x

HammieandMerlin · 01-07-2013, 01:29 PM

My hams all use fleece hammocks and hanging houses. The reason I use fleece is because it doesn't thread, and it's what I use for my chinchilla for that reason, so I gave it a go on my hams. All three of my syrians like the fleece stuff, my dwarf only likes her fleece covered tube. My oldest dwarf doesn't have any of the stuff because he just destroyed it, but the others haven't done any damage

sparrowarms · 01-07-2013, 01:48 PM

Thank you for the replies, all really helpful already!

I've used cotton on the outside and fleece inside mainly as you get a lot nicer fabrics in cotton! I figured that mice happily chew up fabric items (which I have unfortunately been witness to. Goodbye lovely table cloth) for their nests so I thought I'd give it a go. If I saw any signs of destruction I'd take them out though.

I've been giving Mary my offcuts for the past year or so and she's been using them as nesting material quite happily. And she has the prettiest bed around!

Quote:

Originally Posted by linford27

Charlie ignored her hammock apart from chewing it, which is a health hazard, so I had to remove it.
However she once had a snuggle sack a little like yours (but smaller - she grew out of it) and loved sleeping inside it. She actually built a nest around it!

Do you mean other peoples hams to test it? Where are you?

Linford
x

With new products, I usually like to send a couple out to people for testing, would you like to try a snuggle sack? It's plenty big enough for my pretty hefty Syrian

Quote:

Originally Posted by HammieandMerlin

My hams all use fleece hammocks and hanging houses. The reason I use fleece is because it doesn't thread, and it's what I use for my chinchilla for that reason, so I gave it a go on my hams. All three of my syrians like the fleece stuff, my dwarf only likes her fleece covered tube. My oldest dwarf doesn't have any of the stuff because he just destroyed it, but the others haven't done any damage

Hamsters are so fickle

sparrowarms · 01-07-2013, 01:55 PM

Here's a better pic of Mary's snuggle sack:

. by jennysews, on Flickr

And a Princess pic just cos she's pretty

[IMG]

PICT0046 by jennysews, on Flickr[/IMG]

TraceyH · 01-07-2013, 01:58 PM

I'm not keen on them. I've removed the one I had in rat-hamsters cage. He chewed the fleece centre and also used it as a toilet. Plus, it looked stupid.

sparrowarms · 01-07-2013, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TraceyH

Plus, it looked stupid.

Hehehe.

linford27 · 01-07-2013, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sparrowarms

Thank you for the replies, all really helpful already!

I've used cotton on the outside and fleece inside mainly as you get a lot nicer fabrics in cotton! I figured that mice happily chew up fabric items (which I have unfortunately been witness to. Goodbye lovely table cloth) for their nests so I thought I'd give it a go. If I saw any signs of destruction I'd take them out though.

I've been giving Mary my offcuts for the past year or so and she's been using them as nesting material quite happily. And she has the prettiest bed around!

With new products, I usually like to send a couple out to people for testing, would you like to try a snuggle sack? It's plenty big enough for my pretty hefty Syrian

Hamsters are so fickle

I'd love to try one out! Are you in the UK, then?

StarlightSerenity · 01-07-2013, 02:15 PM

I think they look great! Did you use patterns or make them free hand? I've been looking for patterns and for the life of me can't find any anywhere!

They don't look remotely stupid IMO, that was a tad harsh Tracey :/

What do you use for the boning in the pouches?

I've used cotton on a hammock but only because I was 99% certain it wouldn't chewed. I wouldn't give your ham the offcuts - it has the same risks as fluffy bedding (see here for more info Poorly Robo *THE DANGERS OF FLUFFY BEDDING*) which is why any fabric stuff should be removed when chewed. Not that many hams chew them though!

I'd love one of the pouches for Evey