by Sora Jhannoa

Created on: January 25, 2008

Choosing the best cage for your hamster can seem to be a daunting task to any pet owner, especially when you are buying your first hamster. The best thing to do is to consider where you are going to be placing the cage, what sort of hamster you have brought, and how experienced you are with taming and handling hamsters.

Where you put the cage in your home can determine what size of cage you can get. If the cage is going to be sitting on a large, stable surface then you shouldn't have any problems with buying a vast sprawling cage set up. However if you are living in a flat or a two bed house, you may find that you are limited to where the cage can go. You may only have space for one of the more compact sized cages instead of the one of the more expensive and bigger cages.

If you have brought a Syrian hamster then you can put them in a cage with bars or with plastic walls. You will need to make sure that the hamster will be able to fit through any tubes in the cage; you may have to ask a sales assistant for help with this. If you have brought one of the Dwarf varieties of hamsters you will need to be especially careful about what cage you buy as, due to their small size, they will be able to slip through the bars of some cages and escape. Ideally you should buy a glass tank or a plastic walled cage for a Dwarf hamster. There are specially made barred cages for Dwarf hamsters about, but check the label of the cage and with the shop assistant before buying.

If you are a first time hamster buy then you will want to get a cage which is easy to open up and not too difficult to put back together. The Rotastak cages in particular can be hard to reassemble after cleaning out the animal. A door on the side of the cage will come in handy for coaxing out the animal to say hello, and if the cage lid is easy to lift up you will find it easier to have contact with your hamster and tame them.

There are a quite a few variations on hamster cages. There are the started kit cages which are usually single storey and have a lid which is composed entirely of metal bars with a plastic base. These are ideal for beginners and are easy to clean out.

The next stage up from this is the two storey cages, which have a plastic base, a barred lid and have a second storey made from plastic, sometimes this can be removed for ease of cleaning.

There are some cages which are made entirely out of plastic with a small grate-like lid on the top which slides open instead of having the entirely lid made out of plastic. The downside to this type of cage is that hamsters can gnaw their way through the plastic by the barred lid and escape. It has happened to me before with one of my hamsters a few years ago.

Then there are the Rotastak cages. These are mostly made from plastic with metal bars running along the top of the cylindrical shaped components. There are many different "rooms" that you can buy and link together using tubes. These are a nightmare to clean out sometimes, depending on how complex the cage is. However for hamsters they are a dream come true, as the cage offers them lots of areas to explore and play in. This type of cage is definitely for an experienced hamster owner, purely because it is difficult to coax a hamster out of the cage and it is annoying to clean out due to its complexity.

In summary, when choosing a cage, it is best to think about what you want from it. You should think about where the cage is going to sit, how confident you are with your ability to catch the hamster inside it, and how appropriate the cage is for the type of hamster you have brought. Always ask for assistance in store if you are unsure about what is best for the animal, and think carefully before purchasing one.

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