Spacing Of Hamster Cage Bars

[peachybabe]

I have a beautiful female Syrian hamster who lives in a large hamster cage. I have been thinking about getting her a large parrot cage so that she has more room to go up and down, rather than the two storeys that she curently has. I'm quite good at diy, and would be able to fit in at least four or five different floor levels for her to explore.
What I'm wondering is what would be a safe bar width to have on the cage, whereby she couldn't escape.
Most of the tall cages I've looked at have bar widths of 1/2", and her current bars are 3/8" apart.
I know it's only 1/8" difference, but I don't want her escaping!
They're wiggly little things!

[hc4361]

They are very wriggly little things. You could put chicken wire (or similar) around the outside of the cage to keep her in.

[anthro-nerd]

If you're good at DIY, could you put two hamster cages on top of each other perhaps? use the base of the second as a platform, remove part of it, for example?

[hc4361]

According to this website 1cm spaced bars should be fine but it also says:
Hamsters lack much in the way of depth perception so are prone to falls and injuries in tall cages. So a wide, low house is best.

http://www.smallpetsmatter.co.uk/hamsters.php

[Buenchico]

I found the same page as Hc4361 but as 0.5"= 1.27cm (which is bigger than the 'safe' figure of 1cm quoted there, it doesn't really answer your question about whether 0.5" spacing would be acceptable).

However, while googling I also found several pages with instructions for making hamster cages from plastic storage boxes. Given that you're planning on doing a bit of DIY anyway, I wondered if they might be of interest to you?

e.g
http://www.hamstercentral.com/community/diy-do-yourself-hamster-projects/36025-photo-guide-making-bin-cage.html
and
https://hammyhappenings.wordpress.com/diy-hamster-cage-bin-cage/

Discount stores sell a wide range of storage boxes, so you could choose something to give the right amount of space for your own requirements.

[hc4361]

I don't like the idea of putting a hamster in a coloured plastic box - it's nice for them to be able to see out properly.

[Buenchico]

^^^ I'm not sure whether hamsters really appreciate 'scenery', Hc4361, but some of those designs (e.g. this one: https://hammyhappenings.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dsc_2431.jpg ) do provide a view.

[peachybabe]

Thank you all. Re the parrot cage height, I was already thinking about floor width. I think that if I overlap the floors across the width (i.e. If the cage was 18" wide, make each floor 10 or 11") it should stop her falling between the floors. She would only fall about 4-5". (She jumps that in her current cage). Plus she'd have ramps. Not sure about the storage boxes. Bit difficult to take apart each time I clean her, and they don't look very pretty! But thank you for taking the time out to research and answer! Will have a think...............

[hc4361]

It sounds fab - photo when it's finished, please :)