Upside down - Charlie exploring it
It would probably be easier to have it as a subterranean house! The effect of having the house raised means that Charlie has made a bit of a burrow under his nesting room, which he seems happy with. If the house was lower he would probably have packed it out with nesting material instead (as he did in his old house).
Inside the house - I put the potty in once I knew he was peeing in that corner/compartment - which I had hoped he would choose!
He's under that burrow on the left
I think having the house either way would be good and it would just be used differently.
1) If it's subterranean they could use the extra rooms more for visible hoards rather than burying them and would probably enjoy going "down" to the house as if it was a burrow, but if it was in a fairly tall cage like the Barney I reckon it would either need a hemp mat on top or a shelf over it as it would be a long way to drop onto it - or both as most shelves aren't that deep.
2) Raised on legs it allows them to burrow and to dig under/in and out of the house if they want - but then you need to watch out pressing toys firmly down near the house - Charlie's burrow actually goes partly outside the boundary of the house so I couldn't put a bendy bridge there - or press it down firmly to make it stable as he was underneath the substrate! So a few things to watch out for, as with any set up.
I do think it makes a nice extra shelf in the Barney though, raised up on its legs (cage is only partly set up here).
I wondered if 10cm internal height would be high enough for a large Syrian but the height seems bigger than you'd think and seems fine. Plus it means it's not too high to climb out of the top hole.
It gives a large, dark nesting box and space for nesting, hoards and a separate toilet area and makes a nice shelf/flat roof. So I think the Germans maybe have it right when they say houses with rooms in work well - it makes a division between the nesting area and toilet area. Before Charlie had a large open house and the nest used to fall into the toilet, but it was ok as well really.
The roof is quite large to lift on and off, but came off easily without making a noise, until I plastikoted inside which made the roof stick a bit, so I had to sand the roof pegs down a bit inside and sawed them off shorter. It would have been better not to plastikote the inside of the roof! It wouldn't need to come off all the time anyway - but it's handy for emptying the potty and checking on hoards without the nest collapsing and without having to take the whole house out.
There is also a smaller version for dwarf hamsters in the same design, plus some different layout designs for dwarf hamsters.
You could probably makes something similar if you're good at diy - it's basically a box with a lid and compartments with holes cut in.
It isn't that cheap 29.95 euros works out approx £23.60 and postage is another £7. But providing it's plastikoted inside it's the kind of house you wouldn't need to change or upgrade for a bigger one ha ha. It works well as a dark nesting box with space for weeing and hoards and to do hamstery things like have a dark entrance run.
I would say the only slight downside is the large roof and some of the three room rodipet houses have three smaller lift-off roofs, but I'd still get the same one again, for the easy layout and easy access for the hamster (he can get in and out without climbing over the top of the toilet).
There is another version exactly the same, same price but with an inset terracotta dish on top which would be good for putting hamster food on and keeping their nails short at the same time - also, when lifted out, it leaves another large access hole on top so there would be less need to take the roof off - you could empty the potty/check on the hamster just by lifting the terracotta dish off.
https://www.rodipet.de/shop/haeuser/...erracotta.html
I nearly got that one, and only didn't because I already had a granite slab to sit on the roof and other toys and wanted to keep everything similar to before. As it happens I've rearranged the roof area anyway as Charlie is an old guy now and I wanted to keep his food etc at floor level so he doesn't have to climb up unless he feels like it, rather than having to to get at his food.
Because there is no ladder or ramp to access the top of the house, I think some kind of external access to the house roof is a good idea, so that the roof top hole is an option rather than a necessity for going on top of the roof. It's more for going down than climbing up I reckon. So a ladder or bendy bridge up to the roof would be a good idea as well.
It's the best hamster house Charlie has ever had and he seems to be enjoying it.
And it's a good reason to have a 100cm cage - so you can have a large house and still lots of floor area
I haven't put pros and cons because I can't see any cons really
Review of Rodipet Labyrinth DaVinci 41 x 26
Linear Mode
