Step 1: The Cottage Code

Our Adoption Requirements

Spacious Cage

We encourage you to go as large as possible with your hamster's cage, and approve cages on a case-by-case basis. Here are our current guidelines:

• 360 square inches accepted for dwarf hamsters (20 gallon long, bin cage, etc.)

• 600+ square inches STRONGLY recommended for all hamsters

• 1/4"-1/2" bar spacing

• All walking surfaces must be solid; no wire bottoms or shelves.

See our recommended cages.

Comfortable Wheel

Wheels must be solid-surfaced. Mesh or wire wheels are not accepted.

Dwarves: 8" or larger

Syrians: 10" or larger

See our recommended wheels.

Nutritious Food

We use and recommend Mazuri pellet diets (Rat and Mouse or 6F formulas) in addition to Snow White’s Enchanted Forage Mix. We provide generous samples of both with every adoption. Some alternative options are found here.

Cozy Bedding

We use both aspen shavings and paper bedding at our rescue, in addition to other enrichment materials. See our recommendations.

Stimulating Enrichment

Hamsters need more than bare basics--they need lots of stimulating toys and textures to engage their brain and keep them entertained! We encourage lots of enrichment for our hamsters. Please see our list for more ideas.