Hello and welcome. It's great you upgraded him from a smaller cage
His new cage looks like the Hamster Heaven or Hamster Sky - is that right? It will obviously be an improvement on his previous one, at 80cm x 50 cm, but ideally hamsters need a 100cm x 50cm cage. If you've only just bought it there might be a chance to take it back/swap it for a 100cm cage. There isn't much difference in price. Depending on where you bought it from. If not then you could make it cosy for now but ideally he would need upgrading at some point.
Meanwhile I'd add lots of cosy bedding for him
And would also suggest removing the tubes. They can be capped off with the caps that come with the cage. They can be an escape route or a hamster get stuck sometimes as they grow bigger, or them just nest in them and block them up.
It looks like he might be nesting in the hanging sputnik
I can't quite tell from the photo - is he a Syrian or dwarf hamster? It's hard to tell from the photo, but if he's a Syrian hamster then he'll need an 11" wheel. If he's a dwarf hamster, an 8" or 9" wheel is fine. The wheel in there looks a bit small but it's hard to tell. This is a good reasonably priced option for a Syrian hamster wheel. If they run in a wheel that's too small it can cause back pain and back problems and they sometimes then don't use it and start bar chewing with pent up energy. There's an 8" version as well.
Trixie 28cm plastic wheel - click here
I think the back left corner would be a good place to add a shoebox house
He'll love that. If they have a big house that's dark inside they almost always move in and build a big cosy nest in there, and with plenty of bedding under it they can burrow down inside as well. If you have a shoebox, you just cut the base out and keep the lid as a lift off roof, then cut a hole for a door on the long front side (ideally at one end so the other end is darker). They like to have somewhere dark to sleep. The roof also makes another platform to climb on. If you have a bridge or tunnel, you could put that over the door so it makes a ramp onto the roof and makes it even darker inside. You'd need to move a couple of the carrot chews for that - does he use them? Mine have always ignored them ha ha.
It looks like wood shavings he has at the moment, so if you add more bedding, it would be better to get paper based bedding and add that on top. Gradually you'll spot clean all the wood shavings out and just have paper. The wood shavings aren't good for them long term as hamsters have sensitive respiratory tracts. Kaytee Clean and Cosy is a popular one. They love to dig and burrow.
If you fill the base almost to the top with bedding then you won't need to do a full clean out very often and can just "spot" clean the pee out and the rest of the cage should stay clean and dry for a long time. If you put some cardboard inside the bars at one end you could have the bedding even deeper at one end
I'll add our cleaning tips article below.
I love his name and he looks very cute
Look forward to hearing more about Ham Solo! I bet he's loving his upgrade
Tips on how to clean your hamster cage and avoid causing stress to your hamster. It's best to have plenty of depth of substrate and mainly spot clean your hamster cage. Avoid disturbing your hamster's nest and hoard.
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