Getting a hamster

I am planning on getting a hamster either today or tomorrow. I had a dwarf hamster a few months ago that me and my sister got and we kept him in the ferplast favola cage (originally we had an aquarium but the side cracked when being moved). I would use the favola, but I hate the tiny door on top, so I just picked up all new supplies. I got
-kaytee rat home for the cage
-carefresh bedding
-kaytee FortI diet pellets and seed mix
-an 8 inch comfort wheel
-chew blocks and a kabob
-a little wooden hide
-just some random water bottle from petco
-a little hanging cube from petco
-a cardboard tunnel (taking the cotton fluff out of course).
I’m thinking I want a Syrian hamster, but I’ll have to see what they have. I’m planning on setting up the cage today and getting the hamster tomorrow. How does my supply list sound? Anything I should add? I obviously plan to gather more toys as I go.

 

The cage is fine, but it is the minimum size for hamsters. They love to run and burrow, so a bigger cage would be even better. With hamsters, ground space is more important then height. I would recommend getting a bigger wheel if you can, because while 8” wheels are the minimum size for Syrian hamsters, it is uncomfortable for their backs to bend that much. A 10-12” wheel would be awesome, or maybe look into flying saucer wheels if you don’t have a lot of height to work with. As for the bedding, carefresh is find as long as you get the undyed natural type. This is super important because the dyed ones contain harmful chemicals that are bad for any animal they are housed on. I recommend the undyed paper bedding, as they are very absorbent and not as dusty as some of the other options. Make sure your bedding is fairly deep, because as I said before, hamster love to burrow. If you don’t want to make your bedding 2-3 inches deep through out the whole cage, I recommend getting a box 10”x10” or bigger to put in the cage, where there is 4-5” of bedding to dig through. Your hamster will love playing in this! As for the toys, it’s great to have toys, especially wood ones, for them to chew on to sand down their teeth. Just make sure you don’t buy the dyed type. I hope this was helpful, and an awesome resource you can check out for more information is ErinsAnimals on Youtube. She has tons of informative hamster content and cool ideas for enrichment. Have fun with your new hamster!

 

the rat cage is a little small, especially for a Syrian. I would return that expensive waste of money and get a nice big rubbermaid( or other brand) storage tote. It will work is much better and It has more space for the hamster.

 

Awesome. I have a 12 inch flying saucer that my rats don’t use, so I could see if I can fit that in. I don’t have an issue filling the whole base with bedding, so I’ll just fill the base to the top to let the hammy burrow. I’ll probably only use this cage for 6 or so months until I move, at that point I plan on upgrading to either the crittertrail super or a 40 gallon aquarium. AllThingsPets sorry I don’t know why it didn’t let me reply ‍♀️

 

the rat cage is a little small, especially for a Syrian. I would return that expensive waste of money and get a nice big rubbermaid( or other brand) storage tote. It will work is much better and It has more space for the hamster.

It actually worked out to be quite cheap with the $15 off $65 sale petco, probably about the same as a bin as my total with all the supplies from petco was only $57. I have a different setup in mind when I move in 6 months and I have additional space. Regardless, I’ll need the smaller cage anyways for one of my pets as a travel cage during the move.

 

It actually worked out to be quite cheap with the $15 off $65 sale petco, probably about the same as a bin as my total with all the supplies from petco was only $57. I have a different setup in mind when I move in 6 months and I have additional space. Regardless, I’ll need the smaller cage anyways for one of my pets as a travel cage during the move.

A huge bin with a lid costs less than $10

 

A huge bin with a lid costs less than $10

Not any I’ve seen, I’d also have to diy some kind of lid because I have cats and I don’t have the supplies to do that. Either way, I’ve had bin cages previously and I’m not a fan of them. I also asked about my supply list, not about how to spend my money. The $20 or $30 that the cage worked out to be is really an insignificant amount when you consider other costs that come with pet ownership. The $10 difference between a cage and a bin isn’t something that’s bothersome to me. I’d rather pay $20 for a cage that I can also repurpose when I upgrade than have another big plastic bin to find storage space for. I don’t mean to sound rude and I apologize if I do, but I’m happy with the purchase I already made, I appreciate the suggestion but it doesn’t work for my situation.