The Best Habitats for Hamsters

Pet-lovers understand that play, safety, and easy access to water impact the health of animals big and small. This holds true for some of the tiniest pets, hamsters. Likely the most important thing you’ll buy for your hamster is its habitat. Here are some high-quality habitats we recommend.

Purchasing a Hamster Cage

If you’re a new hamster owner and have never purchased a small animal cage, brace yourself for the overwhelming varieties of cage types, accessories, and radical color schemes. Yes, hamster cages can be downright gaudy but fun for your hamster, though. But the following things are the most important considerations to make:

• Safety: Your pet deserves to have its needs met, but not all cages meet the criteria. Hamsters need habitats that are well-ventilated, offer ample bedding for burrowing, toys like wheels to keep them healthy and stimulated, and quiet little pockets to chill out. The environment needs to supply your pet with reliable water access and sturdy material to avoid injury. And you, as the caretaker, need to be able to access your pet easily.
• Quality: As you begin your search, you’ll come across cages made of low-quality plastics your hamster will easily chew through, accessories with sharp edges. Look for products that offer simple setups and easy maintenance.
• Appearance: Do hamsters see color? Who knows, but you probably do, and the other humans who interact with your hamster do, too. That cage should look good! It’s essentially a piece of furniture, so if you have a choice, select a cage you like to look at.

Best Overall: Ferplast Favola Hamster Cage

This hamster cage is on the larger side, measuring 23.6 inches long by 14.4 inches high by 11.8 inches high. While hamsters don’t need as much space as, say, guinea pigs or rabbits, they need to be able to play, exercise, burrow, and hide. The split-level structure allows hamsters to move from one level to the next, burrow in bedding on the first floor, and play on the top floor. The wire cage and deep base design provide ample breathing room and burrowing capacity.

Another essential characteristic in a cage for both you and your pet is easy maintenance. If you’re new to this, you’ll quickly discover the value of a cage that makes feeding, refilling the water bottle, and cleaning easy. The Favola cage features a top door that allows you to quickly refill food and water. Use the latch slips to lift the top floor from the base when you need to clean the cage.

Accessories that come with the cage include an exercise wheel, plastic ramp, food dish, water bottle, and hideaway, as well as a connecting port if you choose to connect to other hamster cages with play tubes. (The play tubes are sold separately.)

Best Natural Materials: Ferplast HAMSTERVILLE Habitat

If you appreciate a minimalist, natural style for your own environment and possessions, take a serious look at this Ferplast Hamsterville Hamster Habitat cage. The cage also satisfies hamster lovers who value sustainable, socially responsible products. The structure is made of wood from the Tree Friend and comprises a nontoxic, painted wire top and wooden columns and frame. Tree Friend wood is responsibly harvested, following best practices to benefit the local people and natural environment. Ferplast customers can feel good about giving their hamsters a quality home without further damaging nature.

Your hamster will have plenty of space in this is 23.6-by-13.4-by-19.3-inch cage. It comes with all the necessary amenities: an exercise wheel, a plastic water bottle, a food dish, and a hamster hideaway. They’ll enjoy running up and down the wooden ladders that link three wooden platforms. If this is your first pet hamster, you’ll soon appreciate the easy-to-clean 2.6-inch deep base. Simply pull out the tray. You won’t disturb your pet at all, as the level above the tray works to keep you and your hamster out of each other’s way.  Clean bedding makes for a happier hamster. It’s easy to access the interior without having to lift the wire net top, too, thanks to a front and top door.

Best Arcade: Midwest Critterville Arcade Hamster Cage

Imagine a 5-year-old kid suddenly morphed into a hamster. What kind of hamster cage would suit their high-energy best? The Critterville Arcade Hamster Home! This hamster cage is a colorful, multi-level playground with interior play tubes, a hamster wheel, circular hideaway, connector pieces, a built-in port, and rings. With the modular design, the cage can be linked to other cages. The exterior tubes are sold separately.

The arcade cage is 18.11 by 11.61 by 21.26 inches. When filled with bedding, the base allows for fun burrowing and rolling around, as hamsters like to do. It’s easy to remove for thorough cleaning. When the cage is set up, the accessory parts are installed, and your hamster is inside, the vertical, transparent front cover gives you an interesting viewpoint to watch your pet. It’s like watching a moving window display on a storefront. The front cover and base are easy to remove for thorough cleaning. The wire cover for the base area has a top door that allows for quick feeding and water bottle refilling.

Best for Travel: Living World Hagen Pet Carrier

Many people are itching to travel, and when that time comes, your hamster can go, too! The Living World Hagen Pet Carrier is designed to safely transport your pet. Hamsters are naturally anxious critters, so they’re super sensitive to change—movement, environment, the presence of other critters, and so on. All that said, the company had your hamster’s needs in mind when they created this carrier. The compact design will make your hamster feel, not just be, safe. Hamsters and other small rodents like small spaces, especially when in transport.

Safety comes first when traveling with your pet. The carrier offers several features, such as a nonslip floor so that your hamster won’t slide around while you carry the cage. The cage dimensions are 9 by 6.8 by 6.1 inches, with ample space for bedding for comfort and burrowing. And don’t worry, your hamster will not suffocate; you’ll find lots of ventilation holes along the sides and top of the cage for healthy airflow. One more detail to put you at ease: the carrier lid makes an audible click when you close it, so you know it’s locked. No one wants to lose their hamster when in transport, or ever for that matter.

It’s easy to check on your pet, thanks to the transparent lid. There are two leveraging handles, which help you carry the cage and maintain balance and proper carriage.

Best Accessories: Kaytee CritterTrail One Level Habitat

The biggest selling point of the Kaytee CritterTrail One Level Habitat cage is its adaptability. As you can see from the product image, the cage is small, big enough for a healthy home, but streamlined. Well, you can change that easily by purchasing any one of the many accessories available through Kaytee.

First, it’s good to start with the basics. The cage comes with a water bottle, exercise wheel, and a food dish. In addition, there’s a removable petting zone, which looks like a pod. It comes in handy when you clean the cage. You don’t want your hamster to run off! The cage has a front door, pink, of course, for easy access.

Now the fun begins! This hamster cage is designed to connect to other cages with “fun-nel” tubes. This means you can connect the one-level cage to other Kaytee habitats and sync up to hideouts and other Kaytee spaces. You can expand this 20-by-11.5-inch cage to create a seemingly endless labyrinth with fun-colored “fun-nels.”