Customer Reviews

Super Pet CritterTrail Extreme Challenge Habitat

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(31)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

Our hamster chose to use the wheel as his den. He spends his time filling the wheel with bedding and food. He sleeps most of the day there, and does his bathroom business. Then, some time in the middle of the night, he wakes up and decides to go for a run in his wheel. What goes in, must come out, and out it comes, all over the place.... bedding, food, feces and urine. I'm constantly cleaning up around the cage. Plus, the urine collects in the wheel housing, that plastic purple thing the wheel sits in, and creates a rather solid, dried urine, feces and bedding mess. It's really quite disgusting, and unsanitary. Plus, it's impossible to open to clean and put back together. The idea was to allow my 6 year old to take on the responsibility of caring for an animal, but she can't clean the cage by herself becuase she can't open and close it by herself.

My daughter bought this for her hamster. The animal seems to love it, although she did take some time getting used to the wheel. Which brings me to the "woes". Once she started using it she used it for more than exercise, if you get my drift. Thankfully the tray underneath catches everything. However, when it comes time to clean the wheel and tray it requires my husband or myself to take it apart (after it's been removed from the cage) so the inside can be cleaned. It snaps back together easily enough but getting the sides separated is a real pain. Other than that and the fact that it doesn't really glow in the dark (at least not very brightly), it's a pretty good cage.

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.

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.

I own both the CritterTrail Extreme Challenge Habitat and the CritterTrail Z and they both function splendidly!

Now, I only wrote this review to chime in with a different note than the very popular 'messy' quote that circles these colorful cage products.
Yes, hamsters make messes, and so does any pet, cage or not.
You can't give this cage a bad review cause your hamster is what it is.

Any cage is going to get messy, and they are going to pee wherever they feel like.
Another common subject: Plastic.The plastic breaks and wears easily after a short amount of time. Fact of life. It's not made of steel. The company made it the way they did and people pay for it. A pet is an investment, just like a child, you have to keep feeding it and sheltering it. If one does not like the referenced torment these particular cages bring, go with a glass aquarium (the pet stores do).
And if you can't stand a mess, don't own a pet.

I'm a middle aged adult and purchased a hamster as an office desk buddy. This cage is a perfect size for that purpose and it's fun watching him run down the slide and build nests everywhere (yes, including the wheel)! But I figure the idea is to keep him (and me) entertained, so let him build a nest wherever he likes (including the porta potty). I am online looking to buy a wheel from one of the other models so he will have a regular wheel inside since he apparently thinks the higher wheel makes a better bed than anywhere else. This cage certainly looks better than a 10 gallon aquarium or some wire cage, and at least you can buy replacement parts which you will probably need to do if you have children taking parts on and off very often. I will say it is a little difficult to maneuver cleaning without taking the whole cage apart, but I like the other persons idea of vacuming it out, then can just wipe with damp cloth, just make sure your hamster is not in the cage when you run the vacume! I think it's neat and fun for "kids" of all ages and makes the hamster happy too!

The cage looks great and the top tray is neat. The downside is when the ball rotates the hamsters poopie flys everywhere. Trying to figure out how to contain the ball area.

At first I didn't understand what the big deal was with cleaning the cage. Then after a few weeks of trying to take it apart, Put it back together agian and get the smell out of it....I understand why everyone is giving bad reviews. The wheel kept my husband awake at night because of the sound. The hamsters hung out most time in the wheel, Which is the most hardest to clean.
Get a large plastic storage tote ( one with high walls) from Walmart or Target, Leave the lid off and put it up high enough other animals cant get it. The perfect cage. Easy to clean easy to see through.

We received this very quickly. This cage is very cool, but kind of hard to clean. The wheel seems to confuse the hamster, she would sleep in it and take food up there. We ended up adding a super silent slide inside the cage and she runs on that. We don't really like the water bottle, wish it had a regular drinking end, but it doesn't leak, which is so nice. The bottle is kind of hard to fill up. We tried to talk our son into a regular cage, because they are easier to clean, but he had to have the 'cool" one. It is very nice looking, just wish it was easier to clean, especially the wheel.

Our hamsters also make a nest in the wheel. Stuff falls onto the area outside the cage and makes a mess. Other than that It's EASY to clean. My 11yr old cleans it herself with no help or problems. I would recommend it. It looks great and wont easily break like someone else suggested.