today we're going to be talking about hamster cages
so you may want to get comfy and grab a snack
hamsters originally started out in laboratories
being tested for different things and the cages they used were quite small
once hamsters started appearing in people's homes as pets and in the pet trade
manufacturers started making cages that would fit easily in the home without taking up a lot
of space and which was essentially most convenient for the owner and not the pet
marketed as something fun to connect and collect
and in fact the branch habitrail was first owned by MetaFrame/Living world which is a division
of Mattel toy which would explain why they target children so much
and focus on the entertainment aspect rather than what the pet needs in order to thrive
hamsters are very active animals and would travel many miles every night in the wild foraging,
working on their burrows and gathering nesting materials and as you may know
our hamsters in captivity spend many hours on the wheel every single night
but this is not a replacement for a large enclosure
as a wheel helps burn energy off but it does not allow a hamster to do other activities
hamsters while domesticated still are very similar to their wild ancestors therefore it is
super important that they have a large enclosure in order for the hamster to thrive and be happy
small cages can cause repetitive boredom behaviors unfortunately these boredom
behaviors have been seen as normal hamster behaviors that's just something all hamsters do
when in fact that's not the case these behaviors are common not normal
boredom behaviors can indicate an unhappy hamster which can lead to stress
and as we all know stress is not good for the body
a stressed hamster is more prone to health issues as well as a shortened lifespan
the typical boredom behaviors you'll see with a hamster would include
bar biting and chewing the cage this is when a hamster repetitively chews on the cage whether
it be the bars of a wired enclosure or the silicone in the corner of an aquarium this is
not normal chewing and it is not a hamster trying to wear down their teeth like many people think
this is an obsessive behavior that indicates a stressed hamster it can lead to sores around
the mouth and nose as well as misaligned teeth which can lead to other serious issues
cage aggression some hamsters will become very territorial over their
cage when the cage is too small this means anytime you go to put your hand into the
enclosure the hamster comes charging at you tries to bite you or hisses at you
and they will not let you do anything in the enclosure but if the hamster is taken out of
the enclosure they are completely different hamster they are calm and they don't bite you
cage pacing this is when the hamster runs back and
forth against the walls of the enclosure this is more commonly seen in an aquarium styled cage
monkey barring and wall scaling inside of a wire cage this behavior can be seen as a hamster
constantly climbing on the bars of a cage like a monkey or hanging from them or if an
aquarium will be seen as wall scaling and this is when the hamster is constantly jumping up against
the sides of the glass or even constantly tries to climb on other objects in order to try and escape
lethargy this is when a hamster no longer does much of anything and the owner often
looks at it as the hamster just being lazy but if nothing is given to the hamster to
do then there isn't anything for them to do besides run on a hamster wheel
overall these behaviors do affect the hamster
a small enclosure leave the hamster to simply live a life of stress and lack of enrichment because
there isn't enough room to provide proper enrichment for the hamster
minimums versus recommended sizes
there are so many minimums seen throughout the hamster community
essentially a minimum means the absolutely smallest amount you can do
when it comes to animals a minimum means the absolute smallest area an animal can
live in humanely without it being cruel so for this reason is why your hamster
can still be unhappy in an enclosure that is over the minimum because a minimum isn't a
magical happy number it's a limit given to ensure that you humanely care for your pet
hamsters can be unhappy in the largest of cages and that should just go to show
how important cage size is and how much space this tiny little creature truly
actually needs recommended cage sizes are generally given by experienced hamster owners
who know what species does best in what sized cage based on their experiences with owning hamsters
and generally a recommended cage size is going to be larger than what a minimum is
as for minimums they vary from different countries and organizations
keep in mind all the accessories used in the minimums are all
necessary items as well as suitably sized for all hamsters
first we have american society for the prevention of cruelty
to animals and their minimum is 200 square inches of floor space
the canadian council on animal cares minimum is a 100 square inches of floor space
petsmart's minimum for their dwarf hamsters is 144 square inches of floor space
and for syrians their minimum is 200 square inches of floor space
hamster society singapore's minimum for dwarfs is 434 square inches of floor space
and for syrians 620 square inches of floor space
hamster south africa's minimum for dwarf hamsters is 465 square inches of floor space
and for syrians 558 square inches of floor space
Ontario hamster club, California hamster association and many north
american hamster owners minimum is 450 square inches of floor space
wood green animal charity and many uk hamster owners minimum is 620 square inches of floor space
and the tvt which is germany's veterinary association for animal welfare's minimum
is 775 square inches of floor space
so it's in the hamster's best interest that you go with a cage that is
