Dwarf Hamster Cage requirements

When it comes to owning a smaller species of hamster, such as the Winter White Russian Dwarf, Campbell's Russian Dwarf, or Roborovski Dwarf Hamsters there are many various smaller (much smaller) cages made available in the UK, some of which are recommended, by pet stores, as great homes for your hamsters' entire life!  In the photo below is an example of one of these smaller cages versus my own DIY home for my Winter White Russian Dwarf Hamster, Gizmo.

You can see the huge difference in size here (new cage 90cm x 50cm)

Gizmo was extremely quick to let me know that he was most unhappy in his cage.  It took him around about 10 days before he started gnawing on the bars insistently to be let out.  He could have been out in his ball for 20 mins and running about the sofa for 20 mins and the second you put him back in the cage he would be climbing the bars and chewing at them constantly.  At this point, Lil Bear (My fiancés Syrian Hamster) was doing the same.  We did a lot of research on Hamster Central and watching various pet tubers, in particular, Erin's Animals, and found that all hamsters actually travel around 5 to 7 miles in a night. 

When you look at the small cage in the picture above (if I recall correctly this was 47 cm x 37 cm), this is not suited to any animal that travels up to 7 miles a night! The wheel which comes with the cage is also a 3.5 inch wheel. this is absolutely no good for a Winter white hamster, Gizmo has since had his wheel upgraded to a 6.5 inch wheel which is much better for his spine alignment. There is actually, no specific  recommended size given in the UK for a Dwarf Hamster, only a Syrian (80 cm x 50 cm).  I also find it difficult to comprehend that suppliers don't understand that Syrians are larger and need more suitably sized toys, and continue to make 100's of toys that are only really suited for dwarf Hamsters. They also don't understand that Dwarf hamsters are highly energetic and need bigger, more suitable cages and wheels. In Germany the recommended size for any hamster is 100cm x 50cm. 

Unfortunately, the Hamster Heaven Model (80cm x 50cm) is not suitable for all dwarf hamsters as the gaps between the bars are too wide, the top bars are also not welded to the side bars leaving an escape route for Roborovski dwarf hamsters.  Our spare Hamster heavens which we had for our Syrian hamsters were in the loft.  I considered using them but at that time I was still wary of our Russian (Winter white), Gizmo, escaping. So, it was at this point I took it upon myself to design and build Gizmos large Cage in the above picture.  He has his silent wheel, a spinning saucer, a little set of shelves he likes to run up and down and lots of hidey holes he can run in and out of.  Gizmo is much happier now, and loves to run around, he is a climber, so he loves to run up the ladders and although the substrate is fairly deep, he hardly ever digs in it, although he does still use his wheel. Financially this did not cost as much as it did to re-house Lil Bear, in his Detolf habitiat, but there was still some cost involved. It cost £14 for the wire mesh, the  Plexiglass was £18.00 and the aquarium sealant was £5.00.  We had the wood from an old bookcase, and screws etc for the rest of the cage already. 

Hamster Heaven (80cm x 50cm)

From my personal experience (3 Syrians, 4 Russian dwarf and a Roborovski) 80cm x 50cm size is good for Roborovski and Dwarf hamsters, although bigger is always better.  I have My dwarfs in habitats 90cm x 50cm for my Dwarf, Gizmo and 110cm x 40cm for my Roborovski, Tyr.  I would also like to add that giving a tiny Roborovski hamster 110 x 40cm habitat is useless if it is empty. A hamster brain still needs to be stimulated and the hamster needs to "own" his territory and everything in it. Again, you need to consider their biology. When you put a hamster into a massive cage with all of these lovely toys and goodies, the hamster will spend hours scenting everything to make it theirs... for a tiny Roborovski that is A LOT of work, so also please keep in mind that if you give your Hamster the perfect size cage with all the toys you do not clean it all out once a week, once every Four weeks is the general agreement and you clean out only the worst of the bedding and substrate to save your hamster some work and stress. If you clean out everything this can put stress on the scent gland and cause blockages to occur, this in turn can cause infection. So just to make it short and sweet, yes cage size is important, but a balance has to be found too.

Gizmo asking for his Christmas presents.  Look at that wee face!

