Best Commercial Cage Options? (USA)

[Berry]

What are some of the best commercial cage options in the USA you can find? I'm not finding it very common to find a tank topper for anything much over 10gal. And I'm just curious of the other options out there

Thanks y'all!

[Markpd]

Custom made tank toppers of varying sizes in the US here - www.etsy.com/uk/shop/magnumpie?ref=nla_listing_details , although they're on a break atm. (afraid I can't help you with cages though)

[yeti218]

Big aquariums or terrariums are good commercial options.

I dont know about many good cages marketed specifically for gerbils, but aquariums and terrariums are popular and easy to find second hand.

[chriscal]

I use the Prevue 528 Animal home on Amazon. The tub bottom is great for holding bedding, about 7 inches of it, and the platform is great for holding food, a couple of hides, and the water bottle and sand bath. Under the platform is more hide room and ample space to run and put a wheel,Hershey seems to love it. It's big enough hold multiple gerbils, although I've slacked at getting Hershey some friends after her adoption
www.amazon.com/dp/B074FH47MQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[Thea]

That's a good cage for hamsters, but I watched a couple of reviews and people were saying you can only fit around 6 inches of bedding if you filled it to the very top, and if you did the gerbils would kick bedding EVERYWHERE. Also, gerbils really need a *minimum* of around 8 inches in my opinion, so unless you put some plexiglass or something around the outside so that you were able to put in more bedding, it wouldn't really give them enough bedding. It does have a decent amount of space though. I probably wouldn't put more than three gerbils in there as there's around 600 sq inches and the detolf which is around 1000 sq inches I probably wouldn't put more than 4 in by looking at it.

While I'm here I might as well recommend the detolf as it has so much space, but it isn't a commercial cage! Pretty easy to get hold of though. Also fish tanks/aquariums are great. There are some gerbilariums that would be okay if that's the sort of thing you're looking for, for an example the Ferplast gabry 80 (pretty much a large glass tank with a topper). I wouldn't go for the gabry 50 though as it is very small. The gabry 80 measures 79 x 30.5 cm, so around 1 ft x 2.75-3 ft, which is enough space for a pair probably, but not really a trio. It is on the smaller side for a gerbil cage still, as it is only 32 US gallons including the topper.

[chriscal]

You have a point, although Hershey hasn't kicked much bedding out from the bars, it mostly just gathers against them. Maybe it's the spacing of them? And Thanks for the tip about bedding, I'll add another two inches tomorrow

[Markpd]

Feb 14, 2021 7:02:17 GMT -8 Thea said:

That's a good cage for hamsters, but I watched a couple of reviews and people were saying you can only fit around 6 inches of bedding if you filled it to the very top, and if you did the gerbils would kick bedding EVERYWHERE. Also, gerbils really need a *minimum* of around 8 inches in my opinion, so unless you put some plexiglass or something around the outside so that you were able to put in more bedding, it wouldn't really give them enough bedding. It does have a decent amount of space though. I probably wouldn't put more than three gerbils in there as there's around 600 sq inches and the detolf which is around 1000 sq inches I probably wouldn't put more than 4 in by looking at it.

While I'm here I might as well recommend the detolf as it has so much space, but it isn't a commercial cage! Pretty easy to get hold of though. Also fish tanks/aquariums are great. There are some gerbilariums that would be okay if that's the sort of thing you're looking for, for an example the Ferplast gabry 80 (pretty much a large glass tank with a topper). I wouldn't go for the gabry 50 though as it is very small. The gabry 80 measures 79 x 30.5 cm, so around 1 ft x 2.75-3 ft, which is enough space for a pair probably, but not really a trio. It is on the smaller side for a gerbil cage still, as it is only 32 US gallons including the topper.

Yep, agreed with this.

Aside from I don't think it would be much good for Hamsters either (they need deep bedding too from what I've read). My niece's Hamster has a very similar cage (Savic Hamster heaven ), she can't have deep bedding in it or it gets kicked out (probably not as bad a gerbil would! lol but did nonetheless).

[Thea]

Yeah hamsters do need deep bedding too, but some people say not as much as gerbils. As long as the cage has enough room for a hamster which this cage has, you can add a dig box and connect it with a tube, although that may take some work to do! I would always suggest glass tanks for hamsters and gerbils as the best option.

[Markpd]

Yea after I mentioned to my sister and her niece about deep bedding they bought her a digging 'tower', unfortunately she doesn't seem to have taken to it, perhaps it's too narrow?

I have since suggested using the top of the savic as a topper for a wooden box (sealed with plasticote or using veneer), but I don't think anything's happened there.

 

I've never understood why so many people think Hamsters don't need deep bedding, in the wild both Gerbils and Hamsters make burrows (even if Hamsters are sometimes fine using abandoned burrows, or making shallower ones than Gerbils), so it never made sense to me why they wouldn't need it. And indeed I came across this article based on actual research which pretty much proved the case!

[Thea]

I know, it's quite strange that there's such thing as a gerbilarium that is deep for bedding, but all hamster cages are only a few inches high (many only being 2-3!). I like your idea with using the savic as a topper for something else. I think I know the kind of digging tower you mean as they're quite common, yeah they provide enough space for bedding but not enough to make long tunnels (they're only around 20x20 cm, but then obviously have more height for bedding) so perhaps that's why the hamster didn't take to it. Have you suggested any other cage options to your sister, like a second hand tank? She could buy a cheap tank for £10-20 on eBay or another website for your niece's hamster, and use the savic as part of the topper, the rest being mesh.

[Markpd]

Well she had said no to buying a 2nd cage, but I don't think I mentioned the 2nd hand option. I know I didn't have any luck there, but then again I was looking for a bigger tank.

[Thea]

Ah ok. If she mentions it again perhaps you could say about 2nd hand?

Well done to you for mentioning it in the first place! I'm not very brave with these things, haha.

[Markpd]

Well it was made easy for me as my sister mentioned the hamster was chewing the bars , I then explored various possibilities.
Thanks anyway

[Thea]

Yeah I thought you said she did, but still!

[teambenji543]

I put this cage on top of my 15 gallon tank. I just removed the second floor in it, and cut a hole on the bottom. Then I added a wooden bridge connecting the two cages. It’s nice to have a tank with deep bedding, and a second floor with only a few inches of bedding. I put their wheel and water bottle up there.