# best hamster cage



## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

i got 2 baby chinese dwarf hamsters and they`re currently in a mini duna but i don`t want that to be their permanent cage. i was hoping for a hamster heaven once they`d grown but everything i`ve seen has said to avoid that cage due to the bar spacing as, even fully grown chinese, can easily squish through it. 

so, back to the drawing board. i was looking at the genus 200 but not all that fussed on it. any suggestions? 

eta - was looking at the savic cammy but can`t find anything on bar spacing, anyone own this and know? also what is the minimum bar spacing for chinese? can`t seem to find anything on either


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## peter0 (Oct 4, 2011)

I use a ZooZone 2 for my mice. It's made for guinea-pigs and rabbits but if you mesh the white grid on top then it's perfect for small animals and gives a huge amount of space to play and you can still see them clearly. It is a bit pricey but cheaper than the Hamster Heaven and a great cage


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

i have a spare zoo zone just not the patience to mesh it lol i done a 4ft cage for my rats in mesh an vowed never to touch the stuff again after that. i was kinds hoping for one with bars too as these guys seem to love being little acrobats, seems all the larger cages are aimed at syrians though as they`re all about 1cm bar spacing  i hadn`t even considered the fact they can`t use the hamster playpen due to this and also the fact they`re amazing climbers - probs have to let them out in the bath with toys for a while each day to run. have to admit though, i am petrified of hamsters but have no problems with these guys


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## Lil Miss (Dec 11, 2010)

with chinese hamsters you are probably actually best to seperate them now and get 2 seperate cages, chinese have a very bad reputation for falling out, and the fights can turn very nastty very quickly, nowadays they are treat more like syrians in the cohabiting respect, females are worse then males.

if you choose to keep them together you need to be VERY careful, you NEED to provide atleast 2 wheels, 2 houses, and 2 water bottles, you should also avoid using a food dish and scatter feed instead
they also need the cage to be all on one level, no shelves, second levels or hammocks ect

i used to keep my chinese in imac fantasies, no idea what the bar spacing is, but i never had an escape


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## peter0 (Oct 4, 2011)

I also use meshed fully meshed guinea-pig cages too, but it was my dad who done it

You could try a Savic Mickey 2xl they are large cages with small bar spacing.

There is also the Ferplast Kios, it's bigger than a Duna with small bar spacing and a deep base but only 1 entrance at the top of the cage. It also has 2 areas you could attatch tubes on and maybe attach the same cage again as it's only about £30 on Zooplus too so with 2 it would add up to the same as other big cages.

There is the Kevin 82 hamster cage from Equinecaninefeline at that is a huge cage with very narrow bar spacing, big door opening at the front like the Hamster Heaven and is a good price i'd say

I love chinese hamsters too. Just don't have any extra room just now or i'd probably have one!

ETA: I've had mice in hamster cages with 1cm bar spacing and never had any escapes from the actual cages so i think you could always try 1cm bar spacing?


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

why can`t they have levels or hammocks? never heard of that before. my friend has owned chinese for years an never had a fall out - she`s also the manager of a large pet store an they`ve never had any complaints or returns on chinese for falls outs or anything, says the russian an roborovski are the worst for it but never had anything on chinese  they`re all litermates though she`s kept so dunno if it`s different trying to introduce 2 others 

i joined a hamster forum last night an had a look through the cages for chinese threads an they all seem to have loads of toys, levels an hammocks an some of them kept them for years so kinda confused now lol


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## peter0 (Oct 4, 2011)

I don't know much about them but when i did a little research i was advised it's best to keep them alone. I've managed to keep male mice and bond more mice into the group with not much problems until i accidently got a female and they started fighting over her and had to go into litter mate groups or single. It's hit or miss really you will get ones who will get on great and be fine with eachother but as they get older and hit maturity they are likely to become territorial over things but as i say you do get the odd ones who will stay together fine but normally they start to fight as they get older

The cages you seen might have had hammocks and levels as the people only kept them alone so they won't fight with another over the shelf or hammock


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## Lil Miss (Dec 11, 2010)

that will be because they are SINGLE chinese, if you keep them on their own they can have them, but if you are trying to keep them together then you need to minimise teritories they can fall out over, i wouldnt trust any one who runs a pet store that sells animals, for the simple reason that if they knew about small animals they wouldnt stock them, but thats a whole other debate

ask the question about keeping chinese together on the hamster forum, which one is it you have joined?
you will find that chinese are the worst offenders for fighting, because technically they are not dwarf hamsters, they are from an entirly different genus, and the fights are nasty


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## sully (May 3, 2008)

I rescued Binks our late Chinese when he was handed in for fighting, they said he was 2 years old........from the time we rescued him he was a dear quiet, gentle little soul who loved to sit in your hand and take food from you, we had him for 5 months till he passed over to Rainbow bridge.


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## beckimoorcroft (Jul 31, 2012)

I used to breed chinese hams, they're gorgeous little hams but not dwarfs and really shouldn't be kept in same sex pairs they just don't get along... breeding pairs work for short periods of time, and i did have one pair stay together, but they are much happier on their own.... same sex pairs (especially girls) will usually fight to the death and then eat their cage mates upon maturity.

They are great climbers and would really enjoy tall cages will lots of rocks/ledges and tree branches to climb on


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## Jazzy (Apr 15, 2009)

beckimoorcroft said:


> I used to breed chinese hams, they're gorgeous little hams but not dwarfs and really shouldn't be kept in same sex pairs they just don't get along... breeding pairs work for short periods of time, and i did have one pair stay together, but they are much happier on their own.... same sex pairs (especially girls) will usually fight to the death and then eat their cage mates upon maturity.
> 
> They are great climbers and would really enjoy tall cages will lots of rocks/ledges and tree branches to climb on


That is what happened to two Chinese hamsters that my sister had. She got up one day to find one Chinese hamster had killed and was eating the other one.:frownthey were males from the same litter)

I have a single female Chinese and she has a Mickey Max XL cage and she seems happy enough. It's much the same cage as Hamster Heaven without the tubes and is the same size but with smaller bar spacing and you can fit loads of toys in.


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## DwarfHam (Jun 30, 2012)

Hei!
I made a blogpost what show you how to make your own second floor for your dwarf hamsters: Dwarf hamster cage construction

What you think about the idea?


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## Teesside Hamsters (Aug 31, 2012)

For a pair of chinese (pairs of males can work, pairs of females very unlikely to work) a very large style cage is what id recommend. A ZooZone 1 or 2 (or imac bingo, savic rody cavia) with a meshed roof and two water bottles/bowls, scatter feeding, houses with two entrances/exits, two identical wheels, and a good deep layer of substrate (as deep as you can). I dont like barred cages for chinese pairs as they are fragile and a fall from the top of a cage could injure them, and with pairs they cant have shelves or levels to break the fall. 

A mini duna is definately not big enough for a pair of any dwarfs and the shelf could cause them to be territorial. A single chinese can live quite happily in a mini duna though. A barred cage for a single chinese with levels and hammocks in to break any fall from the top is fine though, bar spacing must be 7mm or less, they can escape from 10mm. 

Also being littermates is no garantee that they will get along, think of it like this how many families all get along no problems with no fights especially siblings?


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