Does anyone else have Habitrail (like Rotastack) hamster cage?

[UndomesticHousewife]

We got one of these for the hamster a little while ago, and when it was first put up I thought it was great - looked good and had lots room and tube things for hamster to go up and down in giving it something to do.

But it is the worst thing ever, the water bottle leaks and drips (it works on a vacuum you have to shake the bottle 3 times and then when you tip it the right way up it will not leak - this doesn't happen in reality) the hamster poos in the water puddle (do hamsters do this usually or is my hamster v strange?) then climbs through the poo which is now gone from little hard pellets to a poo sludge, then it trails the poo down the tubes.

Even trying to put fresh water in the bottle, the bottle is squeezed when you try and pull it out of the holder so water is flying everywhere into the cage.

It's a nitemare to clean normally without the poo everywhere, I have to disassemble it and I find it so difficult to put it back together.

Does anyone else have one of these?

I have looked on argos and seen a normal wire cage with a couple of floors with a wire ladder and a normal drinking bottle, I think I'm going to have to get that one. But that will be the 3rd cage the hamster has got in the year (or a bit less) that we've had it.

The habitrail cost £35, this other cage is around £30 I think, this thing is costing a fortune not to mention I'm really allergic to it so have to take antihistamine everyday!!!

What about something like this?
i haven't had a rotastak for many years but they were good when I did have one IYSWIM. Happy hamster home hunting!!

That looks really good. Though do you know what the water bottle is like on the rotastack?

Just had a look at rotastack water bottles and they are just like the normal water bottles, so really if I (or actually dh as he was the one that went out and bought the habitrail) had just got rotastack instead of habitrail I wouldn't have had this water/poo problem and all would have been well.

I think I'll try a wire cage as apparently hamsters like to climb and I'll see how it goes.

I had exactly the sane problem with my habitrail. I think it's cos the water bottle goes next to the nest box and they like to poo just outside the nest.

That's exactly the problem Bella, the hamster made its bed in the pod thing at the top and the water bottle is right next to it leaking away, so hamster poos next to nest in the water, the poo goes disgustingly like sludge in the water then hamster crawls through it and goes down the tube covering the tube in poo. Not to mention there is a puddle of poo water sitting in the cage which can't be hygenic.

I can't (don't want to) clean the cage out every 2 days, so it has to go.

I know - it's rather gross. I used to just section off hammie and remove the tube section and dip that into a bucket of detergent, on the days when I wasn't doing a full cage clean.