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Is there some trick to disassembling Habitrail and Crittertrail tubes? Once they’re linked together with those little plastic collars, I can never get them apart again. Are those joints supposed to be permanent? Am I just not using enough force?
If you’re wondering whether this means I have a new hamster, the answer is yes: Porco Bruno, who’s about six weeks old. Arthur’s monster wire-mesh cage isn’t quite right for him, not yet anyway, so I’m trying to reassemble the old Crittertrail cage.
No two hamsters have exactly the same personality. Arthur, for instance, was a drama queen. So far, what we know about PB is that he’s alert, friendly, and curious; and when he’s seriously distressed, he roars. He was doing it at Tor, when I brought him back from the petshop after lunch. There’d been an unfortunate incident on the way back: a passing firetruck sounded its airhorn just as it came abreast of me. PB was upset.
Torie, one of our interns, says he either sounded like bad plumbing, or like an extremely small velociraptor. I thought his roar sounded a bit like that rasping sound bluejays sometimes make. It’s weird, though—I didn’t know hamsters vocalized, aside from the occasional squeak or cheeble.
Anyway, in re Habitrail tubes: please advise soonest.
I always figured that once those things are together, that's it. Sort of like most toddler toys for obvious reasons.
Congrats on the new critter!
I will tastefully refrain from linking to the Hamster-oriented Onion gag this week.
I really doubt that the tube joints were designed to be permanent. As I recall from long ago, rearranging them was half the fun. On the other hand, the joints are probably designed to be a bit stiff so as not to *accidentally* come apart.
Is it possible to soak the tube-joints in warm water? There might be crud in there that is increasing the coefficient of static friction.
Or they might be snap-together, twist-apart. Lots of things are these days.
A roaring hamster? I am reminded of this.
I had a storage set made of the same stuff that didn't want to come undone. Found that squeezing the going in part and using a gripper designed for opening stuck jars worked. Be gentle because hard clear plastic shatters easily, especially if old.
The flash-heavy official site talks about expanding existing sets, which suggests take-apart-ability:
http://www.habitrail.com/
Oh, here's a clue:
"Habitrail makes it even safer for you to build passageways for your pet. With the use of the patented Lock Connector found only with Habitrail,
you can securely connect the Trails and Add-Ons in place. All you have to do is rotate the outer ring of the Lock Connector causing the pressure
points of the rubber and plastic to meet locking the Trail or Add-On in place. "
So, rotating the ring the other way should unlock it. What the other way is is left as an exercise to the reader.
I haven't a clue to answering the main question, but I'm amused by the namephreakism of a Tor intern named Torie.
OT: how long has the text in the "note" box above the comment box read "If you want to comment on an thread that's been closed..."?
I just now noticed.
It takes a fair amount of force. Twisting while applying said force may help. Soaking the joints may also help, in case there is any dried-on crud from the previous tentant that is helping to cement the sections.
By twisting, I mean moving the sections as though you are trying to bend them at the joint. Twisting as in rotating the segements clock- or counter-clockwise to each other probably won't help.
Also, congratulations on your new hamster!
They're definitely SUPPOSED to come apart. I remember some sort of twist-and-pull technique- "twist" meaning roll, not pitch. I was about six, so details are vague. I don't remember if it worked, for instance. Someone usually got them apart eventually.
I also don't know if they were offical brand-name 'trail parts.
Do you have any really big plier things?
It's kind of a "Victory or death" option, using those.
Welcome to Porco Bruno! Good luck with the renovations.
As a knitter, can I assume you read The Yarn Harlot's tribute to her husband's relationship with their hamster? http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2005/10/07/mike_white.html
"squeak or cheeble," by the way, is bliss.
I'm in Sandy B's camp. I vaguely remember some sort of twisting motion I used to get them apart back when I was a kid, but the memory's all yellow and faded.
My fingers probably remember, but that doesn't do much good.
If it's just friction that holds them together, soapy water might help. I've never done hamster cages , but the soapy water trick is the way to get bicycle handlebar grips on and off.
