Another antique cage with a wheel here, from 1910. It's described as mouse/hamster cage again, but until the 1930s the only hamsters brought out of Syria appeared to be "specimens" in museums. There was a possible exception though - this is from Wikipedia with a note saying "dubious/discuss" at the end
"In 1880 as British Consul to Syria
James Henry Skene was retiring back to Edinburgh, he returned from Syria with Syrian hamsters. He died in 1886. The colony of hamsters remained alive until 1910."
So if that's true it's possible that James Henry Skene might have had a hamster cage and wheel in 1880 - but if he did he probably used a mouse cage IMO!
Edit - apparently James Skene did indeed bring hamsters to the Uk in 1879 and had a colony - more information about that here, from someone who has done research into it.
"All the captive Golden Hamsters up to the 1970s were descended from a single litter collected by Israel Aharoni near Aleppo in 1930. That statement is correct but I was surprised when I learnt of a colony of Golden Hamsters being kept in Britain for thirty years until around 1910."
All the captive Golden Hamsters up to the 1970s were descended from a single litter collected by Israel Aharoni near Aleppo in 1930. That s...
zoologyweblog.blogspot.com
So the question now is - who decided mice would like wheels?!
Hendryx Industrial metal mouse cage with wheel
View attachment 8928
. The only difference (other than size) is that one is bright pink with a princess picture, has no ventilation and has to remind you to give the pet water in the instructions and another looks like a prison cell. Honestly, I think both are jail for a hamster.