Review by J. VanDivner:

If you take proper care of your hamster, this home will be great for your little friend. In terms of what the other reviewers said, you just have to take proper precautions.

For instance, my buddy, one night, when he was getting used to the CritterTrail X, also built a nest in the exercise wheel. Well, I want him to be comfortable, but he needs his exercise! For his own sake, I sucked up the bedding from that spot with the vaccuum, and he hasn’t tried it since. Your hamster may need more coaxing to stop this behavior. Now, poop and pee does fall through the holes in the wheel onto the track below, but hamsters are gross that way, so don’t blame the house for the occupant’s apathy! At least they were smart enough to build it so the disgustingness will go on the track and not anything else.

I don’t know what the other person was talking about in terms of it being “hard to clean”. You’ve got to vaccuum out the soiled bedding every day or two, and wash the whole thing about once a week. Of course it will stink if you’re gross and don’t tend to it. I got my hamster as a roommate, though, and not a piece of meat for another pet, so maybe I just don’t mind being reasonable. I also don’t see why it would break easily…it seems sturdy enough to me, though I partially melted one using drying heat in the dishwasher, and had to get another. That was the first time I ever used a dishwasher, though, and had no idea how to tend to it.

Anyways, this house provides a decent amount of room for a hamster when you’re unable let him or her play outside of it, and it just looks cool too. The wheel and slide are neat, as is the two-story nature of the thing. There’s enough room to take melted pieces of a second one and put them inside for extra climbing fun. Highly recommended.

Review by :

My gerbils are named Acorn and Snowflake, and this is their favorite CritterTrail.

It does stink if you don’t clean it enough, but mine mostly just stinks when they push the bedding out of the petting zone and use it for a toilet. If your hamsters/gerbils/mice do the same thing, just don’t open the petting zone! If you do, it’ll make the whole room stink.

If you don’t like it when they kick the bedding out, just cut a box so it’s a taller than the plastic bottom and the bedding will just go in there. (Mostly, anyway. Unless your pets pile it up all against the side.) Besides, cages with bars and plastic like this are better for rodents. They can breathe better this way.

I agree with the other person who gave this cage a good review. When they use the wheel, the poop only goes on the track. It could be worse.

My gerbils love the wheel. They don’t build nests in it, although everyone else says their hamsters do. (Maybe hamsters do that but gerbils don’t? Maybe you should only get it for gerbils then. I don’t know. Maybe my gerbils are just different.)

If you aren’t looking for a perfect cage with no problems, then I wouldn’t recommend this. But if you want a nice cage that your pets will like, then you should try a Crittertrail. If you don’t like that, you can buy an aquarium and put a SAM Toob-a-Top on it. Acorn and Snowflake, my gerbils, liked that, too, but they have their Crittertrails again (two of them, anyway) because they seem to like these better.

Also, Carefresh brand bedding seems to be better for them than Aspen shavings, even though it’s a little expensive. My gerbils ran away from me when they had the Aspen kind, but we changed it back to Carefresh and they began to run up to the cage door when I came, and they are much more tame and fun now.

Review by D. Gillam:

Okay, I was worried about this cage from all the reviews, but since all cages we looked at had some problems, we went ahead and bought the CritterTrail 2. It was a little tricky to put together, but we figured it out and the one shelf we decided to use fit just fine. We also bought a second little CritterTrail cage and connected the two using the expansion tube pack. We even bought a little sky loft for the second cage. Everything has been fine. Our blackbear hamster loves her cage. She uses the wheel, she sleeps in the loft. We did get her the CritterTrail bottle with the little ball in it before we even left the store so we avoided the whole water bottle problem.

We have had this cage a week and our hamster hasn’t escaped. We will be cleaning it this today for the first time, but I don’t plan on taking the whole thing apart. She doesn’t even “go” in the main room so a little pulling out of the litter and putting some back through the door is all that we will do there. The dirtiest place is up in the loft where she sleeps, “goes”, and stores food, yuck! We will clean that area by wiping it with hot water on a paper towel. I am not sure why people feel compelled to completely tear apart their cages. But, reading how other people have had parts break when they did that, we will not be tearing our cage apart.

We like this cage. It is colorful to look at, compact, expandable, and we can see our little “Black Pearl” everywhere she goes in the cage. We try not to open the sky loft both out of respect for her bedroom and because other reviewers said the plastic latch broke on theirs. But we haven’t needed to because in one week she is already trained to come out the front door. We give her a treat every time she comes out so she knows the sound of the cage door opening and comes running. I would recommend this for any first time hamster owner.”

Review by Phil:

I have had this exact cage for 2 years for my 2 year old, both female gerbils, and I love it!

My gerbils absolutely love it, why?

* Add ons – I have added an external, 360 degree wheel, an outhouse, and a circle add on. They love running around the wheels and pooping in everything but the outhouse, haha.