Another possibility is controlled heat expansion - the hard plastic isn't ideal at transmitting heat, so if you hold one section and the collar in hot water for a few minutes, but keep the other section out of it, that may well ease the stuck-ness.
Disclaimer - I don't know what the coefficient of expansion for this stuff is. It works well for glass/glass and for glass/metal.
I don't know about roaring hamsters, but baby rats bark when they are distressed and looking for their kin.
Rats are darlings, very social and altruistic and friendly and alert. Too bad they raise welts where they walk on my skin and cause me to cough blood.
Oh, and there's that whole yersinia thing, too. But that's hardly ever an issue in the domestic beast.
Congratulations on the addition of PB to the family!
(How likely would it be for y'all to get a recording of his teeny tiny cute little roar? Aw...)
Congrats on the new hamster, and I found that for the hard plastic held together by softer rings, a blunt butter knife worked pretty well to lift up the soft ring so that the tubes could be pulled out and apart.
You might also want to run them through the dishwasher so that any residual disease-bearing germies will be killed before the new occupant arrives.
They're just press-fit. You aren't using enough force.
This is the very problem that the Good Lord gave us Chain Vise-Grips to solve.
Habitrails are a prime example of torque. You have to squeeze near the joint ever so slightly, and then twist. Mine had these little joint lock rings that often got stuck; you will soon discover that there is an exactly right spot to get it to release.
>I haven't a clue to answering the main question, but I'm amused by the namephreakism of a Tor intern named Torie.
It's purely coincidence, I swear! Or is it?
I know have a mental image of hamsters in safety helmets, looking at the architect's plans, and then looking at each other and slowly shaking their heads.
Seriously, it looks as though you can get replacement connectors. Apparently, they can get chewed.
I don't know about roaring hamsters, but baby rats bark when they are distressed and looking for their kin.
Hedgehogs sneeze aggressively when upset. It's a kind of explosive, jerky, "tschew!" that makes their quills stand up. As a defensive mechanism it is, um, not exactly frightening.
Congratulations on PB! May he provides loads of fun for all.
(But I must say I am having some trouble putting the concepts of "hamster" and "roar" together.)
Torie: Habitrails are a prime example of torque.
Torie of Tor's Torque? And you thought it sounded like a tiny velociraptor too! If you wear a torc, that would be perfect.
OK, Christopher, lay off the intern (intorn?). Stop torturing hir. Even if s/he is one of the Tories.
That's awesome! HAMPSTER POWER!
Hampsters are so cute.
I might get one instead of a dog, I'll put an amplifier around it's neck so when it roars burglars will run away.
Xopher: perhaps Torie could wave a small red cape in front of the hamster, much as a toreador might?
Or, if that was too dry, in a torrent of rain?
I know, it's torrible of me.
Porco Bruno. He's just adorable. He almost makes me want to adopt another intentional rodent -- but with four fish cages (all right, tanks) and thirty odd fish, I don't see a rodent in my future.
Years and years ago, with the older Habitrail pieces, I twisted them in opposite directions while trying to break them apart as if they were sticks. If I was lucky, one section would pop out of the connector in one piece. I'd leave the connector on the other piece use it that way. There was a medium risk of breaking the tube. I wasn't a patient person then, either, and this was just another application of my traditional kill-or-cure mode.
I wish I'd thought of the soapy water. I bet that would have helped. Most of the joints didn't have gunk in them, but the lubrication might well have been a huge success. Of course, one's hands would also be slippery.
Sounds like the new joints are better designed...assuming they work the way they say that they do.
P.S. Habitrails and their kin are no damn good for gerbils. My gerbil (first fuzzy pet I'd been allowed to have since they diagnosed me with asthma some decade previously) chewed his way out of the cage before Christmas morning, and my parents had to hunt the critter down before they could give him to me.
Porco Bruno? Any relation to famed flying ace Porco Rosso?
-Barbara
Bob: This is the very problem that the Good Lord gave us Chain Vise-Grips to solve.
