Kaytee CritterTrail Two Level Habitat for Pet Dwarf Hamsters, Gerbils or Mice

I'd like to introduce you all to Teddy and George, named after two great presidents and probably a lot more adorable than either :) Anyway, Teddy and George have had to be re-homed twice already :( but this product has the proud title of "their permanent home!" First, we started with a smaller cage, which was great size-wise, but the bars were too far apart to keep the little guys contained. So we tried an aquarium with a screen top. This worked wonderfully for keeping them contained, and there were zero escapes, but mice unfortunately stink a little bit, and I started thinking about how all that stench and lack of airflow was affecting them (and my daughter's bedroom) :( So, to Amazon I went, and I searched for a new place to give them. I saw this one at the local pet store, actually, but of course the price was not that great, so I took a chance and ordered it even though the reviews seem pretty mixed here. I wasn't sure if the bars were going to be small enough to prevent escapes, but I figured I could just return it (because Amazon is awesome) if they weren't. Well, Teddy and George are both ecstatic with their new home! It took them a short while to figure out the tubes, but they literally had never climbed anything other than wire before. They are both a lot more active with so many things to do in their cage (prior to this, in the aquarium, they had one wooden two story house and a saucer to run on) and so many places to climb. I think the only "downfall" if it can be called that is that it has made it slightly more cumbersome to try to encourage them to participate in cuddle time -- they like to run into the tubes and wait my hand out, lol -- but I think this can be avoided if I used the petting zone as a petting zone. They also like to bed down in the petting zone, so I like that feature. The cage includes a plug you can use to keep them contained in the petting zone. It will come in handy for cleaning the cage when the time comes. Also included are a food dish, an exercise wheel, and a water bottle. We did not use the water bottle because we had a nicer transparent one already. The exercise wheel is great and quiet, which I've learned is kind of a big deal (especially in the middle of the night when squeaky wheels can be really annoying!) And the food dish is solid, so no complaints there. We also had no problems putting this together, my 7-yr-old and I, because the instructions were exact and easy to follow. The mice, again, love it, so I would definitely recommend this for mice. It is pretty difficult trying to shop for the little critters when you're jumping in to ownership for the first time... At least, it was for me! I hope this review can help anyone else with mice trying to find the proper enclosure. I'll try to post a picture later, but so far all I have is a video of me adoring them and them comfortably grooming each other in the petting zone :) It's cute but doesn't really show how great the product is so I am not posting it!

I have had several of this particular cage (I currently have 3) for gerbils/hamsters. While it is not a "perfect" cage (I have yet to find one) for the price it is a great cage! It has a deeper bottom than some. The newest version has a spring feature on the two front openings which keeps the cage closed (as long as one remembers to close it). It has a large area "upstairs" that the gerbils can use as a bedroom (or I have had some use it as a toilet). This area lifts out easily to clean or put larger objects like a wheel into the cage thru. It is easily expandable with Funnels or crittertail expansion kits (I have punched out all the available expansion areas and used them to add on to. Yes, if you allow a lot of litter in The bottom or give your gerbils cardboard every day to chew without removing some litter you will have litter spill out the bars. The wheel included can be loud. You could add a drop of mineral oil to it to help cut down on noise. I like to replace these wheels with silent spinners, although with the new, smaller distance between the cage wires, it can be difficult to get the silent spinner wheels thru the bars to attach. I usually only put up one of the red center platforms so the cage is not so crowded. This cage is easy to clean if one does it routinely, and the tubes self clean if you soak them in water for 10-15 minutes. you dont need soap to get them clean. I hope this was a helpful review.

I too worried because of the reviews. We use this as our "exercise cage" We get the girls out every evening & they really love this cage. The rest of their time is spent in a 10 gallon aquarium. It's easy to put together. We purchased 4 sets of funnel tubes, so we have a long tube system that connects to the cage & we set it on the floor. Then we watch them run all over the carpet through the tubes without the worry of mess. We created our tube maze so that it can just all be lifted up & carried back to be stored each night. So.....Pros: gerbils love it. They even love the wheel in this cage better then the silent spinner in their other cage. They can run much faster & they run, run, run. They love the tube connections. We think they may be looking for a way out, but since they can't tell us we pretend they love running through them. (much nicer to think that rather then they may be terrified & running for their lives through tubes that go nowhere :) It got my boys much more interested in the gerbils then the "boring" aquarium. Cons: I would worry gerbils would eat many of the features of this cage if it were a primary habitat. Ours don't chew because they are only in there an hour each night & they spend their time running around. Mess- they kick out bedding. We keep only a shallow layer unlike the aquarium where we can keep big piles for them to dig around in without the mess. Access to your gerbils- if your gerbils are not tame (like ours) it's hard to get them in/out. We disconnect a tube immediate to the cage & they run out of that tube into a box that we use to transfer them back to the aquarium. They learned this routine pretty quick & they run right in when they want to go "home" However the tubes are hard to disconnect. The connection ring on the one we mess with every night has stretched out a bit so it's much easier now. You get the hang of messing with the tubes but we did crack one the first day. You would not want to disconnect/reconnect tubes all the time. Expense- the tubes are too expensive. We did not use the second landing area to give us more room to reach in & attempt to tame our gang. That's all. Glad we bought this cage.