* Cleaning – This isn’t too bad to clean. Sure, a glass aquarium would be SO much easier to clean, I will say that. But I clean this cage once every 2 to 2.5 weeks, and it takes an hour, MAX. Simply take off the bottom, throw all the Aspen bedding (this works great for me too) away. Take a squirt bottle from the dollar store, fill it with half White Vinegar, half hot water. Squirt that around the bottom, and in the rest of the pieces. COMPLETELY RINSE!!!! with hot water, dry with a clean undershirt. Replace pieces while occasionally changing around the order of all the tubes, hahaha – all of these steps take 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes, tops. Ever 2 weeks, this isn’t bad at all.

The gerbils LOVE LOVE LOVE when I rip pieces of paper about 1″ by 3″ and put it in the top little cave of the top part of the cage. They spend about 2 days biting this paper into very little shreds and cuddle in it, it is so cute.

Yes, some of the pieces broke, but you have to be careful. The outhouse (sold seperately), which they love, broke cause I dropped it. The top part of the cage cracked a little, nothing to worry.

And if you are worried about them escaping – yup, they have escaped twice. Why? Because I forgot to close it (sorry girls!). The clasp holding the top down broke, but nothing masking tape won’t fix.

Overall, very attractive cage, and I love it. Don’t buy an aquarium – so boring for your pets!!!

Review by Kelly:

This home is great for a medium sized hamster that gets lots of hands-on play time. The base is sturdy with an easy to remove and clean bottom. The house is also great and is where my hamster spends most of his time. The wheel is a bit of a pain, however. My hamster knocked it off several times and it also got stuck in place a few times. I would recommend getting a separate metal wheel so your little hamster can run more freely. Because there aren’t as many areas for the hamster to run around, this would not be a good home for those who wanted a hamster more for show than for playing with.

Overall, I found this to be a very sturdy home (had mine for over two years with not a problem) and my hamster has lived longer than people thought possible.

Review by Rachel M.:

I just bought this last week, and so far- it’s doing a great job.

Advantages:

-The bedding stays inside the cage, even though she loves to burrow.

-It’s easy to attach fun-nels to (although my pet wants nothing to do with them- she’s either strange for a dwarf hamster, or a bit uncertain, being only a baby)

-The cage is petite and doesn’t take up much space. However, she still has plenty of room, even with a small igloo in there.

-It’s well ventilated and secure, so she can breathe easily without me fearing her escaping.

-The roof is easy to remove in order for cleaning

Disadvantages:

-I ended up throwing out the water bottle after a couple of hours because she couldn’t figure out how to use it. I bought her a separate water bottle and she was very parched, drinking for several minutes before settling down. I heard others don’t have problems with it though, so again, it could be that she’s so young and gets frustrated easily.

-I think the food bowl, while in a convenient place, is sort of small, but that’s only my personal opinion.

-The “silent and safe” wheel is safe, but you could never call it silent. At all. I always know when she’s awake (around 3 a.m. every night) because her running wakes me up.

-I wish there was another door on the side of the cage, or that there was a removable tray, but that’s just me being picky.

After reading other product reviews and getting feedback from other hamster owners, I still say this is worth the price and the easiest design with the least bit of fuss. It may be a bit too small for a regular sized Syrian hamster, but for a dwarf, mouse, or gerbil- it’s perfect!

Review by Y. Au:

I have a little robo hamster and this cage is a perfect habitat for her. The cage comes with a mini food dish (which works great for the size of robo hamsters), a water bottle (which leaks a lot and should be replaced with bottles with anti-leakage technology), and a wheel. The hamster especially loves the wheel, spending hours and hours playing in it every night. I also purchased the expansion kit so that the hamster will have her little room for napping and hiding.

Review by mamacat:

Our hamster really likes nesting in the little “penthouse” and the habitat is certainly easy to clean. But the latches and/or hinges on both doors have broken three times, twice for my daughter and once for me. And the sad part is, I was trying to put in the penthouse’s brand-new replacement door when the little hinge snapped off. I can assure you we are being careful and gentle with this product, yet the doors are so brittle that parts snap off. And so twice our hamster has escaped. We are currently holding both doors shut with duct tape while we wait for replacement doors. The owner of the pet store where we bought it acknowledged the problem when he told me “Yeah, its a well-designed product — except for the breakage.” Then he said it would be a long waiting time for the replacement parts, an interval which he’s apparently very familiar with because he’s had to order lots of replacement parts for his customers. We are about to borrow an old-fashioned glass tank with screen top because the risk of losing the hamster again is not worth it. I can’t really recommend this product, I’m sorry to say.

Review by D. Hardaway:

I purchased this for a dwarf hamster and have been very pleased. The water bottle doesn’t leak and all the parts fit nice and tight. Meatball appears to be very happy in his home! I would not recommend it for a standard sized hamster though. I think it would be cramped and wouldn’t be able to fit in the wheel to run.

Review by And I Quote:

I bought and returned many cages for my dwarf hamster before settling on this. I bought two and connected them with some of those tubes. My hamster loves it. He has a bedroom and a kitchen/gym. There are some good and bad qualities.