as large as possible in my own personal experience i would recommend cages that
are 800 square inches of floor space or larger there was a study done in 2007 by K. Fisher
he looked into the behavior of syrian hamsters in four different cage sizes
he took 60 female syrian hamsters and house them individually in cage sizes of
279 square inches
387 square inches
775 square inches
and 1550 square inches
bar chewing was observed in all four cage sizes but the hamsters housed in the smaller cage sizes
chewed the bars significantly longer and
more often so K. Fisher came to the conclusion that in order for proper welfare of the syrian
hamster they should have a minimum of a 1,550 square inches of floor space
it's also important to point out enrichment is just as important as cage size a large enclosure
that is basically completely empty is still going to leave you with an unhappy hamster
how to measure your hamster's cage
measuring your hamster's cage can easily be done and all you need is a
tape measure and a calculator we're going to start by measuring the width
and the length of the bottom inside of the enclosure we don't want to measure
on the outside or at the top of the enclosure because these can give you inaccurate results
then we are going to multiply the two numbers that we get and
that is going to give you your total floor space
depending on what unit of measurement you use to measure your cage you can get different results
so for example 30 inches by 15 inches is going to give you 450 square inches of floor space
but if you're measuring in centimeters 76.2 centimeters by 38.1 centimeters is going to
give you 2903.22 centimeter squared now this is the same sized cage just different units of
measurement if you need to convert your square centimeters to square inches to make it easier
determining how large your enclosure is then you can do so easily with google
not sponsored
all you have to do is take your square centimeters
and say to inches and google will very easily and fastly do the math for you
if pet store cages are too small then why do they sell them?
i think there's a combination of reasons behind why pet stores still sell small cages
for one a lot of people still consider hamsters as novelty, disposable, cheap pets
and so they lack a lot of laws unlike dogs and cats there is really no law saying how large a
hamster cage has to be the smaller the cage the more likely it is to fit in every single household
out there which then means more people are able to buy hamsters which then means they get more money
if you are still young and maybe you don't understand how the world works
but it essentially runs around money you need money to live and people love money so
unfortunately a lot of the times pet stores are going to put profit over your pet's well being
another reasoning is that the smaller the hamster cage the more that can fit onto a
shelf which then makes more space in the pet store for them to be able to
put other different products on there because a large cage can often take a lot of space up
in the pet store and they don't exactly want that they want to be able to sell
multiple different products and not take up a ton of shelf space
okay but what about connecting small cages together
while connecting multiple small cages together is better than just having one small cage
it still does not compete with just one large cage this is because small
enclosures already don't allow the hamster to do much enrichment so making the hamster
have to crawl through different tubes to get to the next section of the cage
really isn't doing a lot for them so essentially connecting cages together
doesn't count towards floor space unless you are connecting two really large enclosures together
do levels make the cage bigger
no but they do count towards enrichment which is still good but they don't count towards the
overall floor space if you have a 200 square inch cage with a 100 square inch level you
aren't going to add those two together it's still going to be a 200 square inch cage
so what's better wire or glass?
from personal experience a glass tank is going to have more pros
than a wire cage simply because they come in a lot larger sizes and they allow you to actually
put a proper amount of substrate for the hamster many worry about a glass enclosures ventilation
and ammonia buildup but because hamsters have adapted to living in dry environments
they actually produce very con concentrated small amounts of urine and so the less urine
there is the less ammonia there is so unless you've completely neglected to
ever clean your hamster's enclosure then ammonia buildup isn't a concern with hamsters
upgrading the cage
if you already have a hamster and you've realized that their cage is too small and you'd like to
upgrade to something bigger that's great but you're going to want to do so properly to
avoid as much stress as possible moves can be stressful so if you can connect the old cage
to the new cage somehow that's a great way to get the hamster used to the new large cage and
after a couple of weeks you can eventually take away the old cage if you're not able to do that
i would recommend taking all of the old bedding and putting it in the new cage as well as
keeping the layout the exact same way so it feels more familiar to the hamster make sure
you give your hamster a couple of weeks to settle in if your hamster seems unsettled the first day
don't switch them back to the old cage and then proceed to say that your hamster doesn't like
large enclosures give them time to create their own nest and
go around the cage and scentmark and make it feel familiar to them
so i think that is everything i can tell you guys about hamster cages and cage sizes thank you for
coming to my ted talk and hopefully it wasn't too boring so i will see you guys in my next video bye