Thank you all so much!!! I’ll see how we get on but I was just super stress about the cage size
When we had them as a child they were in the rotary stacks!!!! And now it’s seems so extreme x
Yes I had a boyfriend with a hamster in a rotostak many years ago. He seemed ok but his cage was left open all the time and he just came and went and free roamed! Makes me flinch thinking about the hazards now of unsupervised overnight free roaming!
So when we got our first hamster for our 6 year old I bought this super duper new 3 storey rotostak with a large base and loads of external tubes that looked like a spaceship. Got it completely wrong! The hamster got stuck in the tubes and got cage rage. I then did my research and moved him to an 80 x 50 cage within two weeks! He was so much happier!
I wouldn't say it's extreme exactly - but you're right there are some areas of the internet where everything is bigger and bigger and more and more contents. Some people want to give more and can do. I think the main change was about 10 years ago when it became accepted that a basic large enough open cage was better than modular units like rotostaks, which don't have enough ventilation or allow for natural behaviours.
Around that time the RSPCA had a minimum cage size of 80cm x 50cm. And that was seen as a minimum size for a long time, even when the RSPCA stopped publishing any minimum cage size. But even then, many people found that the 100cm x 50cm cages were much better for Syrians as you could fit their bigger wheels and houses in better and give them a bit more to do. I've been using 100cm cages for nearly 12 years now.
In the past few years, that has become the accepted minimum recommended size for all hamsters, via a few pet charities. So I think it's a good thing, but it was very difficult at first as many people were still happily using 80 x 50 cages! Gradually people have adjusted. Anything smaller than 80 x 50 though is too small and has been accepted as too small for many years.
They do need space at night, their most active time, when we're asleep and a wheel isn't enough really. While some people will give bigger and bigger, and the hamster may enjoy that, it isn't necessary and most hamsters are perfectly happy in 100cm x 50cm (approximately). Other than some female syrians! I do have a 120cm cage - which I got for my maverick male, and he loved it, but that really did seem big! It was fairly easy to manage but bigger than that and you might need help!
I think it's a positive thing. For too long, hamsters weren't really respected as animals with needs and just seen as small so put them in small cages. But in fact dwarf hamsters are just as active, if not more so, than larger syrian hamsters, and they all need space. But not empty space! That scares them. So enrichment is plenty of bedding, hidey places, a platform or shelf etc, as well as their wheel - so they feel secure and can dive into things. Although some will get so confident they will be out in the open in the cage.
It's a nightmare isn't it? Many of us had the same thing with a first hamster. And had to upgrade when we knew better (or in my case researching when the hamster got cage rage quite quickly).
