Keep hamsters as pet is wonderful fun experience. As you understand, hamsters are easy to nurse and didn’t require a lot of spaces to grow. This is also why people categorized hamster as pocket pet because of their small body. There are many variants of hamster’s breeds available such as, Winter White Pedigree, Roborovski and Robo Dwarf hamster, Teddyhamster, Russian hamster, and many others. For people who love adorable, cute pet, hamster is one of the perfect option for you.
However, if you already make up your mind to keep this animal, it would be better if you learn how to arrange the hamster cage. You could purchase hamster cage which is sold and easily found in pet stores and online stores with variety of models, materials, and designs. Arranging the cage due to give a proper space for hamster to do her activities and routine is important task. Many people put things – sometime even unnecessary items – just to fill their dream of “a perfect cage”.
That’s not wrong, my friends, but you need to consider how your hamster feel when you put her in too “crowded” house. It’s uncomfortable – even more, leads to stress and anxiety. Therefore, today we would learn together how to arrange the hamster cage in proper way. However, do not forget to clean the hamster cage frequently.
Set Up Hamster Cage
Cage would be one of important investment of keeping hamster. You could use it for many years ahead for another hamster one day. But, there are requirements need to obey to ensure the welfare of your animal. A comfortable house would maintain hamster’s happiness and health condition. So, first thing first, you need to know how to set up hamster cage.
Perfect Size of Hamster Cage
Make research about the perfect size of cage before bringing home the hamster is a good idea. The larger cage would provide larger spaces for hamster to move and exercise, not to mention the feeling of content and happiness she feels. However, cage selection could be adjust with the number of hamsters you keep; but at least, the minimum floor space need to be around 450 sq inches.
The problem is many times the cages that sell in stores was way too small and costly. You should look up about bin cages which is literally cheaper and larger than other commercial cages. Furthermore, bin cage is easy to make and you could try to make it by yourself; if you considered large living spaces, then bin cage would be worth to try.
Keep in mind, in the wildlife, hamsters travel for miles; it was part of their instinct to move all around the house – consequently, you need to provide space to channel this habitual. Another thing, do not put Chinese and Syrian hamsters at the same cage. The two of them are territorial individuals, they would absolutely fight to the end to be the cage’s ruler.
The conclusion is get the largest cage affordable for you. The official rule of hamster cage size minimum approximately about 360 sq inches (American), 80 x 50 cm minimum in United Kingdom, in German require approximately 1 sq meter. It is okay if you want to buy cage from second hand, as long as the cage still in good performance (safe and sound) and provide enough space for hamster to move.
Equipping the Hamster Cage
Then, we enter the equipping part of the cage. Yes, you need to put some items inside the cage that would support hamster living routine and habitual. These items were sold freely in pet stores, and spread in variant prices.
Wheel would be our first list of item today. As we learned previously that hamsters are very active individuals; you need thing to channel hamster’s energy, and wheel is a good exercise toy for it. Consider the size of wheel – it must able to accommodate hamster whole-body. Here are some examples of perfect sizes wheel: for any kinds of dwarf hamster you need at least 6.5 to 8 inches wheel, Chinese hamster need about 8 inches wheel, and for large breeds such as Syrian hamster require approximately 12 inches of wheel.
Warning for you: do not every use mesh or barred wheels, it could hurt hamster’s feet when accidentally trap on it, bumblefoot or a painful sores on hamster’s feet.
- Water and Food Containers
When you choose water bottle, make sure you purchase the one which doesn’t leak way too much. If you prefer to choose bowl as water container, pick bowl form as small bendy log bridge to prevent the hamster bury while she drinks. Furthermore, for the food, there are two option of containers you could choose: first is bowl and second is scatter-feed.
The advantage of using bowl is that you could monitor how much hamster has eaten, and it’s way easier to clean. But, by using scatter-feed you could bring natural foraging skill of the hamster – or, you could choose to mix the two of them. However, it also a guide to adjusted food container with hamster’s breeds, for the examples: the perfect one for Chinese hamster and Syrian hamster are the bowl due monitoring their eating habits, scatter-feed is a perfect one if you keep dwarves to prevent fighting between them.
Do not ever forget to arrange nesting inside the cage. For nesting, it is always advisable to use substrate materials. Substrate materials is disposable materials that easily absorb hamster’s urine. Most of the people used wood shavings for it was safety for hamster. However, there are some of the substrates that are better to avoid such as, cedar and pine due the two of them triggered some issues of respiratory problems.
Furthermore, hamster’s house was sold in many variations of designed; but, one of problem about commercial houses are most of them was only suitable for small and medium size of hamsters, such as Chinese and dwarf. For larger breeds such Syrian, it would be hard to find out there. But, don’t worry, folks, if you’re lucky enough, soon or later you would found one!
The last thing you need to add is toys! Yes, it would be a boring life for hamster if you let her live without toys – and remember to pick toys that could be chew due the never-ending growth of hamster’s teeth. It would be better if you purchase toys that able to climb and provide some hide-and-seek style toys. These toys are hamster favorite!