This item is awesome it took a while to put together to get it together and get all the bedding in it and set it up it took about one whole day on and off so a couple of hours. We could not get the wired part which is the part that goes onto the tray we could not get it together. We had to bring it to the Pet store and have the guy there do it. It was pretty hard and we tried to do it but after a while it did not work for us. I bought two of these and I am going to put them together and let them go together with playing tubes. It took us a couple hours or all day on and off to build to the second one was easier because we kind of figured out stuff on our own. I have not put any Gerbils in it yet because we are not getting them for a couple of days. Also please be gentle when putting the lid together and getting the red parts in that latch we were not that careful on the first one and made it crack. On the second one we broke of some of the side parts but it still works. We made the wheel spin and it is not that quite. It is pretty big but for two Gerbils I would buy two of these or buy one and some small cage to add on to it. I would only use this for Gerbils , Mice , Rats , Dwarf Hamsters , Hamsters ,

I've had this cage for over a year now and I can say that it is one of the better choices for your pet. Some other reviews say it is difficult to clean, but I disagree and don't really understand why they are having problems. The top lifts strait out, you don't need to completely disassemble it and take the bars and side supports off to give it a good cleaning. As far as how well the cage holds together, I would say it is no better or worse then any other cage with plastic parts. If you want completely foolproof your better off with an aquarium, but of course then you don't get the fun tubes and accessories. Like I said earlier, I've had this cage a year and so far the wheel was the only thing to break, but this was easily replaced. I think this is the better choice over some of the other cages available for a few reasons. The first is its "square footage". The platforms and upper sleeping area on top of the cage makes it compact for you yet roomy for your pet. The cage also has plenty of room for expansion, for example I have added two different lookout towers to my cage I think my hamster enjoys. I also like how it is not completely plastic. The bars allow air circulation in the cage for better health to your pet. I've tried a number of cages in the past with different pets but I think this one is my favorite. I would buy it again.

Wow, no one exaggerated with how difficult this is to put together!!! Fortunately, I had read many reviews and watched some YouTube videos, so I knew to set aside a good chunk of time to get this done. Took a solid 1.5 hours and I was really nervous I'd break some of the pieces since they're hard plastic. In fact, I might've cracked the bottom tray (or maybe it came that way and I didn't notice), but it's not detrimental. The problem is that no hamster/small rodent cages have great reviews...not a one! This was probably the best of them all and Kaytee brand sure has the hold on the market, not many options. We just got our first Winter White dwarf hamster, so I didn't want to go the route of an aquarium as I felt it was overkill, and this cage has the two levels to provide more space. Of course two levels meant more frustrating building. I will say however, that even with multiple levels, I think this would be a tight fit for a Syrian or other larger species of hamster. In a day or two, I will be attempting to remove the necessary pieces to conduct the first full cage clean and we'll see how that goes. I do question the durability of the locks that attach the walls to the tray, only time will tell. The Kaytee tubes are also not very easy to put together and feel like they're going to break when trying to get them into the holes on the cage, or connected to one another, but again only time will tell. As for our hammie, he seems happy and enjoys the tubes, two separate levels, as well as the extra space at the top, which just started to explore. The wheel is as quiet as it could be and the food bowl is good. I did not like the water bottle because it's a solid color and you can't see the water level. Therefore, I purchased a different bottle (Lixit) and it's worked out well with little to no dripping. This our first hammie, so if we continue to have small pets after this one, I think I'd look for a different cage or perhaps even go the small aquarium route. However, for now on our first pass as dwarf hamster owners, I think this habitat will do.

I was a little leery about choosing this habitat for my new young mice considering the mixed review, but I am glad I went ahead and tried it out! I wanted some extra space to house 2 mice and have lots of places to play. I liked the tunnels and second level platforms and especially the top nest area so I went ahead and gave this a try! Arrival This arrived completely undamaged and with all the parts. No issues at all with damage to the plastic parts. Putting it together This was a bit of a concern as I was afraid to snap the wrong pieces together and have them not come back apart or to just break something trying to get it to fit! So I went slowly and carefully through the steps to piece it together. I did have a wire bent that made it difficult to get the cage lowered into the base, but I fixed it with needle nosed pliers. I don't know that it even came that way - hiubby may have done it being to forceful trying to make it fit! So be careful and if it isn't fitting right away - look for little bends in the wire or make small adjustments to how you are fitting it down as it might be stuck up on the plastic on one side! Cleaning I have no issues taking it apart for cleaning and putting it back together. The side tube comes out easily enough and then you unclip the sides and remove the bottom. The shelves are also easily removed and the top nest comes right out as well so I have no issues at all with cleaning it. Bars As with any bars, I was concerned about escape, but so far that has not been an issue at all. Either they don't want to or can't! The bars are the narrowest that I have seen on cages of this type. Wheel The wheel is super quiet and one of our mice LOVES the wheel and goes as fast as she can so no issues there either. Top level - split I didn't love that the top level was split rather than a full floor so I solved that by buying a rope and twig bird ladder with a very narrow spacing between the pieces so it was more like a little floor. I clipped it to either side of the cage and it mostly sits on the level then goes straight across to the other side creating more of a full second floor. The mice love it and race back and forth or go up one tube, across and down the other! Water bottle Now on this item, I agree with other reviewers that it's not safe for small animals. My mice are rather young and the bottle is spring loaded so I was concerned about them being able to press it back to drink. So I picked up another water bottle where the ball moves up and down the tube freely and used that instead rather than take a risk. Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase and if we get another set of mice in addition to these, I would definitely purchase again!

