When properly put together at first, this cage was a decent, interesting home for our hamster.He liked to cruise around it and carefully built his cozy home in the top "petting zone" level.However, when cleaning time rolled around, we really came to hate its poor design.It is NOT a job for a kid under age 12 or so, so parents hoping to teach responsibility for cleaning up after a pet will be annoyed to find another chore added to their own weekly list.The pieces are cheap plastic, easily broken, and there are many of them.They come apart easily -- too easily -- and are okay to clean, but putting the thing back together is an exercise in frustration even for an adult with a degree in mechanical engineering (like me).Everything must be aligned perfectly or else it falls apart unexpectedly.You don't dare do it wrong, either, or your hamster may escape or have the whole thing collapse on him later.Over time, the punch-out hole blanks and latches holding it together break off and you have to resort to bent paper clips and duct tape to eke out another few weeks' use out of it.
The water bottle, by the way, directly resulted in the death of our first hamster, because it is opaque.A piece of litter got caught in its valve and it drained dry soon after it was filled.We didn't notice because the water was soaked up by the litter and the level inside is not visible.My son discovered his dead pet soon thereafter.One might say that we should have been checking/changing the water daily anyway, but we didn't forsee the problem and our hamster paid for it with his tiny life.For our next hamster we bought a separate, clear water bottle so we could monitor the level in between fillings.
I finally tossed the thing today.I couldn't even give it away in good conscience, even though it cost so much.Our hamster is back in a small but secure and easy to clean cage.There's a marketing opportunity out there for someone!
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