A few years ago, the PetSmart company came out with a new brand of small animal cages: Tiny Tales. Or as I refer to them: Tiny Jails.  

Tiny Tales cages are very unsafe and small for the animals of which they are marketed for. They are supposedly for hamsters, gerbils and mice. First, all of these animals need more space than the space provided in Tiny Tales cages. Hamsters especially will show signs of stress, boredom and may become depressed in Tiny Tales cages. Hamsters, gerbils and mice all require more space in order to express their natural behaviours and live a happy, healthy, enriched life. 

In addition, gerbils have incisors which allow them to chew right through the plastic on the base, sides and the lid of these cages. This is a safety hazard for the gerbils as chewing plastic can lead to illnesses if accidentally consumed by your pet. 

Many of the Tiny Tales cages have tons of safety hazards. For instance, their dinosaur cage is oddly shaped at the neck and your small animal can get stuck in the tube. If using this cage for gerbils or mice, their tails can easily get caught in the gaps as well. Also, their cages in general are very easily escapable. 

Furthermore, the wheels provided in Tiny Tales cages are 6 inches which is not suitable for mice nor gerbils (their tails can get caught) and are too small for all species of hamsters, with the acceptation of roborovski dwarfs. Not only the wheel provided is too small, but there isn’t even space in the cage to fit a large enough wheel! 

Moreover, there isn’t space to fit the proper requirements for rodents in these cages. The bases also don’t allow for deep substrates. Hamsters, gerbils and mice are burrowing animals and get a lot of enrichment from burrowing and making tunnels. 

Lastly, Tiny Tales cages are market towards small children. These cages are colourful and shaped in fun ways to attract young kids to buy them. Most rodents are nocturnal, which doesn’t make them great pets for young children. Also, it’s not very likely that little kids will do research on the pet they are getting. 

Tiny Tales cages are simply too small and unsafe for your pet. Please do proper research to determine what cage would work best for your pet. There are plenty of larger cage options which are often even cheaper than Tiny Tales cages! Please stop buying these enclosures for your pets, it’s just not worth it!