I recently looked after a hamster for a friend...I found it so hard to part with her when she came to collect her - I HAD to get one of my own. What's the first thing a Hamster needs?

A CAGE

Choosing the Hamster was the easy part, she was the first one I looked at..pale golden fur and big black ears, and the cutest face. Choosing the cage however, was not so easy.

A lot of the cages I looked at were all very attractive and had many floors connected by a network of plastic tubing, but looking at these, all I could think of was - once the Hamster is in there, How on earth are you going to get her out again without taking the whole thing apart?!

The metal framed cages looked sturdy - but boring. The ones that did have special gaps to attach tubing, cost a fortune. I was feeling rather despondent when I suddenly noticed a cage by HABITRAIL ( a leading brand in hamster care) call SAFARI.

HABITRAIL'S SAFARI looked very exciting. It was atractively coloured in shades of khaki green and orange, came with a large robust looking exercise wheel, drinking bottle,feeding dish, a resting platform complete with a slide leading up and down to and from it..."whee!" great fun!!! The fact that it was entirely made from plastic made me think it may not last as long as a conventional metal one - but at that price....who cares!!!!

THE COST

I bought my Habitrail cage at a local independent pet store - and they were only asking £18.99 for it. I was told that most good pet stores ie; Petsmart Habitrail cages retail from between £27-£30! Maybe you could get it for less if they were having a sale..but nevertheless I wasn't complaining. I checked on the internet keying "Habitrail" into www.google.co.uk and I found that the basic SAFARI set cost around £18 -£20..I don't know about p&p though!

FUN AND GAMES

Ok - the pressure's on when you are trying to assemble a new home for a new Hamster and your son is trying his best to keep her entertained! I found that the pieces of the cage were fairly difficult to snap together. At one stage I thought it was going to break as I had to apply a fair amount of pressure in order to fit the pieces together snugly. The cage bars are fairly difficult to put into the notches (the bars are NOT plastic btw), the tubes (add on set- prices later) were extremely tricky to put togehter and seemed wobbly and precarious,although they weren't really. The extra bits are supposed to simply "snap" into the special holes provided...and although I agree that they do...it takes a knack to do it at first- and a lot of practice.

WELL WORTH IT

I would have to say that it is well worth it..because the hamster really seems to enjoy it..it is really easy to clean...as it comes apart a lot easier that it puts together.

ADDICTIVE

Extra bits such as tubing, wheels, outposts in similar safari style don't come cheap....I paid an extra £10 for about 12 inches of tubing and another £12 for a restaurant compartment. Little bits of tubing start at around £2.50. There are plenty of little extras, extra rooms etc etc - trouble is - they're addictive and I was finding that I was buying something new every time payday came around!!

I have had mine for about three months now. It is slightly chewed around the edges but it is still secure and still looks really good.

The most important factor however;

MY HAMSTER LOVES IT!!

She sleeps in the restaurant, uses the bedroom as a toilet and stashes her food in the tubes...but hey..that's not HABITRAIL'S FAULT!