Syrian Hamsters don't cost a lot to maintain however if you are going to give them the best life you can, the outlay can be a little higher than expected. This is because of the cage required for them to live in. On average a Syrian Hamster can run between 7 and 9 miles in any given night, many people don't realise this and buy small cages for their Syrians. they don't realise that the hamster needs a lot more space than you get in a £30 - £40 cage, the sizes of which range from tiny, to, too small.
There are one of three ways you can go about supplying a large, good home for your new Syrian Hamster.
One option available is that you can buy the UK recommended cage size (50cm x80cm/4.3 square feet) for around £75. This cage is a Savic, Hamster Heaven Model. We have two of these cages, one for Fudge, who loves his and one for Lil Bear, who unfortunately hated his. Fudge is very happy in his Hamster Heaven cage and never chews the bars, Lil Bear on the other hand constantly (and violently) stress chewed the bars on the cage.
Lil Bear spent hours running excess energy off on his wheel too, so for Lil Bear, we opted for the second option. The IKEA Detolf option with the Kallax unit to stand it on. This option is more expensive and cost a total of £55 for the Kallax unit (although the price varies by colour) and a Detolf at £50. Now you may not need to buy the Kallax unit to sit the Detolf on, in which case it works out cheaper than the Hamster Heaven. We had already paid £75 for the Hamster Heaven, it is however worth it knowing Lil Bear is much happier now. Since buying the Detolf we have discovered that he is in fact a digger and he has hidey holes all over the Detolf. He barely uses his wheel now but at least he has the option if he wants to.
There is also a third option (for those of you with DIY skills), and that is, to design and build your own cage. I have built my own cage for my Dwarf hamster and I am not even that skilled at DIY, but it was an achievement, and I loved building it for him. This will be discussed under the category, DIY cages & toys.
There is no guarantee that your Syrian hamster will like his, or her, Hamster Heaven as much as Fudge does. We suspect however that if we put Fudge into a Detolf cage (which we do plan to do later this year) he will love it just as much as Lil Bear. This is because Fudge spends his time on the wheel at night, so he is not lazy, and does still have excess energy to run off, he just doesn't get upset about it or chew the bars, he is just a very Zen Hamster. Being able to explore a larger space (163 x43cm/ 7.4 square feet) would be good for him, and we may just find out that he is a digger too, or maybe not, but to give him the choice is priceless.
My advise to anyone wanting to get a Syrian hamster is to get the biggest cage possible and make the larger financial outlays in the beginning (even before you get your hamster) as we have made these mistakes already and now we have several cages stashed in our loft doing nothing now. We do however have very happy hamsters now.
There are one of three ways you can go about supplying a large, good home for your new Syrian Hamster.
One option available is that you can buy the UK recommended cage size (50cm x80cm/4.3 square feet) for around £75. This cage is a Savic, Hamster Heaven Model. We have two of these cages, one for Fudge, who loves his and one for Lil Bear, who unfortunately hated his. Fudge is very happy in his Hamster Heaven cage and never chews the bars, Lil Bear on the other hand constantly (and violently) stress chewed the bars on the cage.
 |
| Berars Detolf |
 |
| Bear |
 |
| Same Detolf, Different set up |
There is also a third option (for those of you with DIY skills), and that is, to design and build your own cage. I have built my own cage for my Dwarf hamster and I am not even that skilled at DIY, but it was an achievement, and I loved building it for him. This will be discussed under the category, DIY cages & toys.
There is no guarantee that your Syrian hamster will like his, or her, Hamster Heaven as much as Fudge does. We suspect however that if we put Fudge into a Detolf cage (which we do plan to do later this year) he will love it just as much as Lil Bear. This is because Fudge spends his time on the wheel at night, so he is not lazy, and does still have excess energy to run off, he just doesn't get upset about it or chew the bars, he is just a very Zen Hamster. Being able to explore a larger space (163 x43cm/ 7.4 square feet) would be good for him, and we may just find out that he is a digger too, or maybe not, but to give him the choice is priceless.
My advise to anyone wanting to get a Syrian hamster is to get the biggest cage possible and make the larger financial outlays in the beginning (even before you get your hamster) as we have made these mistakes already and now we have several cages stashed in our loft doing nothing now. We do however have very happy hamsters now.
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