Questions about hamsters and cages?

Syrian hamsters tend to be the friendliest of hamsters and crave attention more than dwarfs They're slower, easier to tame and easier to handle. As you know, dwarfs are smaller and faster and can be a bit nippy. Chinese dwarfs are especially shy, but once tame they like to cling to your fingers which is really cute. I advise you to return the OVO. It's an awful cage, there's nothing good about it and worst of all it's absolutely tiny. Cagewise - the bigger the better. I also wouldn't recommend anything with too many tubes because dwarfs have fluffy feet and can't climb them and syrians can get too big for them. Avoid all habitrail/SAM/Crittertrail cages. They're small, poor quality and expensive. Something like this: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3057120 or http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753299 is a much better choice :)

Get quite a large one, look up in books/internet what size.

I would say that the syrian hamster is the easiest to handle! but if you don't handle them regularly they may start to bite! dwarfs are also nice but tend to cling on to you! The food dish will be fine you don't have to worry about that! if you are concerned about the water bottle then just watch her/him for a while and see what she dose! if she/he trys to get water out and she cant then consider getting a new one! the same with the steps if you are worried about that then just watch her/him! get a bigger wheel for her/him and she/he might find it easier to run in! If there is to many things wrong with the cage then get a different one! try your local pet shop or try petsmart! hope this helps animals rule98!

in my experience with hamsters I have learned the hard way about putting them in a plastic cage { they will chew through them and escape}. my hubby and I designed a cage that is practical and is not a eye sore. What we done was take a regular 33 gallon fish tank and put a mettle cage with the ladders built in just for the hamsters little paws for easier climbing and made sure the cage fit the top of the fish tank and put them together, then we took a standard hamster water bottle and made sure it came with a metal hanging cup {to prevent the erg to chew}and hung it on the fish tank part of the cage. this works well. Not every hamster has the same temperament and drive to play on the wheel { i hope you have the mettle one} so what I done to encourage play is I put my hamster in a hamster ball and let him roll around the house for about 30 mins each day for about a week and then stopped for a few days, this made the hamster want to run so he started playing on the wheel in the cage all by himself. as for the tubes they are not a good idea, nearly all of my hamsters would build a nest inside them and trap themselves inside { they are not the smartest animals in the world lol}. Never put the hamsters in the same cage together especially if they we bought at different times and not raised from birth in the same cage, about 3 of my hamsters in the past attacked each other over one trying to horde all the food and actually bit the noses off and killed them. Hamsters are primarily nocturnal and are most active at night and tend to sleep during the day while there counter parts the gerbils they like playing all day and sleeping at night. I hope all of this helps as i raise hamsters and sell them for extra income.