****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I purchased this cage for my baby mouse to grow into. The mouse is only a few weeks old, but he still can not fit through the bar spacing. The cage itself is sturdy and heavy enough I don't have to worry about our cats knocking it over or breaking into it. My favorite thing about this cage is that it's not all pukey neon colors. I am a grown adult, and sometimes grown adults keep pet mice. Still, I guess it's nice there's a neon green option.I can't really speak for the quality of the platforms or accessories, as I never had any intention of using them when purchased the cage. What I can say is that wire flooring is not ideal for rodents - their feet are not much different than ours, and imagine walking on wire all day. Fortunately the wire floors are completely optional and do not add anything to the structural integrity of the cage, and I think even without them it's well worth the price. I opted to get some wooden platforms, woven nest balls and a better quality running wheel instead.The running wheel that comes with the cage has gaps which are much too wide for a baby mouse to run on, anyway. I've used wheels like this one in the past and in my experience, they make better chew toys than anything.The bars are vertical so you may need to consider this when shopping for water bottles and other items to mount on the cage walls. I still prefer the vertical bars because rodents appear less tempted to chew them, or climb them and then propel themselves off the walls..Overall I am very satisfied with this cage, and my little mouse has loved exploring it so far and utilizing all the extra scurry space. I can see it standing up to many generations of little mice.I already had a food dish, water bottle and another platform, so I only needed the cage. I needed a larger cage for my dwarf hamster that had LESS than 1/2” bar spacing and this cage fit the bill. The accessories are garbage, and it only came with one house, which is cheap and my hammy only used to poop in. So I didn’t use any of the accessories. Plus, her legs go right through the ramp and platform so I didn’t use them. If you use the platform be sure to use twist ties to secure it to the cage walls. The cage itself is pretty good although the roof top is hard to open and close and the front door is also hard to open. You have to be careful that the hamster is away from it so that you don’t squish it when closing the door. Be very careful with that. If they made a better door for this cage, it would be great. I also didn’t use the wire platform and put bedding directly on the plastic bottom, it works great. Another reason I wanted this particular cage is that it has vertical bars instead of horizontal. My hamster has a really bad habit of climbing and biting the side and roof bars, so with this cage, she has mostly stopped doing that, which is great. It was a real problem, she would bite for hours. I think this being a bigger cage than the one she had has helped the biting problem. The only drawback with vertical bars is it’s hard to install some accessories, you have to get creative. Overall I like this cage and it’s a good value for under $45.I got lucky on the shipping. For its weight and size this came in the flimsiest possible box and yet the box came without a single ding. I can see why many reviews claim damage. Even though the box was perfect the cage still had bent and deformed areas because (as others have stated) there is absolutely no cushioning. The cage and all the parts are loose and before opening, from the sound you would swear it must have been destroyed. I had to use galvanized fence wire to completely reinforce several spots and the metal floor which fell out when I lifted the cage out of the box and kept falling out over and over. The little ''houses'' are super cheap, must be assembled (though easy) and leave sharp parts if you don’t file them down. In addition the squirrel cage lasted less than an hour being very small and NOT metal but really flimsy plastic. It broke off the back wall and spun out on his first run attempt. Also the ''ramps'' to the upper levels easily fall off so they had to be wired in as well and the sticky door requires metal clips on each side or escape is almost guaranteed. The entire cage feels really flimsy and when you pick it up you can feel the the thing sagging due to its own weight. No water or food containers are included. Having said all that, there are some decent points. The plastic base holds a good supply of bedding material and detaches for cleaning as long as you have firmly secured the metal floor with wire or you will lose parts (and maybe even the animal) since this really needs to be an outside operation. The cage is larger than you would normally get for $35 (what I paid although a week later it was $12 more) and even with all the hassles and the need to get a larger metal wheel, water bottle, food dish, and spend an hour+ shoring up and modifying the thing, I am still keeping it. Many will probably be disappointed, but if you want a really cheap decent (not huge) size cage and understand the limitations it may be OK. If I had paid $50+ after adding the tax I probably would be returning it.Product was damaged pretty severely on arrival. I straightened as best as I could but it still looks like a truck ran over it! Very disappointed. Even the little included houses were warped out of shape!I ordered a 8inch hamster wheel from the same company and it's warped as Well right out of the box.Quality control is a real issue herePros: This cage is wide and satisfies my Teddy bear hamster's need for space. The wheel is cheaply made, but very quiet. The two little cages take too much space, so I just used those I had in my first cage.Cons: The cage is a bit flimsy and the bars moved during shipping; so you will need to adjust it to ensure that your pet will not evade it! The major issue people had rang true for me as well - the bottom screen is just not something I want to use with the hamster, albeit I can see where it would be useful for larger animals. Whilst the front door is nice, A second opening on top would be great.Bought this cage for my Syrian hamster. Assembly was easy, and though I only used one upper deck and bought a different wheel, I do love this cage. It’s very roomy, the tray height is perfect so that my hammy isn’t able to kick out his bedding onto the floor.Only issue is the front door, I have a feeling he could probably learn to open it, so I just use a clip from an old dog leash to latch it shut. Definitely recommend this cage.This cage is great for my hamster. It's nice and large but the houses entrances are a little to small for my hamster to access. My biggest peace with this is there is only one horizontal rung on the cage wall. It's makes it very difficult to attach anything such as food dishes, water bottle, toys etcWe love this cage for our hamster. It's plenty big enough for him to explore and dig around in his bedding (we use care fresh, not wood shavings as it doesn't bother my allergies). Like a previous user mentioned, we don't use the bottom grate as it's not good for their feet. Also, hamsters do a lot of digging in their natural habitat and a wire bottom prevents them from this natural instinct to dig. It makes cleaning the cage much easier without dealing with the bottom grate.The only reason I gave it four stars is that the wheel is cheaply made and too small for a teddy bear hamster. Good wheels are easy enough to get though.Great cage for the price.
