Please help me with DS's (chunky) hamster - cage not good enough

[Mayormumbles]

DS has been having a really hard time recently with his mental health and he had wanted a hamster for a long time, so I (a little impulsively - to my shame) surprised him and said he could buy one. Well the one DS chose is about the size of a small dog and while he is tremendously cute I have come to the conclusion that his cage is just not good enough, I did get the biggest I could find that would fit in DS's room but it is a traditional cage with bars and he is constantly climbing and falling - I have read this is a sign of stress and I am worried he is going to injure himself. I've literally not bloody slept in two days because I am feeling so guilty and conflicted about how to improve his living situation. He seems happy enough and is already taking treats from DS hands, but I really need to do better about the size of his cage.

I am thinking of making one of those DIY plastic bin cages but I have no idea what would be suitable, I have found one on the B&Q website that looks like it meets the requirements but the lid has no clips or anything to secure it and I really think the little bugger would abscond. I am crap at DIY and fitting mesh etc would be a bit beyond me I think, but air holes probably won't provide enough ventilation?

Can anyone give me any ideas of something that would be suitable and quickly before I go insane, I have honestly not had sleepless nights like this since I had newborn babies and I am having dreams of cage dimension sizes. We can't fit one of the huge Ikea Deltof ones really.

There are Facebook groups for hamster care which will give really good advice on cage set up- ‘actually good hamster are uk’ is a good one. Unfortunately many people are not advised correctly when buying small animal cages from pet shops.

IKEA Detolf hack or Pawhut do a very good wooden hamster cage. They need far, far more space and litter depth than most commercial cages offer.

We have the massive cage in pets at home which Is £75 it's got a box on the top the hamster sleeps and then tubes. Our hamsters loved it , the second one Inherited it after his brother passed away.

It's absolutely huge and it stressed them out far less than the smaller one we got for them to start with and our runaway couldn't get out either.

www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/hamster-heaven-hamster-cage-%28online-only%29?size=x+large?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google_shopping&cm_mmc=Google--CPC--%20google_shopping-_-google_shopping&ita=1976&ito=google_shopping&istCompanyId=7255ccad-a1fc-4729-af31-478f79e5071c&istFeedId=385e6b9a-8b03-4076-a8bb-e4737df8549c&istItemId=itxmxrirx&istBid=t&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=13034921204&cq_term=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&gclid=CjwKCAjw5dqgBhBNEiwA7PryaL9Q4cjjYybOwfYh3ZqJnAGAYDaek7smlgkgBvBDroRogNKjmOXx_BoCFSwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Ideally I think a DIY bin cage would work best for us, I am disabled and as I am under no illusions it will ultimately fall to me to clean it etc something lighter and easier to manoeuvre would be better than a huge wire one.

This is a great cage for a small hamster but is still not big enough for a Syrian hamster which I assume is what your DS has.

There is a Small Pets board in the Pets section, if you can get your thread moved, someone there might be able to advise about DIY conversion. I found a 80x50cm ish cage with wire top but no tubes best - you can rig up all sorts of climbing equipment, and it was easy to clean.

We're moving this thread to our Small Pets topic for the OP.

Also just as an aside, the Hamster has taken to using his sand bath as a toilet, really useful as it means his cage is being kept quite clean but then he is also burying and rolling in the soiled sand. Should I give him a separate sand container and hope he just uses one for bathing and one for the toilet? I'm cleaning the sand daily but this will get expensive pretty quickly.

Get yourself a tea strainer seive and clean the sand daily with that! Minimum floor space on one level should be 80 x 50cm, ideally far bigger. Wheel size should be minimum 28cm. You want an area of really deep burrowing (ours had at least 30cm) of something like teabag bedding, then a variety of hides etc.

I've managed to get a cage which meets the minimum requirements, not ideal but much better than the one he has and we will be letting him have lots of time outside the cage too once he settles in. Great idea about the tea strainer wouldn't have thought of it!

This is completely normal and ideally what you want to happen. Hamsters will use their sand-bath to keep clean and also as a "litter tray". You do not need to change the sand completely every day, you filter out the crud a couple of times a day using a small kitchen sieve. Sieve the sand into another container, chuck the crud, replace the old and now clean sand. Fully change the sand twice a week, not every day, otherwise you'll be getting through a lot of it! This is my Gerbil website, but same principle and I show examples of sand baths and how to clean gerbilcare.co.uk/cleaning-and-tank-setup/ gerbilcare.co.uk/enrichment/

That's great news. I'm a bit late to the thread but my recommendations would be;

Ideally the Savic Plaza 100 x 50 www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/savic-plaza-hamster-and-rat-cage

Hamster Heaven 80x50
https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/savic-plaza-hamster-and-rat-cage

As other posters have said, make sure your wheel is 28cm. Any smaller and your Hamster (particularly as it's large!) will suffer back damage and pain.

I realise you said you have no space for a Detolf, but for anyone else interested in one, we show where to get lids or DIY yourself here (site is for Gerbils but principle same for buying/making lids) gerbilcare.co.uk/housing-which-tank/

Thanks all for all the helpful advice. We have the Savic Plaza coming on Friday and I am currently on amazon buying cute things for it I can't afford because I am a bit obsessed with him . We had a wheel delivered yesterday which is huge! I can't believe how big it needs to be, it makes me feel so sad for all the hamsters at my friends houses I would go to when I was little in the tiny cages with tiny wheels. He is currently doing ok in his smaller cage but will be so pleased to get him into a better environment. He's already taking treats from our hands so doesn't seem overly unhappy or distressed.

This is the wheel we bought: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002J1NHFI?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

We had our hamster in a repurposed fish tank. It was massive and she loved it.

Some perspex up the side of the savic plaza means you can deepen the bedding and stop it falling out if you use eh. Teabag bedding like we do.

We have an old fish tank now which is a sod to clean out fully but hammy is SO happy and is a ripe old age so I think we must be doing something right

Awww I loved our childhood hamsters. We played with them a lot in our hands and let them run up our arms etc. And we had one room secure that no hammy could escape from and they were allowed to run free of an evening. We also made huge mazes from VHS cassette cartons and adventure courses from loo and kitchen rolls abs little ladders. Having a hamster in the 80s was a blast!

The wheel is perfect. Silent spinners are also good, depending how much of a racket he makes and how often he's on it. Yes, it's shocking that wheels smaller than 28cm are sold for Hamsters, and how many are suffering back damage because of it. Your Hamster will really appreciate that fabulous wheel :)

I know what you mean, I had a Hamster in the 70's, there was no education at all about how to look after them properly, tiny 50cm cages (at best), sawdust (to give them respiratory problems) and tiny wheels :(

If you need perspex to make deeper bedding I got some from Viking Lazer. It's specifically made for the plaza cage so you can choose how much you want to section off. It's not the cheapest though so you might want to wait a bit before getting some.

It's a great cage although it has its downfalls but it's a good cage for a decent price.