"Okay, I was worried about this cage from all the reviews, but since all cages we looked at had some problems, we went ahead and bought the CritterTrail 2. It was a little tricky to put together, but we figured it out and the one shelf we decided to use fit just fine. We also bought a second little CritterTrail cage and connected the two using the expansion tube pack. We even bought a little sky loft for the second cage. Everything has been fine. Our blackbear hamster loves her cage. She uses the wheel, she sleeps in the loft. We did get her the CritterTrail bottle with the little ball in it before we even left the store so we avoided the whole water bottle problem.
We have had this cage a week and our hamster hasn't escaped. We will be cleaning it this today for the first time, but I don't plan on taking the whole thing apart. She doesn't even "go" in the main room so a little pulling out of the litter and putting some back through the door is all that we will do there. The dirtiest place is up in the loft where she sleeps, "goes", and stores food, yuck! We will clean that area by wiping it with hot water on a paper towel. I am not sure why people feel compelled to completely tear apart their cages. But, reading how other people have had parts break when they did that, we will not be tearing our cage apart.
We like this cage. It is colorful to look at, compact, expandable, and we can see our little "Black Pearl" everywhere she goes in the cage. We try not to open the sky loft both out of respect for her bedroom and because other reviewers said the plastic latch broke on theirs. But we haven't needed to because in one week she is already trained to come out the front door. We give her a treat every time she comes out so she knows the sound of the cage door opening and comes running. I would recommend this for any first time hamster owner.""
