Homemade Hamster Home

There are many pre-constructed habitats available for pet hamsters, ranging from simple glass aquariums with mesh lids to elaborate plastic "castles" with multiple rooms, looping tunnels and sleeping towers. Hamsters do not need to have a commercially produced enclosure, however, to remain healthy and happy. By using appropriate and safe materials you can construct a homemade enclosure that will work just as well.

  1. Materials

    • Large, plastic, transparent tubs will work as hamster enclosures, provided they have an appropriate lid. Those that come with a lid can be altered by cutting out a portion in the middle and adding mesh wire to it. Those without a lid can have one made using mesh wire as well. You can also build a cage from scratch using wood as the frame and floor and wire mesh as the walls and lid. You can substitute material such as Perspex for the front and possibly the walls. This is a transparent, thermoplastic, that is used in a similar fashion to glass.

    Furniture

    • Hamsters should be given a nesting area to sleep in that includes bedding material. Plain toilet paper or paper towels can work for this purpose. You can shred them up a bit before placing them in the box, but the hamster will finish shredding them to their satisfaction. Small cardboard boxes will work as nesting boxes but will be chewed up eventually so may need to be replaced on a regular basis. You can provide tunnels for your hamsters to crawl through using toilet paper or paper towel rolls, and make them areas to climb by providing sticks, small logs, or rocks.

    Cleaning

    • Bedding material should be replaced on at least a weekly basis or more often if you have multiple hamsters. Furniture that has been urinated on should be cleaned or replaced, depending on the material it is made out of. Sometimes water bottles will leak and create a soggy pile of bedding underneath their spout. This should be cleaned up as soon as possible as wet bedding can become moldy.

    Warnings

    • If a hamster can fit their head through something, they can most often pull their body through it as well, even if it seems much bigger and wider. So make sure that any habitat you build with wire or mesh includes small holes that they can not escape through. All lids should latch or lock, and all other doorways should do the same. Hamsters will chew on just about anything so also make sure that if you use wood or soft materials such as cardboard for furniture, you do not use any that have been chemically treated or splinter easily as they could make a hamster sick if they are ingested.