Correct hamster cage sizes

There are many out there who are not educated about good hamster care one main issue is that many house their hamster in a too small cage. Many still don't take on board the advice of other as, they say their hamster seem happy in their eyes. But this is the same as saying to a depressed person, you don't look depressed. As its important to understand you don't understand fully what going on inside your hamsters head just like you can't understand everything your friend is thinking. Now put yourself in your hamsters shoe, imagined being trapped in your bedroom for the rest of your life. But before, you say you take them out of their cage for playtime, which is great but think how much of the day they spend in there cage and its size as, in human perspective for some it could be like two teenagers being in a box room of the house for 22 hours of the day. As you many only take them out for a few hours and given with the hours they spend sleeping that can be around 8 to 10 hours of their awake time being locked in a cage which to a human can be the size of a box room in your house, but imagine spend 8 to 10 hours in a larger room such as your parents bedroom. This is so much better as there is more you can fit in the room, as in you room you could have a wardrobe, a piano, a book shelf, a game console, a record player and desk but this wouldn't fit in a the box room in your house. So, imagine with your hamster having a bigger cage the amount of toys and space they can have to have enrichment as the more enrichment your have the less bored you get or don't get bored as quickly. Also, there will be someone who will say but you can still get bored. that true as we need to remember that hamster in the wild had unlimited space to run and would run miles a night which is always going to be hard to recreate so it always important to give them a much space as possible to recreate this. As well as, changing their toys from time to time will help with boredom

Although, there will be times when hamster can be in smaller cages but this is very rare as shouldn't be done unless advice by a vet or its in old aged hamsters. The time it would be allowed is when your hamster is ill and can't walk very far, but normally a larger cage should always be used.

The cage size for a hamster as advised by the RSPCA is 620 square inches of floor space, this floor space should be unbroken meaning it don't mean that two levels of the cage put together make 620 square inches. Different countries will have different bare minimums but in the UK the bare minimum is 620 square inches, but the more you can provide the better, especially as 620 is a minimum. As some hamster still may need bigger as, they can find it stressful being in their environment as, its the same with humans how their environment can stress them out, the same applies with hamsters. Therefore, if your hamster display sizes of stress behaviour you will need to upgrade their cage to give them more space. Stress behaviours, can be bar biting, a lack of active, cage biting (biting you when you put your hand in the cage) or even boredom eating. But hamster also may display no symptoms at all.

The substrate in your hamsters cage needs to be a minimum of 6 inches which is 15 cm, but the deeper the substrate the better as, hamster love to borrow and it is a natural behaviour. As in the wild, hamster would borrow and create different chamber one, for sleeping, one for eating and one for the toilet, so its a great way to give them enrichment.