I don't think so; the chains would concentrate the force on a few tiny points, so I'd be afraid they'd shatter the plastic. At the last NESFA work session, one of the tool geeks brought a variant that uses a rubber strap instead of a chain; he's not answering the phone now, but I'll post later if I hear from him.
In the meantime -- have you tried glycerine? Available at many pharmacies, slightly water-soluble (so it will come off more easily than baby oil), won't attack most plastics, more slippery than soapy water and won't leave a deposit (since it's a liquid rather than a solution).
Attending to all these puns is a torment.
No sense getting torqued about it.
Interesting posts. For myself, the biggest problem I always had with the Habbitrail-type tubes and hamsters was ensuring a sufficiently tight gas seal around the hamster.
I had the most luck with discarding sabot designs, although given the irregular shape of hamsters, perhaps a better analogy would be shotgun shell cups. Fashion these out of scrap cardboard with a hot glue gun in the obvious way, making sure to crimp in the nose to ride over internal bumps in the tube rather than hanging up; tamp wads of tissue paper around both ends of the hamster to keep it in place while you load. Fill the lower section of the tube with your fuel-air mixture as usual, and--
Oh. You're using these to keep them as pets. Er... never mind.
Stephan: the sabot design could borrow from the one the Mythbusters used to launch Buster, perhaps.
Dear Porco Bruno: Congratulations! You've landed an excellent berth (passing firetrucks notwithstanding). Please have a long and healthy life and brighten the days of your cohabitants.
Very truly yours...
I feel the discussion would be elevated if we knew exactly what the roar in question sounds like; .wav file? Though the entire concept is somewhat disturbing. I am picturing a darkened Habitrail set ringing to the noise, with a very small Tom Skerrit scrambling frantically through it, accompanied by the sound of a very small Sigourney Weaver shouting "The hamster's behind you! Get out! Get out now!"
BUT IT'S TOO LATE.
Your interns have names? Ours don't. Or do you just call them all Torie for convenience? (cf. Offred.)
Most of my hamsters (all long departed from this world) were silent, save for a few squeaks in the first week. However, my last hamster would respond to squeaks (and I'm pretty sure she wasn't in distress at the time, though obviously I can't say for sure) and squeak back at me. We could almost hold a hamstery conversation. I have her on videotape somewhere squeaking :)
Or they might be snap-together, twist-apart. Lots of things are these days.
ATM.
> tool geeks brought a variant that uses a rubber strap instead of a chain
ajay, I can't expand that. Automated Teller Machine? No. At The Maximum? No. At The Moment? Maybe, but can't see how it fits.
I'm leaving out the more bizarre things my brain came up with, like Activate Terrible Marshmallows.
I'm sure it's something simple and common, but my Cylert-deprived brain isn't getting it.
Sorry. It was a juvenile attempt to lower the tone of the conversation, which slipped through my internal filter due to insufficient coffee, and I now regret typing it. It wasn't even appropriate to the site.
(Consider it the textual equivalent of a single raised eyebrow. Or, if you want further explanation, see unfogged.com, passim. It stands for "at the Mineshaft", a mythically louche NYC club. Good lord, I feel embarrassed.)
Or do you just call them all Torie for convenience? (cf. Offred.)
My suspicion is that Tories are a specialized type of Igor.
My suspicion is that Tories are a specialized type of Igor.Better that than a generic brand Torgo.
My boyfriend and I used to have gerbils (Oscar and Felix had to be kept separate), but I've never had a hamster. Years ago I adopted a guinea pig, Ginger, at a flea market, and she promptly ran and hid under the driver's seat and started chewing on the tag. I can't remember how I got her out of there.
Ginger used to squeal (very pig-like too) when she got upset until I discovered scratching her nose would calm her down. The bridge of her nose was soon quite bald. I hated mucking out her cage (I was 8 or 9 and had no money, so I shredded newspaper by hand) but I liked Ginger, not least because she bit my older sister.
