New rodipet houses - Page 2

Pebbles82 · 11-28-2015, 12:13 PM

I think they like anything dark with a roof over where they can build a nest! A cardboard box is fine.

kelza · 11-28-2015, 12:15 PM

I love the look of those houses! Wish the US companies would start producing something similar.

Piebald · 11-28-2015, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryHamster

can i ask you guys a question if a hamster has a cardboard box for awhile would they like living in a wooden box? mind you he is living in a pretty small box. I am thinking
https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...us-dalani.html

Well I wouldn't want to try and predict what a Hamster would like lol but Rodipet knows what they're doing so you've a good chance

Scarlett Empress · 11-28-2015, 12:41 PM

Hmm the height would actually be a deal breaker for me

...I'd like something more like 15cm really.

Pebbles82 · 11-28-2015, 01:50 PM

I know what you mean - the labyrinth houses are quite low for a syrian. I think they'd be best on little stilts on top of the substrate, so there is more depth down under them.

Scarlett Empress · 11-28-2015, 03:22 PM

Trouble is, Smokey will NOT have any substrate in her house! I keep putting a layer in, thinking it will be warm and comfy - and she digs every last bit out, all she wants in there is her loo roll. So while I think putting the house on stilts is actually a great idea, I reckon she wouldn't leave it sitting on substrate - she would dig it out, and then chomp the bottom of the walls of the house. Probably at 4am. I would definitely need it to reach right to the base of the cage.

cypher · 11-28-2015, 11:35 PM

They aren't very tall so I guess it wouldn't work if you needed to put the house on the base of the cage, don't know about stilts lol! but they are designed to go onto a deep layer of substrate to allow for burrowing underneath.

Bertiebobbins · 11-29-2015, 12:42 AM

You can't be sure what they will like! Nibble would not make his nest in any cardboard box I gave him, but when I gave him a wooden one he moved in about three minutes later. Glowy on the other hand doesn't seem to like wooden houses!

I'm dubious about the size of rooms, they look really small to me. But the Germans do seem to know what they're doing. They have a larger minimum cage size than UK don't they, so the large houses wouldn't take up such a large % of the cage floor.

Scarlett Empress · 11-29-2015, 01:22 AM

I don't mind about them taking up a lot of floor space, as the roof makes a nice big platform - but yes, would like to know there was at least one room for building a huge nest in!

Pebbles82 · 11-29-2015, 02:30 AM

I think on the larger, syrian sized labyrinth houses there are some good sized rooms - about 15 x 17cm and maybe a room would help keep the nest from collapsing, but it's true they wouldn't be able to build a really huge nest unless they dug down a bit, so it would be more important to keep the room warm, but then I think that's needed anyway as even a big nest isn't going to keep them warm in cold weather! Smokey is funny not wanting any substrate in the house lol! The house I have for Charlie at the moment is 35cm by 24.5cm deep and is just one empty space inside, and it's 16cm tall, which seems really tall. I have it on the base of the cage because it is so tall, but I put a couple of inches of substrate inside it, so it is like it is stood on substrate, and that makes it about 11cm high inside, but it can be deeper if he can burrow down a little bit. Charlie did build a big nest but has a kind of little burrown in it and goes down a bit further into the substrate when he goes in his nest. The problem with it being one big open space is the nest kind of keeps falling apart at the edges so he is forever pulling that side together again. I really like the lift off roof, but wish it had a door in the top like the labyrinth houses. It's this Ferplast Sin Rabbit house

Ferplast 84646099 Wooden House for Rabbits SIN 4646 Total Size Approx. 34.5 x 24 x 16.5 cm: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

You can see it in action in Charlie's cage tour video if you're interested - fast forward to see the inside and cut the waffle lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXzfbE6wQQk

Having the tunnel over the front kind of makes it a bit of a labyrinth house but then that makes it take up more space in the cage, whereas the labyrinth houses have the first tunnel built in so no need for the bendy bridge. I'd quite like this one which seems a good size for a Syrian. If it's 41cm wide and 26cm deep, then taking a couple of centimetres off for the wood walls means it's about 39 x 24 interior. So each of the three width compartments would be about 12 to 13cm wide and the bigger compartments would be about 15cm long I reckon, with the smaller ones being about 9cm. So the big rooms would be about 12cm x 15cm. Equivalent to one of these houses maybe

Wooden Cottage for Hamsters or Gerbils: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

I think they would like the enclosed aspect of it - Charlie's first nest was in one of the little pod houses on a hamster heaven shelf! It was far too small and it kept popping off the shelf, but he loved it because it was cosy I think, and chose it over a larger wood house. Might be tricky for a ham to decide which room to build his nest in though lol.