How to make a house for a hamster with your own hands at home

The question of how to make a house for a hamster with your own hands at home is before the owner even before buying an animal. His decision depends on the size of the animal. For the Dzungarians, a house is needed less than for the “Syrians”. You should not postpone this matter until a later date, since the animal needs shelter already in the first minutes of being in a new place. If time is pressing, make a temporary shelter out of paper or cardboard.

What can you make a hamster house out of?

The task of the house is to hide the kids from prying eyes. The material for manufacturing must be non-toxic, since the hamster will definitely try it “by the tooth”. The house will have to be cleaned, it should be comfortable for the animal. The animal will show itself how he feels in it, having settled in a new nest.

Craftsmen make houses out of cardboard and paper. Suitable for this: coconut shell, ready-made boxes, wooden planks and slats, plywood, toilet paper rolls and even popsicle sticks.

Paper house for Djungarian hamster

This temporary house will not last long. Some animals deal with him overnight. Its advantages: minimum costs and fast production. For this design you will need: toilet paper, a bowl of water and a balloon.

The procedure is as follows:

1. inflate the balloon to the size of a large apple;
2. divide toilet paper into separate leaves and moisten with water;
3. stick the sheets on the ball until about 8 layers are formed on it;
4. send the design to dry on the battery;
5. pierce the ball with a needle or simply deflate the air;
6. remove the balloon from the paper frame;
7. make an entrance for the hamster in the paper frame.

The room will resemble a hemisphere. Such a house is suitable for a dwarf hamster. It is short lived and fragile.

Coconut shell hamster house

This design is more durable than the previous version. With the seeming ease of manufacture, you will have to tinker with it for several hours, cleaning the pulp from the fruit. The dwelling turns out to be quite small, therefore it will serve as a shelter for the Djungarian hamster. Choose a coconut and get to work:

1. make holes in the “eyes” of the coconut and drain the milk;
2. tap the blunt side of the knife on the fruit, stepping back a couple of centimeters from the eyes – the most vulnerable part of the shell;
3. if a crack appears on the surface, cut off this part with a knife, if it does not appear, saw off with a hacksaw;
4. put the fruit in the freezer for 20 minutes, which will make it easier to remove the pulp from the coconut;
5. sand the edges of the hole in the future house.

You can stop at this, but the dwelling will be unstable and will roll around the cage. To avoid this, install the coconut house with the cut hole down.

On one side, draw a small arch and cut it out along the contour. Sand the edges. This will be the entrance to the house. Drill holes for ventilation. If desired, you can make decorative windows on the side.

Wooden house for a hamster

Depending on the size, such housing can be made for both the Syrian hamster and dwarf counterparts. The simplest design is made in the form of a box with a removable roof, ventilation holes and an entrance for the animal. To get started, you need to prepare a sheet of plywood or a wooden board 1-4 cm thick. Plywood is more convenient. It is cheaper, it is easier to handle, the hamster does not chew it so quickly. Hardwood is suitable for manufacturing.

Make a markup on the prepared sheets. If the house is intended for a small hamster, the length of the front and back walls is 15 cm, with a height of 10 cm. The side walls are 10×10 cm. The lower part of the structure remains open, and for the top we put it on sheets of 17×12 cm. boxes. On the front surface, it is necessary to cut out the entrance and the window, which will serve as additional ventilation. For the convenience of fastening plywood sheets, narrow slats can be nailed at the junctions. For work you will need:

• ruler;
• pencil;
• circular saw or jigsaw;
• file;
• sandpaper;
• a hammer;
• small nails or screws.

Each piece of plywood must be processed with a file and cleaned with sandpaper. The hole for entry and ventilation is also processed with sandpaper.

First, we assemble the walls, nailing them or fastening them with self-tapping screws. We put the roof on top, without fixing it on the frame for the convenience of cleaning the room.

If it is difficult to calculate the design parameters for your animal, take a cardboard box of the required dimensions. Measure its parameters and set aside the length and width you need on plywood.

Hamster house out of the box

By the same principle as a dwelling made of wood, you can make a house out of a box.

To do this, prepare a “pattern” of cardboard. We connect the walls with glue that is harmless to the animal, and cut out the entrance and windows with a clerical knife or scissors.

You can go a very simple way, using a box of paper napkins.

Be sure to free the box from the plastic wrap!

These boxes are convenient in that they already have holes ready, they will serve as an entrance for the hamster. If you have a square box, you can simply cut it in two so that the cut line is right in the middle of the tissue box. You will receive 2 identical houses for medium-sized animals. If the box is rectangular, you will have to make two cuts so that the future house has a compact size and stands stably in the cage.

Take the cardboard tube left over from the toilet paper and insert it into the opening of the box. Attach it to the edges of the hole with glue, fix and let dry. You have a house with a tunnel entrance.

Very simple houses made of tubes from toilet paper rolls

It may be difficult to call this construction a dwelling in the general sense of the word, but they are suitable for animals as shelters. They are non-toxic, closed from the eyes and well ventilated.

For homemade tube houses, not only toilet paper is suitable, but also paper towels. Take the tube and flatten it. Cut out a half circle on each side with scissors. Do the same with the second tube. Insert one tube into the hole in the other. This cruciform structure is suitable for dwarf hamsters.

Shelter for animals from plastic bottles

Such houses can be made for small and large hamsters. It all depends on the size of the bottle. There are many options for housing construction, we will consider 2.

A simple one-bottle shelter option

To build a house, take a bottle that fits the width of the bottom of the animal. The bottom of the dish will be the hamster’s hiding place. We cut off this part of the bottle, turn it over with the cut side down and make a semicircular entrance. We pierce holes for air exchange along the perimeter of the house with a hot knitting needle. We glue the cut edges of the bottle and the entrance with electrical tape so that the hamster does not get injured from sharp edges. You can not cut the entrance, but put a piece of the bottle on its side, and its cut will serve as the entrance. The container should be dark so that the animal feels protected.

House of two bottles

From two bottles, you can make the design a little more complicated. Both containers are treated the same. We cut off the bottom and neck. We wrap the edges of the first with electrical tape. In the middle of the first bottle we make a hole along the diameter of the second. We do this with a utility knife. First we make a cross-shaped incision, then we bend the edges, trying not to pull too hard. The plastic is very brittle and can crack. Insert scissors and cut a hole. We apply electrical tape to the circle.

For a tighter fit, flatten the edges of the bottle, which we will insert into the hole, and cut off the upper and lower edges diagonally. We wrap the edge with tape. We insert the bottle into the first. If the edges fit snugly enough, we tie two bottles together with electrical tape.

Is it possible to sew a house for a hamster

Often on the forums they ask the question whether it is possible to sew a house for a pet. Breeders do not recommend the use of fabric for these animals. Rodents try all the items “on the tooth.” If the wood or paper does not harm the babies, then the rags and threads that get into the stomach of the animal can lead to illness or death of the pet. There were cases when the animals got tangled in the fringe and suffocated. Experts advise houses made of harder or safer materials.

We build a house according to the drawing

You can make a shelter for hamsters from cardboard according to the drawings. The assembly diagram of such a house is shown below.

A pet house can be made from different materials. It is necessary to consider its safety and convenience for the animal. Almost any of the houses presented above can be adapted for both Dzungarians and Syrian hamsters.