Now you may be thinking of getting a housing unit in which you can add various modules and long tube tunnels to it.  These types of cages are not the most hygienic of cages, cleaning can take hours as each tube and module has to be disconnected and washed thoroughly.  Any Hamster that chews a lot is likely to be able to escape via the tunnel systems, and if you have a pair of Dwarf hamsters this can cause major territorial issues between the pair and even injuries caused by fighting. It also does not allow for a hamster to run in full speed form one end to the other, the hamster needs to slow down and navigate.  These types of cages only try (very weakly) to convey a hamsters burrowing habits but does not allow for the fact that they run at high speed for up to 7 miles a night, in the open.

Previously I adopted two further Russian Dwarfs, Odin and Loki, who came to us in smaller, rosewood, cages.  These cages were really small  homes, and we noticed that the top hidey area could be opened if the hamster pushed on it, and one of the little bridges up to the hidey was not secure and fell off, so we did decided to put them into the hamster heavens (without the tubing or penthouse) we had in the loft and they both love them.

This post is to help anyone who wants to buy a Dwarf hamster, understand that they need the largest cage possible, and that it is much much better if you can build one yourself as Dwarf hamsters are extremely limited in the availability of suitable cages.

Gizmo exploring his clean and shiny cage

Gizmo is my Winter White Dwarf Hamster, he is around 4 months old and is very friendly.  He is surprisingly tame for a dwarf hamster and has been this way since day 3 of bringing him home.  The one thing he does get grumpy at however, is when his things get moved around his cage.  I try to keep everything where it is, but, it is a live and learn process, for instance having the sand bath at the very front of the cage was not my brightest idea ever. The sand was too close to his sleeping area, it wasn't very private for him, and, the Perspex got really dusty.  Upon cleaning his cage this time, I moved his sand bath to the back, in the opposite corner from his sleeping space.  He got grumpy.  Now even when Gizmo is grumpy he doesn't tend to bite, he just refuses to step on to my hand and be picked up, he is huffy more than grumpy.  Anyway, this morning he woke up and started to explore a little so I grabbed a quick video of him rummaging around his new, clean surroundings.

Introduction to Loki

Loki is a male Russian Dwarf Hamster with a Campbell dominant gene. He is around 9 month old and weighs 41g. His weight fluctuates from 45g to 40g over monthly weigh ins so we don't worry too much about this. Loki came to us as a rescue with his ex cage mate, Odin, from someone who couldn't spend as much time with them as they had originally intended. Originally, the two boys had been housed together, as many experienced hamster owners know, this rarely ends happily. 

Loki had been attacked by Odin and ended up needing antibiotic cream for his stomach. The owner had separated them and Odin had flourished, Loki had not however, he had become highly anxious and bit frequently. It was when the two were separated that the owner realised how time consuming it was to give quality time to each of the two hamsters. We took them both and got them both Savic Hamster heavens as the pet shop had sold the previous owner cages that were too small for them. Loki became very territorial at first, biting anyone that put their hand in the cage, hissing at them and basically looking terrified. We spent a lot of time getting to know him and trying to gain his trust.

 We really do have a soft spot for Loki as he is our own little special needs boy. When we first got him we noticed that he was forever falling off his little ledge in the Hamster Heaven and he had major problems climbing up a plastic ramp in the cage. We had three Russian dwarfs in the same set up at the time and he just could not seem to have the strength in his back legs to push him up the ramp like the other two (Gizmo & Odin). We noticed also that when he stood on his back legs he fell backwards and if he was standing up to grab the bars of the cage he missed and tumbled through the gap onto the cage floor. We were using a Savic Hamster Heaven so the fall was not from a great height but still enough to concern us.

We have since come to the conclusion that his back legs are slightly underdeveloped or that he received nerve damage from his fight with his brother. He is also extremely short sighted, even more so than a hamster normally is. Loki does not see your hand coming from either side so it frightens him severely if your hand suddenly appears from nowhere and he still isn't good at climbing up ramps so we have used wooden platforms and ladders for him to climb around on and this works well for him.

Loki also hordes everything, when we clean him out we can fill a cereal bowl with the food he has stored in several different places around his cage, we think this is due to his cage sharing days with Odin. He still occasionally hisses if he is doesn't expect you to be in his cage but we always talk to him as we enter his domain now to let him know we are there, on the occasion he has been sleeping and not heard us he will hiss or nip at our hands. So far he has not drawn blood and the nips are more of a warning than a danger. We love our special little boy though, he constantly makes us chuckle with his hyper antics and his cute little face makes us smile every day. I have made a short compilation of videos to show Loki's first birthday with us.