Kaytee CritterTrail X Extreme Challenge Hamster Cage - Expandable Small Animal Habitat with Tubes & Accessories for Dwarf Hamsters, Gerbils, Mice - Fun Exercise & Play Space for Pet Rodents

A little background on me. I've had Russians, Winter Whites, Robos, Syrians, and Puddings. At one point I had about 15 dwarf hamsters, from breeding. Most of my baby hammies I gave back to my local pet store. The pet shop loved my hammies. They were tame and ready to be handled, and they were very healthy. People loved my hammies.Here is what you should know about this cage: For a dwarf hamster, if you aren't going with an aquarium setup, this cage is one of the best options you are gonna get.I've bought 3 of this particular cage during the 6-years that I've had hamsters on-and-off. It's the one I keep coming back to. It's not too complicated or "out there" as some of the fancier ones, and still manages to keep things interesting for the hammie. It's just the right size for a single dwarf hamster, possibly two dwarves that aren't full-grown yet. (I've had two dwarves in this cage before)***I'll just say this here: This cage is too small for a Syrian! It should be pretty obvious, but I've seen people giving this cage 1-star because it's too small for a Syrian. Should be pretty obvious: if you have eyes that can see, and a brain capable of basic reasoning, you should see that this cage is unfit for a full-grown Syrian. Return the cage, and opt for a different setup. (Or think about expanding this cage)____________PROS______________ ____Petting Zone___This is the main reason I like this cage. The petting zone is a very efficient use of cage space, and it is very functional. Once your dwarf gets used to the idea of climbing the tube, and if you put some treats up top or get into the habit of feeding there, soon he will climb there very often for attention and yummies.This is good for a couple reasons: - Desert is hamster's natural habitat, and they use underground tunnels a lot. Your hammie climbing the tube simulates it. This can become an exercise for them and adds variety to the boring wheel-marathon that they do every night. - Very good for bonding. Hamsters can get spooked when you try to grab them from above. And if you have an aquarium setup it is even worse because of the tall walls. This petting zone eliminates this problem. When you open the lid, your hand will be level with your hamster. The petting zone is quite shallow, so it's very easy to get them out of it.- Transportation. The cage comes with a little cap that seals the petting zone. You can use it to transport your hamster to his temporary housing while you clean the cage! ____Spiraling Stairs____This is another feature that my hamsters seem to love. They love spiraling up and down the stairs. It adds more fun to the cage. ____Customizable/Expandability_____Although I've never tried to expand the cage, you certainly can. One good mod is to remove the top wheel, and make that a look-out spot or something. ____Good starter kit_____There are cheaper cages out there. But they are smaller, don't have a spiraling stair or a petting zone, and only save you about $5. For $25, you pretty much get a functional cage that can be a fun, long-term living place for your hamster. And again, if you just have 1 dwarf, this cage is plenty!_______________CONS__________________ ___Wheel/Fountain of poop___As many have complained, hamsters LOVE to nest up in the wheel. It is cozy, shady, secure. Everything a hammie wants for a bed. Pretty soon you are gonna have poop, pee, food, and bedding all up in the wheel. And the worst part? Your hamster will still try to run in it!Of course, anybody with a brain will immediately remove the wheel. That's the first thing I did when my hamster sprayed poop everywhere with the wheel. Buy another wheel for about $7, cap off the hole, and you are set. ___Flimsy___I've had plastic pieces snap off for no good reason at all. However, they are usually small pieces that doesn't really affect the integrity of the cage. Point is, be careful when assembling/disassembling. ___Small?___Again, it's enough for a single dwarf. The good thing is that you can always expand if your hamsters need more space!The company had a cool idea, and I would totally be interested if they ever produce a working model with the flaws worked out. But, I'm going to be completely honest with you all... After the first week and cleaning of what I thought would be an awesome home for my 3 darling mice, my thought was this must have been engineered by students at some clown college. I am being that harsh because this is in my top ten worst purchases ever online, and I have to wonder how such a poorly designed product ever reached the domestic market.Now that I've got that off my chest, I'll go into the reasons this product is a failure:1. Not only are my mice unable to complete a rotation of the wheel on the horizontal axis, they have difficultly rotating the wheel even one revolution on the vertical axis. Despite putting vegetable oil on all areas that needed freedom of rotation, and all of the small wheels that allow horizontal rotation being on the track, that awesome looking top exercise wheel worked so poorly, my mice couldn't get a decent workout for more than about 30s-1min... And they kept on trying. We wanted it to work, and I thought it would loosen up and rotate better with usage, but no, absolutely no.2. In addition to the awesome-looking wheel being not up to performance, we have a dilemma when we try to clean it... One that the company could have addressed by including an additional part. The wheel is difficult enough to clean and will take some considerable amount of time to disassemble, soak, clean, dry and reassemble, but what do we do with the hole left from taking off the wheel? None of my other Crittertrail parts (and I've bought lots) seem to fit the hole. If I stuck a sock or a wad of paper towels in the hole, by the time I was done cleaning the wheel, I'd bet my 3 mice would have escaped, and encountered my cat. Could we