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Maz said:
Just thought - as you mentioned cats at home. Ideally the hamster needs to be in a room where cats don’t go. They can get quite stressed- being prey animals- by the presence of a cat. Also cats can pull cages over!
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OK, we're good then. It get a little cooler in her bedroom when the door is shut but it would never get to 16 centigrade. And once I'm sure she's not going to escape this cage the door will remain open and will always be plenty warm. Any idea what's the warmest temp that is comfortable for her? During the day we usually only use the air conditioning on the lower level of the house so it could get to 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. Do I need to buy her a small air conditioner for her room? :)

Good to know about the light. There are two windows in her room and there are a couple of street lights outside, do I need to buy her room-darkening shades for the windows? My husband is going to think I've totally lost my mind now: "Honey, we need to buy an air conditioner and new window shades for the hamster." :)
Sue
 
The main thing is that the cage isn't next to a window (draughts and sunlight etc) or next to a radiator. 78-80 is quite warm but it should be ok if she has somewhere cool in the cage to go to - a ceramic hideout is ideal. If it's particularly warm some people just have a fan in the room (but not too close to the cage). Or maybe a window open a bit. Street lights hmm. You'd normally draw curtains or blinds at night but you wouldn't need to go as far as blackout curtains.
 
Maz said:
The main thing is that the cage isn't next to a window (draughts and sunlight etc) or next to a radiator. 78-80 is quite warm but it should be ok if she has somewhere cool in the cage to go to - a ceramic hideout is ideal. If it's particularly warm some people just have a fan in the room (but not too close to the cage). Or maybe a window open a bit. Street lights hmm. You'd normally draw curtains or blinds at night but you wouldn't need to go as far as blackout curtains.
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Yup, she is on the opposite wall from the windows and the baseboard heating, she's more towards the center of the house. And regarding the cat issue, I have no cats right now and HOPE to keep it that way. I've found homes for the ones I was fostering and my "cat room" is now my "hamster room". :) And now that I'm no longer working with the cats at the shelter there's less danger of having one. If anything, another dog might be in the mix when I lose my very old guy, but they seem unphased by the hamster on the tall dresser in the bedroom.

And I do already have a camera set up on her.... I took it out of my chameleon cage - he was getting boring anyway. :)
Sue
 
Hi - you need to set the videos to public or they don't link up :). I believe there's an alternative to public as well, that means they can be shared but not public.
 
I was trying to avoid making it public, so I then went for "unpublished", but I guess that doesn't work, either. :(
 
Ok so do you want me to delete the ones above so you can reupload them and set them as unlisted?
 
I watched the video. Just to say, with hamsters anything material is not recommended because they can chew it up and may ingest it. I remember you mentioning you have a lot of cardboard so perhaps you could use that to make tunnels and hides instead. Another tip with cardboard, you can actually use some to cover the bottom outside of the cage and that way you can fit more bedding in. Bedding is so important for hamsters. They need it to burrow as they are actually burrowing animals. They make nests, tunnels and even play in it. :)
 
I wasn't sure what you meant so deleted all of them so you can repost the version you want :-) I haven't watched it yet.
 
I am itching to see this cage now! I just caught a glimpse from the video screenshot and it looked a good layout with the shelves :)
 
Did I delete the wrong one?
 
I think I did! Here is your unlisted version restored

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She is really gorgeous! She looks to be quite a large hamster! And a lovely colour.

It's good she's settling in and she will enjoy the house and having that shelf to sit under. Rainbow mentioned fabric items. Mainly it is because of chewing. I know you said this is a temporary set up for now. The pillowcase is probably the main chew risk if she happened to get contact with it as that kind of fabric can have loose threads if chewed, that can wrap around their feet and cut the circulation off or wrap around their teeth. IF she chews it. Fleece is not quite so bad in that respect - unless she chews it - but most people only use fleece items for out of cage time just in case the hamster decides to chew them. I can see you're trying to protect from falls though, temporarily. I would really keep an eye on the two fleece items in case she decides to chew them and possibly replace the long fleece tunnel with something else, and keep that for out of cage time. The main reason hamsters chew nice soft things is their instinct to forage for nesting material. The danger of fabric being chewed is them ingesting some and getting intestinal blockages - it does happen. They pouch things to take to the nest and can end up with some going down. However if she hasn't shown any signs of chewing them it might be ok temporarily. The cotton material with threads has different types of risks - hamsters have been known to chew their own leg off when getting cotton threads wrapped around them as they feel trapped or it can cut the circulation off. So they follow their instincts and amputate the problem limb.

