How to make DIY hamster toys at home

Hamsters are very mobile animals that need different items for leisure. Interesting devices are in stores. Having shown some ingenuity, you may wonder how to make toys for a hamster with your own hands at home.

Hamster toys

Hamsters in nature have to spend a lot of time in search of food and escape from predators. They don’t have time for special games. In captivity, animals often gain excess weight due to conditions of detention: small cages and insufficient equipment.

Therefore, in order to create ideal conditions for animals, it is necessary to properly equip the cage and fill their leisure time with special devices. Since it’s unwise to put hamsters in danger by getting a predator, toys should work in two ways:

• search for food;
• physical activity.

For the first, grass balls are suitable, in which a treat is buried, various kinds of sandboxes and structures with seeds inside.

Physical activity will be developed: tunnels and labyrinths, ladders, a running wheel and just boxes with several holes inside. For walks outside the cage, you can make a walking ball with your own hands.

Homemade toys for hamsters

Leisure devices for animals can be made from improvised means. The main thing is that they are safe for animals.

From walnut shells

You can easily make a toy out of walnut shells. Take a few nuts, split them in half and remove the inside. For work you will need:

• several shells;
• strong thick thread;
• thin nail;
• a hammer;
• puck.

In each shell, make a hole in the middle by driving a nail into it. The nail must then be removed.

Pass the thread through all the shells. All of them should “look” in one direction except the extreme one. A washer must be tied to the last one so that the thread does not slip out.

It turned out walnut “beads”. Tie the top of the thread to the cage. Put a treat in each shell. The animal will climb the shells like a ladder and pull out a treat.

Do not make this “ladder” very high – just a few links. Hamsters are great at climbing up, but they tend to fall down, so make sure you have a thick layer of bedding.

From a toilet paper roll

Such a toy is well suited for jungars, larger Syrians will deal with it quickly enough. You will need scissors, a toilet paper roll and a treat. To get the job done:

1. cut the roller into equal rings;
2. connect the two rings to each other by inserting one into the other;
3. insert another ring into this ball;
4. supplement this design with rings until a tight ball is formed, in total you will need about 5 rings;
5. put a treat inside the homemade ball.

This entertainment will be enough for a dwarf hamster for a long time. He will roll this ball, gnaw it until he gets to the “yummy”.

Minks and “diggers”

It is very easy to make minks by hand – toys for hamsters, jungars will be pleased with a box of cookies or napkins with holes in it. A box with holes can be put in a cage, or dug entirely into sawdust. Holes in this case will need to be made from above. If the box is full of sawdust, the animal will satisfy its need to dig.

Put the animal in a container with sand, he will be happy to rummage in it. If a treat is buried in the sand, the baby will be preoccupied with finding it.

Other do-it-yourself entertainment for hamsters

Various items can occupy the leisure time of kids. Wooden toys, from which paint and varnish have been removed, will serve as objects for grinding teeth – rodents also need this. Wooden branches and bars that you pick up in the forest will also please hamsters. Branches of fruit trees can be used if they have not been treated with chemicals.

Large pieces of fruits and vegetables allowed for animals in a cage will definitely occupy the kids. It is necessary to remove these fruits in the evening, otherwise they will start to spoil.

The most common items that are in every home can become toys. A toilet paper roller is a small flower pot – toys for Djungarian hamsters, for larger relatives a set of children’s plastic or wooden cubes, flower pots of larger sizes are suitable.

Ropes, ladders, bridges, slides

Rodents love to climb up, they hold onto ropes and crossbars very well. Unfortunately, it is difficult for them to go down – they fall and can injure their paws. The task of the owner of the rodent is to make entertainment as safe as possible. If you want to make a DIY hamster toy, consider the height of the structure. A homemade rope should be fastened low, build stairs flat, and slides safe.

Video: how to make a do-it-yourself hamster slide

As a slide, you can adapt a ceramic pot.

It is very easy to make a ladder out of cardboard. Cut out 2 rectangles of the same width. One will serve as the base of the ladder, from the other – you need to make steps. Take the second rectangle and cut it across into narrow identical strips. Glue these strips onto the first rectangle at small intervals. Fix the ladder on the house or shelf.

A convenient bridge can be made from ice cream sticks. Prepare about 30 sticks, PVA glue, a large bowl, clothespins. The procedure is as follows:

1. Dip 6 sticks in boiling water and boil them for 15 minutes.
2. Take the chopsticks out of the water and gently bend them into a semicircle. Heated sticks bend well.
3. To keep their shape, attach them to the edge of the bowl and secure with a clothespin.
4. When the sticks dry, they will have an arched shape.
5. Take two sticks, connect them together at the ends and glue a third to them from below. You will receive an arch of two bent sticks, fastened at the bottom with an overlay from the third.
6. Do this with three other bent sticks.
7. You have received two arches, they will be the basis for the bridge.
8. It’s time to use the rest of the ice cream sticks. Place the two resulting arches parallel to each other and glue the crossbars from the remaining sticks to them.

Video: how to make a bridge for a hamster with your own hands

Playground

The field for playing the animal can be organized outside the cage. To do this, fence off a section of the room with cardboard boxes, connecting them with tape. Be sure to check the reliability of the design so that you do not have to catch the baby throughout the apartment.

On the playground, lay out various toys and any household items that are safe for the animal. Watch the animal, which toys he likes best. Equip the playground with ladders, a wheel, bridges, a sandbox, a rope and flower pots and children’s toys. Some of them can then be transferred to the cage.

Video: playroom and obstacle course for a hamster

Toys in stores

If you have any difficulties in making toys, you can buy a variety of devices in pet stores. Focus on the size of the pet: toys for Syrian hamsters are larger than for their dwarf counterparts.

By organizing the space of pets with toys, you keep them healthy and fill the life of animals with new experiences.