Crittertrail Expansion Kit 2 Loop-d-Loop
I needed tubes to connect my current cage for my hamster to its playpen and possibly another cage to add more space. It was hard to figure out what tubes were best for a winter white hamster as I rarely see any detailed dimensions or comparison information. There were 3 different brands of tubes available: habitrial ovo, crittertrial, and SAM tubes. The SAM tubes are actually pretty difficult to find, and the ovo tubes are too big or too small for my dwarf. But I really do like that they are clear rather than the colorful crittertrail ones. In the end I opt for the crittertrail tubes as they seem to fit my dwarf hamster the best.I picked the 2nd kit as it has the most elbow tubes and more appropriate for what I'm after. The colors are just not attractive since I'm an adult and don't really see any value for having colors. The tubes are perfect size though. It is a tad smaller than the ovo tubes so I think these tubes will be too small for a syrian hamster. They have bigger ridges or ledges for the hamster to climb compare to ovo tubes. The ovo tubes have such small grip that I imagine the hamsters would have a bit of a hard time to learn to climb them. The ovo tubes don't seem to have holes in them either. The crittertrial tubes have sparse air holes so I advise having something like newspaper below the tubes in case your hamster pees in the tubes.
These tubes easily fits with ovo connecters and cages. The crittertrial connectors snap together easily but it is alittle hard to take apart. I hear some people use spoons, but I find pulling the ridges out to work out wonderfully. It can big alittle hard to see the ridges on the edge but once you find them pull the connector away and find the next ridge closest to the one you just pulled and you should find the tube to pop out easily after that. The connectors are slightly rubbery and they allow you to twist the tubes however you won't unlike the ovo connectors. However it does cause issues with the loop-d-loop addon. It makes it hard to keep that addon upright like the way its shown the on box. Its heavy and will twist at the elbox tube and fall to the floor especially when the hamster is inside. You can try to put the addon upside down too, but I just made the tubes go horizontal and had the addon sit on the box to keep it steady. It would work like the way it is pictured on the box if I had a cage with a tube opening on the top but I don't. It could work if I had more ovo connectors since those lock the tubes in place or if I used the T tube. But the ovo connectors are hard to take off of the crittertrail tubes. Please use gloves or a towel to protect your hands when trying to pry the locks off.
My hamster sometimes nap in them, and hangouts in the loop-d-loop addon. He even peed in the loop-d-loop but it wasn't hard to clean up since you can take the top off easily. My dwarf fits in the tube really nicely and he's able to climb vertically with ease and fold himself to turn around. These tubes might be too tight for a syrian and could risk getting them stuck so I would not recommend these tubes for adult syrians.
Other than the horrid colors, this kit is not too bad. It all came tightly stuffed in a box and surprisingly not cracked as I was fearing. The plastic is pretty sturdy and thick so I don't think they will break easily. Thankfully this kit had enough pieces to link my small cage to a bin to add more space for the little guy. Overall, I really like this kit!
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