You can have the shelves whatever height you want
But even so there is quite a big drop through the gap from the top of the cage. I don't think anyone has had problems with the edges of the shelves being a problem - you can heap the substrate up in the middle a bit
And keep any hard toys under the shelves so they don't fall on them. The gap is about 40cm wide I think.
I went round the houses a bit with possible set ups for the Alexander. There are a number of ways to deal with the gap, but then it can make it difficult to fit a Syrian sized wheel in - unless you take the back joining shelf out.
Here are a few ways people have set it up. I quite like the one where the joining shelf is moved to the front and the wheel is at the back. You could put a little screw in shelf over the wheel then maybe. (Scroll down page)
Syrian cages?
This set up covers most of the gap (although I'd use wood or a chill'n chew mat rather than a fabric hammock) but it's for a dwarf hammy so doesn't allow for a big wheel.
Hamster cages - Rabbits United Forum
I had a few ideas for setting it up with a Syrian wheel and still using all three shelves as I like the racetrack idea of it - it's almost a whole extra level. One was to have the wheel at the left end of the cage facing inwards, with the shelf over it higher up and low substrate at that end, then a bendy stick bridge to fence that wheel end/area off and have deeper substrate in the rest of the cage. The right hand shelf could be lower down, with the joining shelf sloping down between the left shelf and right one. It only works for certain wheels though as some are taller than others. It would work with a 27cm wodent wheel and possible a 28cm Trixie wheel or Karlie 29cm wheel.
In the end I got the Barney cage - it's about 2 or 3 cm lower, I could put the wheel wherever I wanted because the cage has a flat top, and I made it a bit like the Alexander by having a big flat roofed house to make another shelf on the opposite side, and a long narrow shelf along the back. I still had a gap in the middle and tied a big rat tube along there but had the substrate deep and there was nothing hard to fall on.
But I actually wanted the Alexander! (It was out of stock for a while so that helped decide me on the Barney). I think the Alexander looks much nicer and has that whole extra level and the nice long built in house which hamsters seem to like. I think the downside is that to fit the wheel in, people end up compromising on depth of substrate - but you can heap it up in the middle. A lot of people have used the cage just as it is and not had any fall problems as long as there's enough substrate. I believe someone said their hammy liked to jump off the shelves lol.
In the end, because I wanted lots of substrate and didn't want the wheel to reduce that, I went with the idea of just having one shelf and the wheel attached to the other end of the cage. But then it was basically a Barney cage lol, with a higher roof.
I do like the Barney cage - it was easier to set up - it's a bit deeper at 54cm which might not sound much but it makes the floor area quite a bit more and easier to fit things in. But I ended up spending more than if I'd got the Alexander by buying extra shelves/house.
I think fitting an 11" wheel in can be a pain with the Alexander, but not impossible and you could have deeper substrate in some areas and lower in others. It's a compromise between extra shelf space and extra substrate really.
The Barney cage is also 100cm now. I went with a wheel that could be screwed to the bars and sit above the substrate and spent more on the wheel rather than on the cage. Now that I've had the Barney cage I realise you can have the substrate deeper than the base quite easily
With Fitch and the 7mm bar spacing, the substrate doesn't fall out! So this would be the same with the Alexander. So technically you could "raise" everything and not have a big drop through the middle.
ie have the substrate up to just below the two front doors and the shelves higher up. And use a different house than the built in one (or it would be buried lol) or use it buried and have a tunnel leading down to it. But then an 11" wheel wouldn't fit in.
At the end of the day I would have got the Alexander as first choice and fiddled around to get the shelves, wheel, substrate and fall risks sorted. But found the Barney easier to set up.
The Alexander has the bonus though of giving lots of overhead shelves for a hamster to feel secure under and you can still fit a good amount of substrate in it.
This was how my Barney was set up. The shelf is on the left with the Sputnik next to it. On the right I had a labyrinth house and stuck dowel legs on it so it sat high up as a shelf and on top of the substrate so it could be tunneled under. Along the back, covering the gap between the house and edge of the cage, is a long narrow shelf going as far as the wheel. The wheel was screwed to the bars and went right up to the roof with about 4 or 5" substrate underneath it.
You can see the substrate up against the 7mm bars - doesn't fall out
So I went with - everything higher up so there wasn't much of a drop from a height - but it meant being able to put the wheel high up as well. Similar idea to have the wheel centre back in the Alexander really and having the substrate piled up in the middle. I also didn't use the long ramp and had a bendy bridge ramp instead so it took up less space (although that one screws to the bars so it was secure).
Alexander question/can I see your cages?
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