tape the hole with some packing tape? No way, I wouldn't want my mice to get parts of their fur stuck on tape! The company needs to include a part to cap off that hole because the exercise wheel will need to be cleaned more frequently than other parts of the cage.3. If you have more than one mouse in there, you'll have very serious dilemma as some point, and one that the company should have accounted for and provided at least one extra part to compensate for the issue. If I wanted to remove the top pet carrier to hang out with one of my mice, or take a sick mouse to the vet, the two other mice would be able to escape. Therefore the company should either note that the cage has only the capacity for one mouse, or include a simple extra replacement top for the top of the cage for when the removable petting case is removed! Because, unless all your mice are in the case when you remove it, the cage is completely non-functional. This is such an easy fix, and it's so incredible the company didn't include it, I actually laughed so hard I cried.4. Unlike my other Crittertrail cage, you can't quickly change the bedding, because you must use the front door. The reason why is if you remove the petting area case to gain top access to the cage, your mice can easily slip out from the tube that allows them to access the petting area case, and one other area.The company could ask the consumer to stuff sock into the top part of the tube while replacing bedding, which could work if, and only if the company provided a top for the case like I said in issue number 2, but that shielded mice from escaping from the left top slide area as well. They could properly fix the issue by including an extra left shielding top (on a hinged frame) and providing a cap for the top portion of that tube.5. If the issues were limited to these problems alone, I might have been up to designing the extra parts in Autodesk Inventor myself, and having a company like Shapeways 3D print and ship me the parts. It wouldn't be too hard for me to design these needed components, and would make a fun project, (actually anyone can learn how to do this for free with the free program Google Sketch Up.) But, I found the fatal design flaw that really puts the nail in the coffin of this item. Living up to it's name "Extreme Challenge ", this cage is a nightmare to totally disassemble. And, to keep the cage totally hygienic, the cage must be totally disassembled periodically. Unfortunately, some critical components aren't designed to be disassembled, like ever! It was really lucky I didn't break anything cleaning the cage. I estimate that I could only completely and properly clean the cage 1-3 more times before breaking a part that is vital to the cage's functionality. And this complete taking apart of the cage only came about after more than an hour (no exaggeration) of fussing with pieces and feeling out how to separate part with out breaking them, and lots of hands on prying and very careful force with tools... It was a heroic effort to do a very simple task, one that no person should actually bother wasting their time with, and one too complex for a child to complete.Currently all the parts are disassembled in a basket, I will try and contact Amazon for a refund soon. But frankly, at this moment I don't even want to look at that heap of junk, because even just looking at it right now, my blood starts to boil. I rather stab myself in the eye repeatedly then ever clean this cage ever again! Don't be fooled by the silly negative reviews of some other Crittertrail products, where people haven't figured out if you just spend a little time feeling out how to pry apart the components, most parts are actually easy to disassemble, or realized that a bottle brush makes cleaning tubes super easy. This product is an epic fail! I've studied engineering and physical science at the level of higher education for about 6 years, and was willing to go beyond a reasonable effort to make this product work. So certainly, I believe that the average consumer would find they've wasted their money if they bought this, even on typical clearance sale, because there are so few extra parts that could be used for other Crittertrail sets. Being that the petting case is kinda cool, and the cage is usable for one mouse until you have to do a complete cleaning, I estimate it's actual value between $4-$7.99delivery was great had to give this 5 stars dont know why so many bad reviews cause i love it very secure and escape prove my russian hamster revel is adopted and is scared of wheels dont know why and she is a bit crubby not my doing so she has to lose weight so i thought this would be a good idea cause the wheel is up top and doesnt look like a normal wheel and i was right she loves her new cage she is so happy and guess what she loves her wheel top marks very happy customer and hamster but a bit of warning not suitable for syrian hamsters too smallGot this cage, along with two dwarf hamster for my birthday as a present. This really isn't a good cage for any small animal. Even for one dwarf hamster it just hasn't got enough floor space. I had to go out and buy a Detolf cage which I bought from IKEA, which I would recommend to ANY hamster, mice, gerbil, or guinea pig. My cage I now have is currently 6x larger than this. Please don't buy this for any hamster or small pet. There is no way this compares to a hamsters natural habit in anyway. I would recommend buying the Detolf cage but IKEA. Spend £10 more for a 6x larger tank.If the option for no stars would of been available I'd of chose that. Very flimsy, clip missing from the cage and major concerns with the build quality whether it would keep my hamster safe and secured. It looks amazing on the pictures and that's what I wanted to give my pet hamster. I should of been wiser and read the reviews first! Amazon will be having this back in the morningBroke when cleaning out, sent back for full refundReally awkward to take apart and remove tubes for proper cleaning. Also think it's too small for a Syrian hamster