We bought this for our dwarf hamster and I was hoping she would use the entire space, but I suspected she wouldn’t. As it turns out, she uses every inch of the cage. She loves to run laps from the bottom to the top and back again. She uses both wheels, all the levels, the tubes and the bottom. The wheels are very quiet so she can stay in my daughter’s room. That being said, it is far more complicated to clean than a more typical cage. (It has to be taken apart for a thorough clean) Because she uses it though, we really don’t mind - I wouldn’t go back to a smaller cage knowing how much she loves it.