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Mother to:

Noah ; 8weeks ; DSH

Toby ; 14months ; DSH

Mia ; 13months ; DSH

Harvey ; 16weeks ; DSH

Gizmo ; 9years ; African Gray Parrot



My babies, run free at rainbow bridge - Tommy, Molly and Tinkerbell. I miss you all so much!

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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Mum to:
Sam & Lucy (human children)
Henrick (GSD)
Syd, Dizzy, Elvis(Cats)
Harvey, Mojo,Freckles, Nobby and Sugar(Mice)
Snakey-Lakey and friends(Fish)
Remy, Fidget, Rommel, Monty and Edd (dumbo rats)
Spike, Cordelia,Willow,Fred,Xander, Angel, Darla (hamsters)
A place in my heart will always belong to my babies at the bridge.

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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Mummy to 7 pets: 2 rabbits, 3 rats, 1 dog, 1 cat

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,
x1 baby budgie,
5x syrian hamsters (toupe, baby, mocha, peach and daisey),
4x winter white dwarfs (lucy, blossom, sunshine and harry),
3x leaf insects (dont have names - 1 male, 2 females),
9x snakes (at the moment 8 are babies and for sale),
and a male tarantula (spinner)

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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Check out my website - www.sacrelaobirman.co.uk

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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