The good:

-easy to assemble and clean

-dark bottom for hamsters

-chew proof metal

-top and side door

-roomy

-high sides so very little litter falls through

The bad:

-water bottle is useless (upgrade to a Crittertrail with a metal spout)

-wheel is noisy (another upgrade)

-the hanging nest swings and my hamster cannot sit in it, which is OK since it feels like sand paper

-food bowl is OK, but I got a larger one so he can sit easier inside

Review by Elizabeth Smallbone:

This cage is a good cage for someone who knows a little about hamsters! My Robo Dwarf felt instantly at home as soon as I put her in this cage. She loves it which makes me happy! Though the water bottle DID not work so I got a new one as soon as I could… She couldn’t drink from the one given in this cage! The only other problem I have with this cage is that the crittertrail fun-nels have trouble staying in an upright position.. My dog can easily knock the fun-nels off.. Luckily my hamster was never in the additions! Overall this has been a very good cage for my hamster.. Merry Christmas!

Review by pinxet:

About 15 years ago, our apartment building began having occassional mouse problems, with my own apartment receiving 2 or 3 visits from a stray little fellow each year. I was truly appalled to see some of the more modern solutions in the stores — I’d always had a problem with the idea of the traditional spring traps and poisons, but the houses containing sticky-bottomed floors seemed unduly cruel. I don’t want to kill the little SOBs, let alone torture them; I just don’t want them as roommates.

The Havahart live trap is a good, humane, cost effective solution to it all. The mechanism is a simple bait-table connected to a set of two thick and sturdy exterior wires which — on a new trap — trips very easily (a bit of delicate, deft handling of the exterior wires is needed to get the trap to not spring closed during setup — those with large fingers will have a difficult time with it I would think). Following capture and release, a good cleaning in a bucket of bleach, well rinsed, and the trap is ready to go again.

For the more romatically inclined, there’s a good feeling to be had in preparing a Wine & Cheese Platter (actually, I use toilet tissue and peanut butter) in my attempts to be a good host to the occasional visit from Mr. Mouse. The trap works well enough that normally I see no evidence of a mouse in my kitchen prior to him appearing in the trap — over the years, I’ve come to regard the visitors less as disease-ridden destructive vermin, and more as a cute if unkempt old friend who gives me a good excuse to swab the kitchen in bleach.

I normally replace traps every five or six years, and not because they break or become non-functional– Over time, the trap tends to get a funky dark tarnished patina which is simply too unattractive to my eye. With reasonable care, these traps can be a one-time purchase which need no replacement.

Aesthetic loss aside, after a year or so of use, it helps to oil the moving parts of the trap — without this, it’s possible for the mouse to enter the trap, steal the bait, and leave without tripping the mechanism. Be careful also of too heavy-handed handling of the trap when cleaning — although sturdy enough, the walls of the cage can be bent with a bit of pressure, which will prevent easy movement of the doors and bait-table.

This is, to my mind, one of those superior products which one always returns to. Whoever crafted the phrase “build a better mousetrap” never saw one of these. It’s cheap, it’s permanent, it works.

Review by J. Lemmerman:

(NOTE: this product rates a 5 if modified as suggested below. Without the simple modification, it can become lethal to the mice.)

________________

I am catching a mouse a day in our school. We name the mice like hurricanes, and we have gone thru the alphabet twice in 6 months! (We collect the mice in a hamster cage and release each Friday, using a DEEP painter’s bucket and toilet paper cores for transfer, in case you’re interested).

I love this thing (actually I bought two).

I had to make one minor modification – the lower edge of the trap door is very sharp – the mice try to push under and cut their noses – I added a piece of clear tape across the lower edge of each trap door to cover the edge and — SHAZAM–, its now perfect.

Advice for the novice – when you release the mice (far from home or into a DEEP bucket), hold the door closest to you closed – the first time I unlocked both doors and the mouse instinctively ran out the upper door and up my arm. LOL

Review by Nicole Madden:

This item sounds like a great idea. When I bought it, I wasn’t paying attention to the size, it is narrow, but I thought it would resemble a burrow so I didn’t mind. When I let my dwarf hamster use it, she was scared because she felt trapped. When I let my larger dwarf hamster use it, he also felt psychologically trapped, and it is too small for a gerbil. It didn’t work for any of my 3 small pets. But it is so cute in theory.

Review by Kathryn G. Klotz:

I have two gerbils and as everyone knows gerbils are naturally burrowers. I noticed my boy Georgie vigorously digging in the corner of the cage and I felt sorry for him since he had hit plastic I bought him and his mate Sandy this burrow. They loved the material and figured out right away what it was. I made some adjustments to it though, i duck tapped the entire sides and back and then put a dark shirt over the front and then duck tapped the tunnel so now its completely dark and an actual burrow, they almost never come out. But without all the hard work I am sure they would love it anyways, recommended to gerbil owners

Review by S. Rezac:

This cage is great! Super easy to clean and so far – escape proof. We have a Siberian Hamster (very small) along with a cat and dog. Needless to say if the hamster gets out she will be a late night snack for the other pets.

Wheel is not too noisy and since the cage is “open” there has been absolutely no smell.