Did I buy the wrong cage?

[miffysmom]

Hi everyone. This is my second post, so go easy on me!

After doing a fair bit of research, I settled on the Habitrail OVO Loft for my new hamster, Miffy, who is still pretty tiny at about a month old. I won't link pictures here, but this is pretty much my setup, except I've removed the orange wheel and replaced it with the OVO trainer (outside the main area). I also got one set of add-on tubes, joints and lock thingies.

So she spends most of her time either in that green-capped dome thing or in one of the tubes, asleep. I just read somewhere that if you give new hamsters too much room, they can become harder to tame, as they can escape easily from >>THE HAND<<

So what do you think? Is there a smaller cage I should get? Should I remove all the fancy attachments?

[Rach210]

If Miffy is a syrian then you definitely don't need a smaller cage as I think the Ovo is a little on the small side anyway. Personally I don't like modular cages, they often have poor ventilation and don't give the hamster enough space - I mean space to run around rather than lots of little bits of space connected by tubes. A lot of people look at them and think they look fun for the hamster but often its hard to fit many toys in and often the wheel isn't big enough for an adult hamster and you can't always fit a good sized wheel in.

Maybe when Miffy gets bigger you could get something like a Zoozone 2, Hamster Heaven, Savic Ruffy or Ferplast Mary? They are fantastic sizes for a hamster, the last 3 allow climbing space and you can add a big wheel, shelves and lots of toys and the deep bases give space for lots of substrate to burrow in.

I know some people might not agree with me but i have quite strong views on what size cages I would keep my animals in.

[miffysmom]

Thanks for the info, those cages all seem quite spacious. I ended up going with the Loft because of the awesome-looking setup the person on that Amazon page has; at least if I go with a Zoozone 2/Hamster Heaven/etc, I can sell the Loft for a bit of money, lol!

[Amethyst_ice]

before i joined HC i thought the cages i had were big etc...how wrong i was. Its easy to egt sucked into the marketing etc and i guess in the wild they would have tunnels etc but the plastic doesnt give much ventilation and they also collapse..least in the wild they ventilate their nests better so i belive the cages mentioned are best. Ive just bought a zoozone 2 cant wait to pick it up. I also have the savic cambridge thats good.

But for a cheaper option and to keep any of the ovo you like you could always do a bin cage extension x

[Hope]

The loft is the best space wise of the ovo range, the wheel isnt too bad a size either. To create a big ovo set up would cost a huge ammount of money - I would suggest attaching your current set up to a large bin cage as suggested. I would also suggest removing the little green pod and any tubes (even when attached to a bin cage try and keep the tubing as short as possible) as when they are young and not used to human contact they will quickly learn that they can disapear up the tubes and the 'evil' hand cant get to them - this makes taming very difficult. Once she is tamer and more used to you, and doesnt want ot hide so much you can reattach some of the tubing.

[Fidgetthefirst]

Hmm, i'd add a bin, as what everyone else has said is pretty much what i'd say; no point repeating!
Yeah to make a nice size of an OVO set up, you'd have to have alot, and not only do they cost alot there a nightmare to clean! These 'pretty' set ups are what sucks new hamster owners in - just like it did with me!

[miffysmom]

Darn! Consider me 'suckered'! When I was a bit younger, my parents bought a hamster for me, and we put her in one of those glass aquariums with the mesh/screen lid. Those were a pain to clean, as they had those blasted pee corners. I suppose I liked the OVO Loft because one thing it doesn't have is corners, hah!

I'll start looking for something a bit more like what everyone recommends, a wire-top cage with a plastic bin, it looks like.

Thank you so much everyone I really appreciate the advice.

[mrnibblesmommy]

aquariums can eb a real problem with the four corners..UNLESS you get those corner pottys and put one in each corner then it's a breeze and you can have a hamster very happy in a big aquarium i like them for being draft free (in the winters here in NY are ridiciulous). i have an ovo pad for my hammie, Neessie, and she loves it but she lives under the orange stairs (i call her my little harry potter).LOL.

[Teddy]

If you put quite alot of substrate in you shouldn't get those pee corners. Like around 4 inch - 10 inch depending how big your hammy is.

[mangoandmimi]

Goodluck in finding something bigger
Yeah at first lol i thought the duna fun was for a syran only realised by the time Pearl was like nearly 1 or something