Unfortunately I adopted Ginger when she was 6 (she was free, and I guess I wanted my own pet besides the family dog) little knowing that the guinea pig's average lifespan is around 7. Ginger's tenure was short, but I remember her fondly.
Now, with four indoor cats, I can't justify adopting another in-house rodent, but there is a gray squirrel whose main territory is our back yard, and she's become the outdoor mascot. She's missing a bit from her right ear (how I distinguish her from other squirrels, who are legion ever since I bought two bird feeders) so her "name" is Tippy.
Tippy boldly comes right to the glass kneewall of the sunporch and peers in--even with the cats chattering insanely on the other side--until I step out with peanuts in the shell. She'll come within reach to grab a peanut and often stops long enough to stuff two into her mouth before she heads off to stash them. She'll also come all the way across the yard to the deck if I rattle a peanut at her. The other squirrels invariably dash for the trees.
Last year just after we moved in Tippy dug up and ate all but two of 24 anemone coronaria bulbs from the window boxes, and she would dig in the pots of kitty grass for the oat seed, but it's no worse damage than four marauding felines have caused indoors sometimes.
I even like the cooperative arrangement. "Hand over the peanuts and I leave the bird feeders alone."
ajay, that would have been funny, if I'd understood it!
murgatroyd, I can't remember who it was here who told us that capsacin has no effect on birds. I'm told that mixing red pepper flakes with birdseed will keep squirrels out of your feeder, while the birds eat from it happily.
You can still feed Tippy if you want to. But she'll no longer be able to blackmail you!
In my experience, birds love (LOVE) capsaicin. I remember one day when my then-boyfriend walked into the room with our lovebird on his shoulder and a bemused look on his face. "You've been feeding her chile peppers again, haven't you?" he asked, rubbing his lower lip. "I can tell -- it burns when she nibbles on my lip."
Better that than a generic brand Torgo.
Among the horrors of the universe I've never been exposed to, a Generic Torgo tops the list. The original is so bad, Dear God in Heaven what's a generic like?
Xopher, I think that was me. I was happy to feed the squirrels from the bird feeder, but I had a very cute rat start feeding and I was pretty sure the neighbors (I have a condo) would be unhappy about that. So I had to mix the seed with chili powder. No more squirrels.
Alan Braggins: I'm not sure of the brand but the DIY/Trade version is a dead ringer for the one I was loaned. (And I still haven't heard back from the loaner.) Might be pricey just for working on a habitrail (I found something with a plastic strap for ~$30), but they look like they'd be useful in all sorts of case (e.g., opening preserves with jammed (sorry) lids...).
I had a hamster that made enraged sounds whenever we put our hands in her cage- she sounded like the world's smallest teakettle. She liked to be played with outside her cage, but inside the cage all bets were off.
I also had a guinea pig that my father spoiled so outrageously with gifts of carrots that the piggie would scream if it heard him coming down the stairs, just to remind my dad that presents of carrots were not optional.
Good luck with your new hamster!
Among the horrors of the universe I've never been exposed to, a Generic Torgo tops the list. The original is so bad, Dear God in Heaven what's a generic like?Well, for one thing, it's cheaper.
murgatroyd, I can't remember who it was here who told us that capsacin has no effect on birds. I'm told that mixing red pepper flakes with birdseed will keep squirrels out of your feeder, while the birds eat from it happily.Have you ever seen a squirrel get a mouthful of the stuff unawares? I had a suet cake that was attracting too much of a rodent fan base, so as an experiment I took my trusty jar of Cajun Land Seasoning and shook some all over it. Some places it stuck in, some places it didn't. The squirrel showed up again, and nibbled... and nibbled... and nibbl--ran like hell!
It was not unlike watching one of my cats chase its tail, catch its tail, and then yelp and run off because someone had bitten its tail.
Teresa has been remarkably silent regarding the outcome of the tube stickery crisis.
I regularly read this blog (Great reading by the way, thank you) but rarely post. However, I came across this on another friend's blog, and I immediately thought of the Hamster That Roared.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/habicase.shtml
You know, it's funny because I was just on line looking for info about pretty much the same thing and I came up in your blog.