We have been a hamster owner for about two years. The original cage we had was also by Kaytee, but the one level one, looks similar to this. I cleaned that cage a couple times a week. Super easy to clean, no issues. When my child's beloved hamster died, she asked if we could upgrade to this larger two level cage for her new one. I said sure, why not, looks very nice. Ok first of all this cage is very hard to put together. Whereas the one level one wire is one piece, this first required snapping the two wire sides together, they hook in.Apparantly my degree wasn't enough to get me to easily put this thing together, it does NOT easily fit. After grappling for a good 20 min it was in place. First thing I then noted was the doors didn't look snapped in securely. They do lock but in general this cage has a look like the wire doesn't totally fit into place. I can't explain it, but shocking bc we were happy with the other Kaytee model. Ok after the initial set up we were surprised my child's new hamster was so thirsty. Or so we thought... Where her old hamster never finished her water prior to daily change , not even close. This hamster seemed to be guzzling water from his bottle. We figured he was larger and thirsty. Three days later we discovered he wasn't drinking it, the bottle provided was emptying into his cage, soaking his bedding. We were so upset and glad he didn't die from dehydration, not sure how long he had gone without a drink. What I figured out after examining it is the wire that holds /clamps bottle into place was too tight so in effect was putting a constant squeeze pressure on it as if you were pushing it. Despite trying to stretch out clamp, we could not fix this fact. The clamp on this and bottle do not work together , for us at least. Again odd, bc our old cage had same system, and never had issue with clamp pressing hard. So I had to duct tape the bottle into place, what a pain with daily water changes. To make a long story short I hate this cage, and have now ordered another cage to replace it. I can't say for sure if we just got an unlucky cage or what, but this was our honest experience.

Tengo una pareja de hamsters americanos y están muy felices con el espacio, la jaula se puede expandir comprando más accesorios y el límite lo pones tú, las mascotas tienen espacio suficiente para desplazarse sin sentirse tan asfixiados, los colores son bonitos y armarla no fue tan complicado como otros compradores comentan, super producto a bajo costo, ya que las vi más caras en tiendas físicas, llegó antes de tiempo super rápido y efectivo... Me siento satisfecha

We ordered one of these cages from Amazon after reading a review and seeing vids on youtube, so glad we did, the first one that arrived had a broken clip on the top which was obviously not due to delivery but Amazon made it a breeze to return and get a new one sent out to us in a day of reporting it, Well done Amazon! Well onto the review.... what a fabulous cage, needs some skill to put together but once you have done it once it is a breeze to do, some folks have said it is hard to clean this cage but me and my wife have found it no harder than the simple plastic cage that we got with our mouse.... Just shoo your critters into the bedroom?petting area, lift it out and cap the opening with the provided stopper, put them to one side where they can watch you clean their house, clip the pipes of each side of the cage and unclip the two bottom clips the whole top of the cage lifts off in one piece allowing you to empty out the base and clean it down, the shelves just slot over the cage bars and remove simply to wash them down, we use a bucket with mild disinfectant in and separate all the pieces to wash, rinse and dry them, takes about 20 mins in total and the plastic is microantibacterial coated to provide better protection. they clip back together easily and if you expand the system with the critter trail expansion kits your mouse/hamster will love you forever lol. Also to note is that Amazon send out the latest version of this cage which has spring loaded catches on the doors and external water bottle and is much improved on the earlier version. :-)

The cage was easy enough to assemble, but you can't fit any other wheel in it. I don't recommend putting a Syrian or a teddy bear hamster in here. I have a golden and he's as big as this cage can fit. The wheel is a little small for him, which is why I don't recommend putting a bigger breed in here. But in other words, the cage is great, it came quickly, and my little buddy loves his new home. There is quite a bit of space, and I do regret not getting more toys for him.

Es un buen producto, hecho con buenos materiales y el acabado es de calidad y buen ver. Los hamster la pasan muy bien. Es faci lde limpiar y muy util y practica la caja superior para trasladar al hamster.

Bars are closely spaced to keep a small mouse from escaping. He loves going up and down the tunnels and climbing the walls too. I think that it would be too small for a hamster unless it was a dwarf one.