I'm off to my local P@H adoption sections tomorrow in search of a hamster to live in Marvin's old cage.

Marvin lived in an extended rotastak palace as he was a chinese hamster and they are well know escape artists in anything that has bars and can squeeze through the tiniest gaps. Marvin's cage was ideal for him, it's made up of several of the larger units so has room for a digging section and plenty of toys and as a disabled elderly chinese hamster he mainly seemed to want to dig tunnels.

My P@H don't often have chinese hamsters in the adoption bit. They have a ton of robos, a few syians and a few russians. I already have robos and know mine are a lot happier climbing Habitrail mini tubing rather than rotastak ladders. They can get up ok, but lose grip on the way down and do a rather undignified face splat most of the time. Marvin didn't have this problem even only using three legs. Russian hamsters always seem massive in comparision to the robos. Does anyone know if they can climb the vertical tubes with ladders?

Won't adopt a syrian due to the cage. I'm not a rotastak fan, but it did seem the ideal environment for Marvin when he was alive. And I've spent so much extending it, it actually has enough room for plenty of toys.

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Um, well mine has trouble, but hes rather lazy and fat XD if you get a young one and put him/her straight into that cage they might get used to it, they're good climber but not good and coming back down, I found that out in his old cage which was very high, he'd climb up to the to and kinda half fall half slide back down, so had to change it. XD

Wow thats bad luck, the P@H near me has a little chinese girl waiting in adoption for about 3 weeks now, wanted to get her myself but mum said no since I already have a chinese and a russian

I got two russian girls in the end. They both manage rotastak tubes with ladders excellently.

Spice had to be moved into a seperate cage a couple of weeks ago as Sugar beat her up.

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dwarfs struggle with vertical tubing, also you shouldnt house multiple dwarfs in modular cages as it can lead to teritory fights
you also can not house a syrian in one as there is no where large enough for a syrian sized wheel

they are poorly ventilated, very little open plan floor space for toys, un secure (lots of hamster pull the bungs out that block the unused tube spaces and escape, my sisters CRD was one of those)

in my honest opinion you would be better binning the rotastak, they are horrid cages (we refuse to sell them in our shop) and swapping for a single level open plan cage.

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Glad you managed to get some I do hope they don't fight with that cage.

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Thank you for your concern. However the original post was from August. Sugar has been settled happily rotastak palace for a good few months now, which is proving to be an ideal environment. She has a ton of toys, the ventilation is proving to be no problem for her. Being a dwarf she has a wheel suitable for her attached to the cage and also a flying saucer. You are incorrect in stating you cannot attach syrian sized wheels to the cage - you can get 9 inch external wheels that fit, however this is not an issue as Sugar is a dwarf. I only got the rotastak orginally for a chinese dwarf hamster as he could not have a barred cage. I agree a small rotastak starter cage would not be an ideal habitat for even a dwarf hamster, however Sugar has several of the larger units joined together to make a hamster palace.

Now if you want a horrid cage I suggest you try buying or selling a Savic Cambridge. Personally I hate them, no proper space for a syrian to run around in, lack of space for toys, wobbly shelving that's tiered so everything falls off. Large gaps which many dwarves have escaped from, silly curved roof. But hey, loads of people love them Bandit my syrian has one as a cage extension

Few cages are ideal, you need to find one that suits your hamster Stop people buying the rotacrap starter cages in P@H if you like, I tell them not to bother as well, but don't assume all rotatak is bad based on examples you've heard of a few hamsters in too small units.

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Oh cooooool
but please keep an eye on them, I dunno what russian girls are like but i started with two russian brothers and then suddenly after like 2 weeks of keeping them the bigger one killed the smaller one, no warning whats so ever, I was really surprised, I mean they argued from time to time, but not bloody or long battles. It was so sad

But congrats with them hope you all have a nice christmas

What about the other one? You said you got two girls in the end.

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Spice has her own cage now.

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