Housing your Hamster
The golden rule to remember when choosing your hamster's home is: one Syrian, one cage. Syrian hamsters are solitary animals and putting a pair together in adulthood could have fatal consequences.
When looking for a cage/tank for your hamster, make sure that the size is adequate for your pet. Never buy a cage aimed at dwarf hamsters and try to house your Syrian in it! As a rough guideline, a tank of 50x30x30cm would provide enough room for your hamster to nest, exercise and play. There are several types of cages to choose from, from glass tanks to modular systems to wire cages.
Although plastic cages like 'Rotastak' and 'Habitrail' are great fun, they are not very easy to clean, due to their intricate layout with many fiddly parts and bits. Furthermore, most types of fancy plastic cages offer many hideaways, maze-like tubing and concealed nesting areas, sometimes making it hard for you to reach your hamster, slowing the taming process.
Wire cages seem to be very popular, they are the most traditional homes for hamsters. Bars provide a great deal of climbing surface, and wire cages are generally very well ventilated. There are, though, a few disadvantages. Firstly, all the mess from inside the cage tends to end up on the outside, being pushed through the bars by your energetic little hamster! Secondly, hamsters tend to get addicted to chewing on the bars, and the noise is quite hard to bear, especially late at night when your hamster is most active. Thirdly, the hamster will tirelessly try to find an escape route out of the cage. Being more aware of their outer surroundings (picking up on smells and sound through the bars) the hamster will attempt to escape, forcing its way out through any latches, doors and loose panels or bars; and they will learn how to do so pretty quickly.
At Hamsterdam we mainly use glass tanks to house our Syrians, as we find them the cleanest, safest and most comfortable option for Syrian hamsters..
A plain rectangular tank offers enough flat surface for the hamster to move around and for you to furnish it with the essentials (i.e. nest, wheel, food bowl, sand bath, potty, etc), and implement it with a system of climbing toys and tubes to suit your taste. We even stick cute wallpapers on the outside of the tank to decorate their homes!
A cheaper and lighter option is to use large clear plastic boxes (the stackable ones used for storage).You can put plenty of substrate for your hamster to dig and roll around in and you can easily fix a wheel and other props on to the walls (by drilling holes in and securing the bits and bobs with bendy wire). In addition, if the box is deep enough, your hamster is sure never to escape.
We havent tried the plastic boxes as a permanent home for our hamsters, but we use them a lot for our lemmings, and it works perfectly! Boxes provide great access to the pets and are super easy to clean.
If you would like some advice on the choice of housing for your hamster, feel free to contact us using the contact form on the website.
