Homemade for Hamsters book

[Savannagh]

This is a book about making things for hamsters from cardboard and lolly sticks (mostly). It's all found online, but I got this cheap (it's definitely not worth the £9.99 printed on the back).

The instructions for making everything hamster safe and hamster sized are all fine. And if the book stuck to that, it would be fine.

There is a page about making your own wheel from a round plastic container and notes that it should be 'large enough for hammie to run in without arching his/her back'. And about wheel sizes, it says:
Small hamsters, such as dwarf varieties, will need a wheel of approximately 16.5 cm (6.5in.) in diameter while larger breeds, such as a Syrian, will need a wheel of 20 cm (8in.) or more.

However, at the beginning of the book there's a guide to what you need in a hamster cage, which is all the usual stuff you see recommended in reputable places. Except for these two bits:

Substrate:
Hamsters love digging, so keep it to 2.5 cm (1 in.) deep.

Which sounds like they're saying that's the maximum amount of substrate you should have.

It gets worse:
Cage:
The minimum recommended size for hamster cages is 1,000cm2 (155 sq. in.) of floor space and a height of 19 cm (7.6 in.) for Syrian hamsters, and 750cm2 (115 sq, in.) of usable floor space with a height of 17 cm (6.5 in.) for Dwarfs. Buy the largest cage that you can in order to provide your hamster with plenty of space.

I suppose technically that's in line with RSPCA advice, since their advice is unhelpful. But even if you ignore the insane floor space minimums and go with the height, they're saying that if you have a Syrian hamster then you should have a cage that's 19cm tall and put a 20cm diameter wheel in it...

1,000cm2 would be 40cm x 25cm and 750cm2 is 30cm x 25cm - neither of which are enough to fit in all the things the book says needs to be in a cage.

[sushi_78]

That sentence on bedding depth is a bit confusing. I think maybe they mean that things might be buried with deeper bedding, not that that's a problem at all.

The cage size suggestions aren't really in line with RSPCA advice. Even though they don't have an official minimum anymore, the RSPCA tend to require 80x50cm to adopt a hamster from them, sometimes a bit less for dwarfs, but one centre I found requires 115x60cm for all hamsters!