Cage requirements
Within the UK the minimum cage floor square inches is 620 square inches. This bare minimum has been set by the RSPCA.
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This bare minimum doesn't include shelf or the height of the cage.
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The care should also include a minimum of 6 inches of substrate. This is to allow your hamster to borrow as this is a natural behaviour in the wild which gives your hamster great enrichment.
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This is only a bare minimum and your hamster still may need bigger depending on their needs. You will know if you need bigger then the bare minimum by your hamster displaying stress behaviours of bar biting, biting hands, lack of appetite and running up against the sides of the cage repetitively.
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Its always important to provide as big as possible for your hamster. Just imagine being in your hamsters shoes by thinking about the smallest room in your house and imagine spending around 22 hours a day in that room. But imagine being in your biggest room of your house for 22 hours a day. Where would be happier, remember the bigger room can fit more activities and enrichment to prolong boredom.
Recommended cages
List of suitable cages in photos
- Ferplast Large Plastic Cage 99 x 51,5 x h 36 cm
- Pawhunt wooden cages
- Bin cage
- Little friend Grosvence rat and hamster cage
- Ikea Detolf
- Ferplast hamsters, mice and rodents cage KARAT 100
- Savic Hamster heaven
- Savic sky metro
- Ferplast criceti 15
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With dwarf hamster i recommend bin cage, detolf, pawhunt and ferplast large plastic cage. The reason for this is the other cages have bar spacing which dwarf hamster can fit through
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Substrate to use in cage
Some substrate on the market are not safe for hamsters.
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With substrate you need a minimum of 6 inches of more. The substrate you can use are:
- Care fresh or any paper based bedding
- Timothy Hay (some hamster can have allergies)
- Sand (this must not contain calcium)
- Soil
- You can also rip up napkins you get from the pound shop.
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With sand you can use reptile sand that doesn't contain calcium, beaphar hamster sand and children playsand (but with children playsand you need to bake for 20 minutes in the oven)
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I recommend using different substrate in the cage to give them different enrichment as well as, using a different substrate in their toileting area, making cleaning easiler.
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