Ex-owner looking for cage advice

[Pebbles82]

Yep. It’s better in some ways as less plastic stuff to ignore haha. It only comes with one shelf but I’m not sure if it’s the solid shelf or not. It’s a good cage and has the same big front opening door. My first good cage was the Savic Mickey 2XL which is also a hamster heaven basically but no tubes or penthouse and narrow 7mm bar spacing. But all the contents except the Sputnik had to go as intended for mice. I just got a flat roofed guinea pig house which made a nice big nesting box that was dark inside and also doubled up as a shelf/platform. A shoebox house does the same thing and costs nothing

I have used the Mickey 2XL for a few hamsters including a Robo as it has the narrow bar spacing so it was a good buy. However it is ridiculously expensive. Costs about £80 odd pounds and is only sold by Amazon. But currently not available it seems. The Savic Sky is usually cheaper.

[Zedrobber]

Excellent, thank you for that - I assumed it was the same but you can't always tell with some websites. I'm also looking at the Jemima 100cm cage which is a little more expensive but is also bigger. Not heard much about that one though.

[Pebbles82]

I think that one is a bit tall isn't it? I think it's the same as the Mamble cage (as it used to be called).

This is how my Savic cage (HH equivalent) was set up for our first Syrian. Although I did upgrade him later to the Barney cage. But he was quite happy in this as long as he had plenty of out of cage time. I tend to prefer the 100 cm cages for Syrians and the Savic Plaza is good. But works out expensive especially as the big green shelf and ladder restrict setting the cage up a lot. I didn't use those and bought a different shelf. It is also fairly tall (about 48cm) but fine if there's enough substrate and some hanging roof toys.

I got rid of the long stick ladder on the photo a) because it wobbled and he didn't like it and b) it was cheap tat and broke!

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[Pebbles82]

Same cage set up for our current Syrian (base is a different colour now as the original base got broken when we moved house). I had a more space saving house so more floor space, plus an extra shelf and roof tunnel They like the roof tunnel leading to the sputnik. It's just a rat tube tied to the roof with sisal string and gives an extra "roof run". Home to Pickle (current Syrian). After I had to disinfect the entire contents of his Plaza cage due to moths! Grr. So have left him in this now rather than move him again

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These are the 100cm Savic Plaza - recently passed Syrian (RIP) had one. You can see it's a lot taller and a bit trickier to set up - shame they don't make a 100cm hamster heaven! I don't actually think it needs to be a 100cm cage but I wanted to fit a big house in. Although apparently females usually need at least 100cm cage and can be much more active. But it depends on the personality of the hamster as well. Some are more retiring, some are maverick. Quite a few people start them off in a smaller cage, for taming etc and then upgrade and that also gives you chance to know what kind of personality they have. So your gabber rex might be good for that.

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[Pebbles82]

There is also the detolf. About £60 but needs a lid making. Ikea glass cabinet tipped on its side and the door left off. If you google "Hamster detolf" and click on images you'll see some set ups.

[Pebbles82]

Just thinking - you may not have a lot of options cage wise anyway at the moment - just about everything seems to be out of stock everywhere! It will probably improve again after the lockdown (that's what happened last year anyway). I believe pets at home stores are still open and they apparently have stock of various cages they keep. Personally we're not going near shops as in a high risk category.

[Zedrobber]

Thanks for all of the photos and descriptions, that's super helpful and always lovely to see happy hammies! Yeah, I'm not going anywhere - I work in a care home so I'm being very careful anyway, so it'll be either after lockdown/when it's safer or something I can order to get delivered The Jemima is quite tall but I was thinking of putting a bunch of shelves and platforms to break falls, but having looked again it is taller than I was thinking anyway. There's a cheap HH for delivery I have my eye on secondhand at the moment so I might end up getting that and then saving up for a Plaza later on - it doesn't have all of the plastic stuff with it so it would be a clean start which would be nice!
It's been so long since I had hamsters and everything has changed so all your help is much appreciated <3

I did keep rats as well for around 11 years so I am an expert on setting up unwieldy cages, hahah!

[Pebbles82]

The HH sounds like a good buy . The Jemima (when known as the Mamble) used to be a really popular cage about five years ago when people were looking for something bigger than and 80 x 50. There were fall issues and I think it became less popular when people found the cost of extra shelving made it much more expensive than it needed to be. The Alexander used to be the go to 100cm cage and then they turned the Barney from am 82cm cage to a 100cm x 54xm cage for less than £50. That had been a very popular cage. I had it and loved the floor area but not the small front doors. So when the Savic plaza came along I sold the Barney and got that.

[Pebbles82]

There’s another 100 cm cage that used to be on Amazon.de. That was also about 60 cm tall. When they’re that tall they really need a full level. It is possible to do overlapping shelves but difficult to avoid all fall risks from a height.

[Zedrobber]

I have another question, I'm sorry! Are there any square connection rings/end caps that fit the HH that aren't £11 for one (The official savic ones)? I found these on amazonPOPETPOP 4pcs Hamster Cage Connection Board Small Pet Cage Fittings Metro Cage Replacement Tube Connector Stretch Resistant Flexible Connection Accessories 5.5CM Random Color: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies but I have no idea. The cage I'm looking at secondhand has no tunnels but the holes are obviously still there so I'm looking to block them with these before resorting to meshing them closed.