Large Hamster Cages and Accessories
As highly active creatures, hamsters love to have plenty of space to run around, explore, and play games. A large hamster cage will give them this freedom, and it needn't cost a fortune.
All hamsters need sufficient space to live and grow. A large hamster cage is an essential item if you're to keep your pet happy, health, and entertained. This is doubly important if you're keeping more than one hamster - even though they're sociable creatures, they still need time to themselves once in a while!
Hamsters are very organised, and like to divide up their living space into a number of separate areas. For example, they will usually designate a space for eating, one for sleeping, another as their toilet, and plenty of space for exercising, running around, and climbing.
A large hamster cage will give your animals enough room to set out their living area just the way they like it. Not only will this keep them satisfied, it will also ensure that they have better hygiene. This makes them less susceptible to illness and disease. The increased space also provides plenty of room for them to run around, keeping them active, fit, and healthy.
Large hamster cages come in a variety of styles, designs, sizes, colours, and prices. Here's a rundown of some of the most popular types, along with their pros and cons. It should help you decide which cage will suit you, your pets, and your wallet best.
First up is the traditional wire hamster cage. This consists of a plastic base tray, which is covered by a metal wire cage. The bars of the cage are usually coated with a soft plastic material. This prevents rust and protects your hamsters from any sharp metal corners.
This type of hamster home is very popular because it provides an extremely versatile living space for your pets. The cage itself is like a 'blank canvas', which you can customise with a huge range of hamster accessories, such as ramps, platforms, houses, wheels, ladders, and water bottles, which you can buy at excellent prices. These are simply placed in the cage, or clipped to its wire walls.
Because nothing is fixed down, it is very quick and easy to rearrange the layout of the accessories, allowing you to provide a completely new, fresh layout that your animals will love to explore.
Another benefit of a wire hamster cage is that hamsters love to climb the bars, so for them it's almost like living in a play area! This variety of entertainment will ensure they get plenty of exercise, and are kept stimulated and happy.
Next up are aquarium hamster cages. In many ways these are very similar to metal wire ones, but they have solid plastic sides, almost like an aquarium. One great advantage of these is that you can fill them with a much deeper layer of hamster bedding - often several inches to a foot in thickness. In the wild, hamsters make their homes by burrowing into the ground, so a plastic cage allows them to simulate this.
The downside to a solid-walled cage is that your hamsters may hide themselves away, making them very hard to find! Cleaning the cage out is also more difficult due to the sheer amount of sawdust, and you'll find they can get quite expensive since you will need to buy a lot of sawdust on a regular basis just to keep the cage filled.
Another drawback is that it is less easy to attach accessories to the walls of these cages, because most are designed to clip onto wire bars.
The final type of large hamster cage is known as a 'housing system'. They are available from a number of manufacturers such as Rotastak and Habitrail. These are the creme de la creme of hamster cages, and consist of a series of plastic rooms which are interconnected by twisting tubes. These systems are bought in individual units, allowing you to design your hamster's home exactly the way you want it.
Units include exercise rooms, living rooms, burrowing rooms, sleep domes, play rooms and more - the range is truly mind-boggling and you can be sure that whatever your pet's needs, there will be a module to suit.
The tubes are almost as complex, with straight pieces, bends, cross sections, and more. With this type of hamster cage, you can really let your imagination run wild, creating massively complex systems of tunnels and rooms. Needless to say, your hamster will absolutely love exploring its home, and it's very easy for you to rearrange or extend it to add even more variety.
Of course the downside to these systems is that they can be very expensive, depending on the number of units you want to add. Having said that, due to their modular nature, you don't have to buy them all at once. Instead, you can start with a starter home, and gradually add to it over time.
As you can see, there is a large hamster cage available to suit every need and budget. They're perfect for keeping your pet happy, healthy, and well exercised, and you can buy them online for very low prices, so there's really no need to settle for anything less!