E
elusive
Still a hypothetical Chinesey at this point, no imminent arrivals just yet.
I’ve been trying to get my head around Zak not being here any more but being without a hamster for the first time in nine years is hard but I’ve been slowly making plans.
I found the Plaza easy to put together but first impressions were it looked so much smaller than I imagined! I did have the Mamble & Borneo several years ago which were both a lot taller but only 4cm deeper but I think both had much less of a slope to the base than the Plaza which does seem very narrow at the bottom. That makes things quite tricky if you want to put things on legs, the last cage I set up was the Kevin which has very little slope to the base & in comparison I could get more in that one, so a few challenges to start off with.
Also I don’t like having the wheel attached to the bars, I just find it awkward & noisy removing it & I do generally need to clean my wheels weekly so that cut down on how much extra substrate I could fit in, 50cm somehow didn’t seem very tall any more!
In the end i went for just 6cm above the bars, not a huge difference but that does give about 22cm of substrate which isn’t too bad.
I was going to get custom panels from Viking laser but changed my mind & went for panels cut to size from Simply plastics for the front & back & just used cardboard at the sides, I couldn’t really be bothered trying to work out the holes for where the bar clips are & it cut down on cost a bit, the sides should be easy to replace if they get chewed whereas the back would be more of a hassle & the front looks nicer with the panels!
Lots of waiting for glue & paint to dry later the main set up is finally done.
I splashed out on a new Rodipet house & went for the dwarf medium which I think is a nice size for a Chinese, it’s the same size as their Syrian medium but has four rooms instead of three.
I’ve gone for the flat white on wooden surfaces to be less slippery but wanted some colour so went for yellow outside & painted inside the house black so it’s nice & dark, with black legs it looks a bit like that & the ceramic house are floating in mid air!
I got far less in than I wanted or expected but that almost always the case, I always get a bit over ambitious with my cage plans!
In spite of the problem fitting the legs in while trying to keep some things close to the edge I did manage to fit in a platform for the wheel & one of the sand baths, the ceramic Rodipet house & the Getzoo sand bath which I’ll use as a dig box.
Getting there, substrate going in plus a few more bits & pieces.
A larger than life Zephyr watching over proceedings!
I didn’t want the hole in the roof of the house & was going to put the sand bath over it but the bits on the underside that stop it sliding around wouldn’t fit that way so I took the fixings out of one of my cork ledges & glued that over the hole.
I didn’t have space for the bridge I planned to put over the door of the house so I used some small dowels to make a thingy
over the door!
It always takes a bit of figuring out getting a hammock in the right place & right height but that worked out quite well with this set up, I splashed out again on some new Fuzzbutts to have matching hammock, snoozecube & corner crush, going a bit posh this time!
The Plaza was a real pain for this though, I had to take the top off so many times, turning it upside down or on it’s side & just when I got things right it started to come apart! Got there in the end though.
I really wanted to add more ledges & other things on the bars but simply ran out of space, I wish I had space for the Plaza 120 but I really don’t. Unless I get rid of the sofa…
Just needs sprays, flowers, forage, chews & of course a hamster now!
I did add in another little ledge over the sand bath between the coconut hide & corner crush to make that a bit safer, I could just see someone trying to climb on to the slippery glazed sand bath.
Just to note for anyone that isn’t aware Chinese hamsters generally don’t chew fabric so while I wouldn’t advise using hammocks or other fabric items with any other hamster species it is ok for Chinese although there could be exceptions & it’s best to check frequently.
I’ve been trying to get my head around Zak not being here any more but being without a hamster for the first time in nine years is hard but I’ve been slowly making plans.
I found the Plaza easy to put together but first impressions were it looked so much smaller than I imagined! I did have the Mamble & Borneo several years ago which were both a lot taller but only 4cm deeper but I think both had much less of a slope to the base than the Plaza which does seem very narrow at the bottom. That makes things quite tricky if you want to put things on legs, the last cage I set up was the Kevin which has very little slope to the base & in comparison I could get more in that one, so a few challenges to start off with.
Also I don’t like having the wheel attached to the bars, I just find it awkward & noisy removing it & I do generally need to clean my wheels weekly so that cut down on how much extra substrate I could fit in, 50cm somehow didn’t seem very tall any more!
In the end i went for just 6cm above the bars, not a huge difference but that does give about 22cm of substrate which isn’t too bad.
I was going to get custom panels from Viking laser but changed my mind & went for panels cut to size from Simply plastics for the front & back & just used cardboard at the sides, I couldn’t really be bothered trying to work out the holes for where the bar clips are & it cut down on cost a bit, the sides should be easy to replace if they get chewed whereas the back would be more of a hassle & the front looks nicer with the panels!
Lots of waiting for glue & paint to dry later the main set up is finally done.
I splashed out on a new Rodipet house & went for the dwarf medium which I think is a nice size for a Chinese, it’s the same size as their Syrian medium but has four rooms instead of three.
I’ve gone for the flat white on wooden surfaces to be less slippery but wanted some colour so went for yellow outside & painted inside the house black so it’s nice & dark, with black legs it looks a bit like that & the ceramic house are floating in mid air!
I got far less in than I wanted or expected but that almost always the case, I always get a bit over ambitious with my cage plans!
In spite of the problem fitting the legs in while trying to keep some things close to the edge I did manage to fit in a platform for the wheel & one of the sand baths, the ceramic Rodipet house & the Getzoo sand bath which I’ll use as a dig box.
Getting there, substrate going in plus a few more bits & pieces.
A larger than life Zephyr watching over proceedings!
I didn’t want the hole in the roof of the house & was going to put the sand bath over it but the bits on the underside that stop it sliding around wouldn’t fit that way so I took the fixings out of one of my cork ledges & glued that over the hole.
I didn’t have space for the bridge I planned to put over the door of the house so I used some small dowels to make a thingy
over the door!It always takes a bit of figuring out getting a hammock in the right place & right height but that worked out quite well with this set up, I splashed out again on some new Fuzzbutts to have matching hammock, snoozecube & corner crush, going a bit posh this time!
The Plaza was a real pain for this though, I had to take the top off so many times, turning it upside down or on it’s side & just when I got things right it started to come apart! Got there in the end though.
I really wanted to add more ledges & other things on the bars but simply ran out of space, I wish I had space for the Plaza 120 but I really don’t. Unless I get rid of the sofa…
Just needs sprays, flowers, forage, chews & of course a hamster now!
I did add in another little ledge over the sand bath between the coconut hide & corner crush to make that a bit safer, I could just see someone trying to climb on to the slippery glazed sand bath.
Just to note for anyone that isn’t aware Chinese hamsters generally don’t chew fabric so while I wouldn’t advise using hammocks or other fabric items with any other hamster species it is ok for Chinese although there could be exceptions & it’s best to check frequently.
I am so happy you are planning on getting another hamster. This set up looks absolutely fantastic! I love the yellow theme and with the black inside it made me wonder if you subconsciously were thinking of bees. 
