Earlier this year we decided to fulfil our dream of keeping chickens and bought a snazzy Eglu Cube from Omlet to house them in. I regularly receive emails from them (Omlet, not the chickens!) and yesterday they sent me details of their newest product, the Qute. It’s a stylish, minimalist home for hamsters or gerbils.

We haven’t kept hamsters for years and one of the reasons we stopped is because it was such a pain to clean them out. The Qute is designed to be quick to clean and both floors are easily accessible. It looks subtle and mature compared to those garishly-coloured transparent plastic houses that are typically available for rodents.

To put it bluntly – I want one! I find myself trying to work out when Sprogzilla will want a pet, which will probably be some time off to be honest. I always thought he would have a rabbit first, but a hamster is considerably less work and still an enjoyable animal to play with and look after. Assuming we don’t get a grumpy one like our beloved PMT who used to growl at us and would take your finger off if given half a chance!

Also it’s only available in white, so wouldn’t fit in with our distressed pine furniture at all. It’s quite small too, though rumours abound of a larger one coming soon. The biggest turn-off is the price – £120 for the basic model or £140 if the storage draw is included! Ouch!!

Maybe come Christmas next year the range will have been extended, the price will have dropped a bit and Sprogdaddy will have secured a nice job so we can afford one. Well, I can dream!