Having said all that, sometimes people get away with it and don't have any issues. Many fabric hamster items are sold that are totally inappropriate or unsafe and sometimes it's just luck. But if you see her chew anything I'd remove it straight away.

Hamster safety is quite difficult sometimes. The little house looks really nice - but - she could get stuck in some of the holes if she decided to try and climb through them. Any entrance holes need to be ideally 6 or 7 cm and at least 5cm. If it's smaller than that she's likely to get stuck. Again some things can work during out of cage time in a playpen when you can keep an eye on things.

But I can see you've tried to set things up to be cosy and for fall risks as a temporary thing. It would be better to have a full level fitted above the two shelves - eg something solid. If you don't want to use the upper shelves to make a full level by putting something across them.
 
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I hope this doesn't all come across as criticism by the way - we're just trying to help with the right kind of set up for a hamster. There used to be a lot more disasters than there are these days - hamsters hanging from a broken leg (chains on hanging toys), or amputating limbs etc after getting tangled. Rule of thumb is to stick to wood, cardboard and ceramic or plastic. And rat sized items work better for Syrians,. Most items sold for hamsters are only big enough for dwarf hamsters. Pringles tubes make great tubes you can attach to the side of the cage with cable ties eg.

I had a query about the ceramic log on the upper shelves - which looks very nice. Is that quite secure? If that fell it could squash her, Hamsters are surprisingly strong and can move things! Unless they are secured.
 
Maz said:
Ok so do you want me to delete the ones above so you can reupload them and set them as unlisted?
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You can just delete the redundant videos, leaving only one, instead of having 3 up there. Thanks!
 
I just watched it again and the second level of shelves aren't too high really - the idea of a tunnel between them is a good one :) So one shelf is accessed from the other one. It can be really quite fiddly setting up cages. So the main thing is the cotton fabric being a risk and the fleece items. The coconut hut is nice - I would suggest having that at substrate level partly pushed down in the substrate - hamsters seem to love the round coconut huts. They tend to use items a lot more at ground level while going about their normal behaviours. Adding more substrate would be good too.

If you add more substrate and a solid level above the top shelves then it would be safe from fall risks.
 
Maz said:
I hope this doesn't all come across as criticism by the way - we're just trying to help with the right kind of set up for a hamster. There used to be a lot more disasters than there are these days - hamsters hanging from a broken leg (chains on hanging toys), or amputating limbs etc after getting tangled. Rule of thumb is to stick to wood, cardboard and ceramic or plastic. And rat sized items work better for Syrians,. Most items sold for hamsters are only big enough for dwarf hamsters. Pringles tubes make great tubes you can attach to the side of the cage with cable ties eg.

I had a query about the ceramic log on the upper shelves - which looks very nice. Is that quite secure? If that fell it could squash her, Hamsters are surprisingly strong and can move things! Unless they are secured.
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It's velcroed down so hopefully it won't move. She hasn't gone to the third shelf that I know of, just enjoying the floor and the first shelf. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
 
She will love the wheel when it arrives. It can get expensive getting things for hamsters, but you can make some things and a good wheel is a good start. We have a whole thread on here for cardboard creations :)

www.thehamsterforum.com

Cardboard creations

This is a thread to show how many things you can make for your hamster or enclosure, out of cardboard :-) Cardboard is your friend.
www.thehamsterforum.com www.thehamsterforum.com
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Just catching up on your post. Your hamster is beautiful, what a fabulous colour she is. Looking forward to hearing about some of your other pets too 🙂
 
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