House note

How much room do they actually need?

The pet-store box answers this question with shelf economics; the animals answer it with behavior. Under-housed guinea pigs go still and quiet, under-housed rabbits circle, under-housed hamsters chew bars — and all three problems dissolve into floor space.

The community standards that predate every brand in this niche put one guinea pig at about 7.5 square feet of unbroken floor and a bonded pair at 10 or more — numbers a 2x4-panel layout meets and the larger open build here clears with margin. Unbroken matters: a big pen chopped into alcoves runs like a small one.

Rabbits are measured in hops: three full hops in a straight line, minimum, which favors long rectangles over squares. The 32-panel run exists for exactly this arithmetic — and its floor-adhering panel feet keep a sprinting tenant from relocating the walls mid-zoomie.

Hamsters invert the equation: their risk is not cramping but escape, so wall density outranks floor area. The 0.6-inch mesh on the enclosed builds is the number to check against any competitor — wider gaps are how the midnight jailbreaks happen.

Cats and birds count in altitude. A cat's territory multiplies by tier, which is what the three-level crate and platform suites are for; a bird's room is measured to the wingtip and the vertical hop, which is why the atrium spends its inches on height instead of footprint.

The honest summary: buy the biggest unbroken floor plan the corner allows, then stop feeling guilty. Nobody has ever returned an enclosure for being too roomy.