Could a dwarf hamster live in a 4.5 gal tank?
Definitely not! This is far too small for any pet. For a dwarf hamster I would not go any smaller than a 20 gallon, and even then you would still need a runnng wheel! You need to remember that small pets spend virtually all day every day in the cages – so the cage must be big enough for the animal to explore, run, play, contain lots of toys etc. When I was a kid I had a chinese hamster in a 10 gal tank – and it was just about big enough for a small house, a wheel and a loo roll tube. Tiny and boring. At the time I didn’t know any better, but now the idea horrifies me. Please realise how important proper caging is – keeping animals in cages that are too small or boring causes a huge variety of health and welfare problems – even reduced lifespan!
Short answer: Yes. But it’s a little small for a permanent home. The livable area is more important than the size of the tank…so (for example) is you added some tubes to the enclosure that take up vertical space, the hamster would like it more. Even though the tank is the same size, the hamster has more places to move around in. It will need an exercise wheel and places for food and water at the very least. Ideally you want at least a ten gallon tank or a cage of equal size for a permanent home. You didn’t say what kind of dwarf it is…Robovorskis will require a lot more space because they run around more.
Well, it Could…but, as mentioned, would be highly unrecommended. But, I’ll admit (I’d like to say it’s not my fault, but it partially is – but I got 8 free hamsters, then the female was pregnant again before I could get the mother and the father separated, and I believe one of the youngins got pregnant too, so that was like, 12 surprise hamsters, that needed to be separated), so I needed quite a few cages, and cages aren’t cheap, so I ended up going for the cheapest cages – they were wire, but probably equal to a 4.5 gal [tank]…and since this happened about 2 years ago, and I’ve still got the hamsters, still in the same cage- it can’t be That bad if they’ve lived normal life expectancy… and they don’t seem to unhappy either – and they’ve got a wheel, and water, and food bowl, and a hut, so it fits in there- it just looks a little cramped… So, I wouldn’t recommend it, but, from personal experience, it could be OK.
