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

If the assortment of pet stores leaves much to be desired, the owner will be helped out by information on how to make a walking ball for a hamster with your own hands at home. Some methods are so simple that they do not require any technical skills, and even children can do it.

Plastic bottle

A plastic bottle with a wide neck is in itself a ready-made accessory for walking the animal around the apartment. It should be of suitable size, transparent. It is thoroughly washed from the inside and the labels are removed.

A Dzungarian hamster can easily climb into a milk bottle, and a large Syrian hamster can move around in a plastic water canister.

Ventilation holes are cut in the bottle, after which it is ready for use. Such a device cannot be compared with a walking ball – the bottle has a completely different shape. However, she easily rides around the apartment and protects the pet from the dangers that home conditions are so rich in. In the absence of a ball, such a toy successfully provides the rodent with physical activity and even some mental development: the animal will have to adapt to the control of an oblong object.

Even children can make a walking bottle for their pet with their own hands, there are no financial costs at all.

plastic bucket

In a similar way, you can make a walking ball from a plastic food bucket. The container should be made of light transparent plastic. After thorough washing, holes are drilled in the lid and bottom of the bucket. They can be made with an awl.

When making a walking capsule with your own hands, you need to pay great attention to the following characteristics:

Size

The ability to choose a container that fits the size of a particular animal is one of the advantages of a homemade accessory. Sometimes you should watch the animal in walking capsules of different diameters in order to understand which one will be more convenient.

The walking ball should not be too heavy, otherwise it will be difficult for the animal to move it.

The diameter should be large enough so that the hamster does not have to bend the spine. You should be guided by the size of industrial balls: for Dzungarians it will be 12-13 cm in diameter, and for larger Syrians – about 18-20 cm, occasionally up to 30 cm.

Ventilation

You can not run the animal into a plastic container or bottle without holes. Ventilation should be sufficient for free access of oxygen, because the animal will actively move in the toy. If there is a feeling of a greenhouse effect, then the number of holes is not enough, or they are too small. Feces fall freely through the ventilation holes, no need to try to avoid this. Walking time is still limited to 20-30 minutes, during such a period a tiny animal will not do much harm.

Hole and edge processing

From the outside, you need to cut off all the protruding excess. The ventilation holes are carefully processed so that there are no protruding pieces of plastic, irregularities.

Conclusion

For a small curious rodent, home conditions are fraught with many dangers. Free range of these animals is unacceptable, and the space in the cage is very limited. The way out of the situation is to provide protection during the walk. If it is not possible to purchase an accessory at a pet store, it is quite possible to make a walking ball yourself. Only it will not be a ball in the full sense of the word, but rather a barrel. But it does its job just as well.

Love crafting? Then take advantage of the useful information and ideas from our articles on: how to make a drinking bowl and make a cage with your own hands.