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43 of 46 found the following review helpful:
 Think twice before you buy Mar 06, 2010
By A. Garza
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.
27 of 28 found the following review helpful:
Wheel Woes Dec 19, 2008
By S. Wiggins
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.
36 of 39 found the following review helpful:
 CritterTrail X Oct 11, 2005
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.
48 of 56 found the following review helpful:
 Wonderful. Sep 13, 2005
By J. VanDivner
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.
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Great cage Dec 07, 2009
By Jack Pumpkinhead
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.
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