Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)So I got this little thing a while back. It works fine... Sort of. It would be nice if there was a place to fix the bottle to the bottom half of the cage that doesn't require me to take the running wheel out and put the bottle on a large cumbersome stand inside the cage. But there isn't. The problem is, my hamster is a little dwarf breed and he's too small to use the tube to go from top to bottom or bottom to top. So he couldn't get any food or water after going down to the bottom portion to use the wheel.
ALSO, there's no way to block off the top dome part and use it on its own, either as a carrier or as a tiny cage. Which, when looking at product photos and descriptions, you'd think there was, since there's a handle on top of the cage and many sellers claim it's a built in travel cage... There is this little plastic piece that will slide into the tube that runs from the top to the bottom, but when you have a hamster that can't get back up the tube, then you'll find yourself with a little critter stuck midway down the tube on top of the plastic piece, confused, hungry, and thirsty. This tube also makes it impossible to have the top portion of the cage sit flat on anything. You can take the tube off, of course. But then you have that gaping hole where the tub should go, so the hamster will climb out that hole and do his business on the surface you've put the cage on, rather than doing it inside the cage. If you tape it, the hamster will chew threw it. That's what they do. They're escapists.
So basically, you HAVE to keep it together as one cage. You have no choice. The door to the bottom portion doesn't slide open without a serious amount of force, which makes feeding time a hassle since the door only opens an inch and half easily and the rest of it is a fight. That's enough room for the critter to sneak out while you're still forcing the door open enough to put the food in. The top portion opens easily, and if you could use that portion as a cage on its own, you'd be in business. But, as we've already covered, you can't. If you think you can use the handle on the top dome portion to carry the WHOLE apparatus, you can't. Picking it up at the top, will pull the dome off, leaving the sides of the bottom structure with no support, so the sides will collapse, and your hamster will escape, or worse, get squished.
Oh, and the instructions, they're all in an Asian language, so good luck if you don't understand whatever language they're printed in.
The good news... The cage is cool looking and does function on the skeletal level to house your pet. Our friends come over and always marvel over how neat looking the cage is. And the hamster, apart from feeding time, when the door is stuck 1.5 inches open and I'm struggling to open it enough to put the food in, has never escaped. But if you're looking for ease of use and multi-functioning cages (and I was), this is really not the one for you.
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