I also just got a little hamster, her name is Pretzel and she is really happy in her new crittertrail home but I was wondering, do all the tubes fit any cage? I mean like Habitrail and SAM Systems will also fit in the crittertrail cage? I am confused...I really want to make her cage full of tubes and things so that she can have fun.
Anyways, I hope someone can answer this as well.
Sorry I took over on your blog, I just couldn't figure out this website!
Thanks again
SuSi
The squirrel showed up again, and nibbled... and nibbled... and nibbl--ran like hell!
And people think Tex Avery made all this stuff up.
Next up: "The Spit Take -- Low Comedy or Vital Survival Trait?"
what tubes will fit into my crittertrail cages like do rotastak tubes fit into it
Ah yes, habitrail. Ya, I've got a whole lot of habitrail parts here at my house. Taking them apart is very simple: twist the locking ring between the tube pieces, and they'll be separated, easy as pie! No, they are not meant to stay together, or else that wouldn't be very customizable, which is what they're supposed to be!
I want to connect my to cages for my hamster. Is this good or bad? I have extra holes in them and an extra tube. Will this confuse her or what?
Kegan:
Hamsters are used to living in underground warrens. Multiple paths to the same places will be fine. I expect that hamsters, like rats, are better than humans at figuring out the maze of paths between chambers. Evolution has made them experts.
yes you can definatley yake them apart you just need to pull it as hard as you can and twist them at the same time ! :)
I expect that hamsters, like rats, are better than humans at figuring out the maze of paths between chambers.
If they're anything like the rats I have here, I'm not convinced. They're truly dull creatures.
Extra tubes are fine. Hamsters like some complexity in their environment. So do most rats. I think Jules has been unlucky.
SAM, Crittertrail and Habitrail systems connect universally to each other(mostly), the tubes connect to each other, but not to the "doorways" leading into the cage. With SAM tubes, just pry apart with adequete force. Habitrail tubes have a twist and lock mechanism, so push the tubes gently together, and twist anti-clockwise on the locking ring.
I have the FOP hamster land cage and ive my eye on the rotastack "dining room" will it be able to connect?
I tried to take those tubs apart and the whole thing broke.but it was fine by me cause my hamster(speedy) used to get up in there and got stuck in there and she is a small hamster. so i am using a rubermaid container and she likes it alot better.
I am wanting to buy a rotastak cage for my daughters hamster. but im am wondering are the tubes only able to fit the make. IE rotoastack to rotastak or crittertrail to crittertrail. Im hoping they all fit each other, i have seen many cages put together which alot see different makes with different tubes. also are the tubes able to be put in a dishwasher aslong as i rinse em well. Or will it warp them
Many Thanks
i have a habit trail cage when you try to take them off you ether have to pull with a lot of force or twist it then pull
I do not know why your crittertail tubes are sticking, but I do know it is best to keep your hamsters in cage that uses wires or mesh. Plastic cages are not very good for hamsters during hot humid weather, especially the smaller ones. You can read about it at hamster-cages.org I hope this helps you and anyone who is thinking of buying a new hamster cage.
Seems like a fairly pertinent link to me.
I don't really know the "what constitutes spam" criteria around here, so is it ok if the poster is the webmaster of the site in question, as long as it's pertinent and there are no blatant attempts to sell stuff? (All the product links I checked point to the same online pet supplies store.)
Tough call. All the information is tolerably correct (there are some problems with presentation that might lead the unwary to a mistake), but all the links are to petsmart, and by way of linksynergy.
So it seems to be a bit of "viral" marketting/small time revenue generator; at least as much as it is useful information.
can fop tubes be used with any other ones?
Well, I now know what fop means in this context, but I don't know about their industrial standards. Hopefully, someone better informed than I could answer that question....
#79
This moose would also like to point out that Post #23 by Dave Bell is absolutely hilarious.
(IMO, natch.)
