Hamsters are high-energy animals, and you may have noticed they’re scrabbling at the walls of the cage. A good way to satisfy your hamster’s need for freedom is free roaming, or free ranging.

A Suitable Space

Now before you just release your hamster into the unknown first you must decide which room you’re going to free roam them in. There are some places you just flat out shouldn’t free roam in, such as:

• Kitchen
• Bathroom
• Livingroom
• Wreckroom
• Laundry room
• Furnace room
• Huge rooms in general

And you get the general idea why these rooms aren’t safe:

• Weird fumes.
• Other pets.
• Getting into tight spaces.
• Being in a space so big you can’t find them.
• Getting lost/stuck in mess.

The typical best place to free range is in an office or bedroom.

You will also want a room with a locking door; this will prevent other pets or people from coming in and providing the perfect opportunity for escape. Besides that, cats, dogs or other predatory pets will most likely attack your hamster, which usually results in death.

Hamster Proofing

Hamster proofing is a part of hamster owning. You’ll do it on your cage, playpen, and/or free roaming room. After you decide on a safe room to free roam in, you’ll need to check some basic things to make sure it’s safe for your pet.

• The space under the door should not exceed half an inch for Dwarfs and Chinese hamsters, and a three-quarter inch for Syrians.
• Hang or tape all chords and wires ten or so inches above the ground.
• Make sure your hamster cannot stick its toes into any electrical sockets.
• Keep furniture a few inches from the walls.

Those are the essentials of hamster proofing! There are quite a few extra things I’ve learned from my experience that make free roaming a much more pleasurable for me, so I’m also going to share those!

If you’re interested in more hamster-related content be sure to like this post and follow the blog, and I’ll be back on Tuesday with more small pet care, DIYs, recipes, cage setups, stories and more, have a ham-tastic day!