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Toby, Mia, Harvey and our newest member, Marley(cats)
Gizmo (parrot)
Tommy (bearded dragon)

Is missing my baby boy Noah, been missing since April 2011. (cat)

Run Free;
Tommy, Molly, Tinkerbell and Bambi (cats)
Meg, Fudge, Chocolate & Looper (hamsters)
Snowie, Maisy, Snowflake (rabbits)

Rats shouldn't ideally live in a bin cage, there was a thread on last night about two rats in a bin cage that were for sale for £10 but one may well be pregnant as they are a girl and a boy living together I think they were in manchseter Can someone save these???

A large storage box should be about £15 the wire mesh is around £6 from wilkinsons for a large roll, lots of people suggest getting a tool like a Dremmel to cut the pannels but you may ba able to manage without that. I bought 3 baby rats for £5 each off a private breeder but if you look on preloved or gumtree there are always loads for sale, sometimes with the cage. Hamsters are (I think) around £10 in pet shops if you decide what animal you are wanting I can try to find a breeder local to you or there might be one on here. Just to mention if you choose a rat you will need to get two as they usually get lonely and stressed on their own. I've never actually made a bin cage but Flissy has so you could ask her for any more things you might need.

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It cost me £200 to set up for my 3 rats, including bedding, cage (£100) and food etc. My 3 rats cost me £35 total.

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

well im my pet shop, we sell rats in pairs for £16 and syrians are £8

i would personally say if you save up around £80 - £100 for a hamsters then you will have a nice size cage, all the items needed and the hamster its self.

for a rat i would prob say around £150 - £200 even ! to get nice size cage, items needed and the RATS (at least 2 but 3 is even better)

hamsters always enjoy a sand bath but rats cannot have one as the have very sensitive respiratory systems and sand will irritate their chests causing chest infections.

hope that helps you out

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animals are my life

i have:
2x dogs (rottweiler and a jug),
1x african grey parrot,
2x rosella parekeets
4x syrian hamsters (baby, mocha (wiggy), peaches and daisey),
2x winter white dwarfs (sunshine and harry),
1x female leaf insects (doesn't have a names),
1x female corn snake (awaiting eggs),

I have recently bought a syrian hamster so can still remember how much I spent unfortuantely

Hamster - 4 pounds
Cage - 40 pounds
Toys etc - 30 pounds
Bedding, food, substrate etc - 20 pounds
Exercise ball - 8 pounds
Replacement wheel as one in cage too small - 12 pounds
Replacement water bottle as one in cage leaks - 4 pounds
Second cage to give hamster more room to play - 50 pounds
More toys to fill second cage - 30 pounds

So that's a total of 188 pounds in 3 weeks

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I made a bin cage for my hamster to attach to his cage as the cage was a bit too small:



The box is a "really useful box" that i got from staples, it cost about 15 pounds. The mesh was £6, and I got my dad to cut holes in the box using a hot knife (which apparantly took a really long time) and then he used pot rivets to attach the mesh to the box. I don't think its really that much cheaper than buying a cage if you got a second hand one, I would say if you get a syrian hamster then the savic cambridge is a good one and there are always loads on ebay usually for around £20.

I don't know anything about rats, but hamsters are more expensive than they might originally seem! When I got my syrian, Sausage this is how much I spent:

£7 hamster
about £45 on the cage
£3 food
£2 cleaning spray
£3 chew toy
£2 bedding

then later i had to get
£6 a bigger wheel
£6 another bigger wheel because the first one i got was actually not big enough!
£20 on all the stuff for the bin cage

and he now has an even bigger cage which cost £65! and i havent included all the food, bedding, medicine, toys etc that i have bought!! probably have spent around £200 pounds on him and i've only had him since february lol oops. well i didnt *have* to buy all that stuff but even if i hadnt it probably cost about £80 for the initial stuff i had to buy

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Acorn's cost about £350-£400 I think so far, it's too scary to think about in detail

Most of that was the cage and toys. Acorn himself was just over £7. He's still on his first bag of food and he's doesn't cost that much in shavings or bedding.

However I now have higher energy bills as well as I actually use my heating. I never did before unless it got below 5C in the house, now I have to in order to prevent the hamster hibernating.

I'm about to spend another £50 on Sausage/Poppet oops lol

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And I've just bought Merlin a new cage

i feel bad about spending that much money but oh well i have a student loan..... lol

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