Syrian hamster cage: sizes, types, photos

The Syrian hamster will become the best friend for both adults and children. But the first place in your house should be a cage for a Syrian hamster, and only after that a cute animal. You need to approach the purchase responsibly, because the animal will spend a lot of time in its house. When choosing housing, you need to take into account the habits, lifestyle and size of the pet.

How to choose accommodation for a Syrian?

Compared to other breeds, this hamster is quite large. Very often, cages are bought for representatives of the breed in bird markets – it is cheaper here than in pet stores. Judging by the reviews, one-story housing with a semicircular top, 35 * 20 cm in size, became the sales leader. But, unfortunately, this cage size for a Syrian hamster is not quite suitable – it is too small. Its advantage is in the semicircular top – hamsters like to arrange acrobatic stunts, hang from the ceiling. The Syrian hamster needs more space.

On sale you can find models of even more compact sizes, but they are only suitable for carrying animals – the Syrian will not be comfortable living in cramped quarters. To provide the pet with more space, the bird cages are being redone – they are high, so they can be equipped with a second floor, which is exactly what some rodent owners do. But this option has its drawbacks. The safety of the animal is questionable, because there is no guarantee that the additional floor is securely fixed.

What could be better for a Syrian than a big cage with wheels and labyrinths?! The optimal and inexpensive option is rectangular cages for Syrian hamsters, 37 * 27 cm in size, 36 cm in height.

It is convenient if the second floor is in the middle and extends to the entire space. In the horizontal partition there is a hole for a ladder to go down the stairs.

There are many two-story dwellings for rodents on sale, where the second floors extend up to half, this is also convenient, but it should not be ruled out that during active games the hamster may fall off. There were cases when, during falls from the second floor, rodents injured their paws, but such situations are rare.

The best option for the Syrian

A suitable cage size for a Syrian, regardless of the number of floors, is 50 * 30 cm, at least 25 cm in height with the ability to equip it to your own taste. Often they combine two or more dwellings, build labyrinths between them, connect them with terrariums and aquariums.

The Syrian’s house should be spacious, there is a logical explanation for this. In the wild, hamsters have at their disposal vast territories of the steppes, their minks are located at a decent distance from each other.

At the time of buying need to pay attention for the following points:

1. For a Syrian hamster, size and diameter are more important than number of storeys.
2. European experts have defined standards: the cage area for the Syrian hamster should be 1500 square meters. cm, that is, the dimensions of the bottom should not be less than 50 * 30 cm.
3. Cramped housing is dangerous to health. The animal may develop hypodynamia, obesity. A hamster in such conditions is unhappy and is unlikely to live up to a year and a half, although the normal life span is 2 – 2,5 years.
4. It is good if the distance between floors is not less than 30 cm.
5. The door should be wide so that the owner’s hand can easily pass through it along with the pet.
6. It is better to choose a dwelling with a solid pallet, a mesh one can injure the animal.

Important: when choosing a house for hamsters of this breed, pay attention to the distance between the bars, which should be from 5 to 10 mm.

Syrian hamster cubs at ten days of age are able to crawl through cracks 7-8 mm wide, so for breeding you need to buy a dwelling with 5 mm rods.

You can read about filling the cage with the necessary accessories in the article on arranging the cage. And also you will find the necessary information about what else is needed to care for a hamster in the article about what you need to keep a hamster.