Robert

[Maz]

Elusive has had quite a few Chinese hamsters I'm not sure the water bottle would fit on top of the house though as it's quite tall and there will be less height at the house end. The fence goes right down to the base of the cage doesn't it? If not then yes that might be an issue. If hamsters dig under something heavy they can subside onto the hamster. Maybe observe for a few days, but adding a few more things for cover won't do any harm. She seemed quite confident on that first photo though! I think it would be fairly normal for them to hide away a bit the first few days or week while they're settling in.

 

[elusive]

Good point about the water bottle height, I didn’t think about that, it would be a shame if it didn’t fit as that would make it harder to make the set up more suitable for a Chinese.
I find it’s better to make any changes that are needed sooner rather than later & then they tend to settle in quicker & are a lot happier & calmer.