• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Hamster cage opinions please :)

BexPets

Warren Scout
Just assembled this cage and wanted everyone's opinions. Lots of people don't like the OVO but the only problem I found with it was the difficulty to clean it and the lack of ventilation and easy water bottle spot.

SAM_3765.jpg


I fed the tubes down into a conventional wire hamster cage with 5mm bars, made for mice and roborovski hamsters, and covered the opening with wire mesh:

SAM_3768.jpg


The hamster can get from the cage to the tube system, and back again, and has no problem with the angle of the tunnels:

SAM_3766.jpg


Baloo, the Russian Dwarf, is 3 years old and I adopted him from a room in a council flat with screaming children, too many pets and high intentions of breeding from said pets. I also adopted two male rabbits, one of which we have safely rehomed.

Anyway, this is the hamster - just wanted opinions on the cage, I spent hours assembling it!!
SAM_4630.jpg

SAM_4631.jpg

SAM_4629.jpg
 
Nice set up! If you can potty train your hams using a jar that would take care of the cleaning issue.

I see nothing wrong with the set up, usually what people don't like about the ovo is that its small.... I think these people forget that it should be attached to other cages, so it doesn't matter whether its small. Honestly, that drives me crazy. I see lots of people say connectable cages like the ovo, crittertrail, etc are too small, well duh, they're meant to be connected to others. Meanwhile they have their hamster in a much smaller set up that doesn't stimulate a hamster's natural environment in anyway...makes sense? :?
 
I think he's a bit old to be potty trained, but he does have some chinchilla sand.

Yep makes perfect sense. The thing about connectable cages is that they're expensive and getting enough to make it big enough for the hamster seems unreasonably expensive for some people.
His old cage was a little pink, plastic box with tinted sides you couldn't see into, with a loop-the-loop, tiny, swirly tunnel going over it. I felt so sorry for him. I hate it when people buy cages that look nice, to please their children, without thinking of the hamster :cry:
Luckily I got given the OVO part for free by a friend!
 
Yeah, thats true. I've bought some full price, got some for free off craigslist, and will be getting more off ebay and craigslist. I'd much rather not pay full price for any hamster cage when i can get them second hand, they're all so expensive.
 
I know. I always found it really hard to get hamster cages, but then as soon as you get into gsce kind of age, the family hamster dies and kids aren't allowed any more pets because they're meant to be studying. I suddenly had 7 expensive, well kept hamster cages, and didn't have to pay for any of them.
Then I got more rabbits and less rodents, and have been sticking the cages together to give the animals more space.
I think they're only expensive because of the ridiculous ways of making them look appeasing to children. It's only soft plastic and thin metal, what other reason could there be?
 
I think its OK :) if it was a younger hammy, I would say no, but it looks OK for an elderly dwarf :D

Bigger than most cages though, isn't it? :? All together, at least. I don't know UK cages well, but I know I've seen cages that everyone says are great and actually don't look very big to me.

Just bothers me how connectable cages are always frowned upon when they're actually bigger :?
 
Bigger than most cages though, isn't it? :? All together, at least. I don't know UK cages well, but I know I've seen cages that everyone says are great and actually don't look very big to me.

Just bothers me how connectable cages are always frowned upon when they're actually bigger :?

Not really, there's not a lot of ground running space. OK for an older hamster :) as they tend to be less active. I wouldn't personally go anything under 70cm for a hamster.

Connectable cages take up more space but usually aren't 'bigger'.
 
True. My bins are pretty big, I forget the exact dimensions but this is what they look like you can just see the two hammies snuggled in the jar for scale :lol:
Jan2011002.jpg


I wouldn't go smaller than this EXCEPT if I had connectable cages I would go a bit smaller because I would feel its probably not needed if I had a bunch of connected cages. Depends on the breed (robos do need a large 'base' for running space) and whether the ham is very active or whether they enjoy the bin. Some would mostly stay in the attachments, unless you put things they need in the bin like wheel, food, etc. When I make my hammy mansion I'll be using a bin or tank as a burrowing chamber and piling it high with bedding :)

ETA: Bex, i'd put cardboard over the wire level. wire can hurt their feet.:)
 
Last edited:
I've used bins before and connected them with wire cages and had whole systems set up for roborovski's, but it's so hard to get the hamsters out, and to clean it full stop!
This is a lovely, easy cage to clean, and the dear old hamster doesn't make much of a mess.

Okay I'll get some soft cardboard now. Thanks!
 
Back
Top