Cage

What should I buy first? The hamster cage, or the hamster stuff to put in the cage?

What should I buy first? The hamster cage, or the hamster stuff to put in the cage, like exercise wheel, food, water bottle, toys ect. I am getting a 20 gallon aquarium long, not a wire cage.

Public Comments

1. you should buy the hamster cage first to see how much room there is to buy toys and wheels. **avoid buying a cage that doesnt have rounded corners. cages that are shaped in a rectangle can cause your pet to get their paws or feet caught inbetween the wires.
2. Why don't you just buy them at the same time?
3. well some hamster cages come with stuff. Like the wheel and food bowl and water bottle. so I would do the cage first.
4. Definitely get a cage first. Then you will know how big the hamster stuff has to be. If you get hamster stuff and they don't fit in the cage that will not be good. Here's some advice: Even if you do get the cage first I would suggest bringing in toys in different stages. Your hamster will like to get used to its home and gradually you can start adding tubes, ladders etc. Although everything that you have to start with is: water bowl, food bowl, wheel, hideout, pine bedding, cage, chewing block, then you can add the fun things after it looks like it has settled in.
5. You should buy the cage first, that way it'll be easier to pick out what to buy for the cage, what size stuff and things like that.
6. I'd buy a cage first. Then, set it up at home, look skeptically at it for a while, and then decide what you want to put in it. There are a few items that a hamster *needs* but everything else is simply optional. What a hamster needs: Running wheel (should be plastic, ones with bars or rungs in them are usually harmful to pets) Food bowl (my hamster has 3, though) Water bottle (should be refilled, at the minimum, at LEAST every week) Food (but of course, seed mixes or pellets are best) A place to sleep A place to pee Bedding But my hamster also has a plastic piggy bank, a loopy-tube thing, a hamster-sized plastic TV, a hamster-sized plastic car, a Critter Bath (even though it's for Dwarf hamsters, and she's a Golden hamster; she still loves it), a plastic food bowl lamp, a log-shaped Snack Shack, a plastic bed thing, and a Timber Hide-Away as toys.... and probably some other things, too, which I have forgotten.... And of course, she has LOTS of bedding. Kleenex or an old sock is best, in my opinion. But my hamster mostly uses Kleenex. I recommend a big cage, also. The one I got was about Canadian $100, but it had a dent in it so it was on a discount. Her wheel is rather nice and big, so she can run in it easily, but she also has a smaller blue plastic one with rungs. Her feet can't get caught in them or anything; they're too big. Hope this helped ya! My hamster seems pretty happy how she is right now. Oh, and also, hamsters need LOTS of attention. They are happy and won't bite you when you give them lots of attention. <3333
7. the cage (: or all at the same time :]