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Old 05-15-2019, 12:12 PM  
Pebbles82
Hamster Antics
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 23,533
Default Re: Desperately Need Help

It's a great cage and yes better without the top shelf. If they climb too high they can fall and hurt themselves. Don't have much time to reply right now so I'll come back later, but aside from the fact she likes chewing wood it sounds as if she just isn't hand tame yet, and that will just take a bit of time and patience so don't worry about that yet. When they're not hand tame they don't like being held.

One thing that could stress her in the cage is if you're moving things around, taking things out or cleaning her out a lot. They like to feel settled and know everything is fairly stable. Spot cleaning mostly is better than big clean outs. Don't know how much substrate you havein, but you could add more maybe as they like digging - it may distract her into digging tunnels.

One thing I would say is - don't kick the cage or blow on her - that will only make things worse. She will see that as hostile and you two could end up at loggerheads. Plus it is unpleasant for the hamster and they don't feel safe or secure.

I have had a hamster chew the wood stilts off a large house. Strangely they don't seem to get splinters when they're chewing. They must usetheir teeth and avoid their mouth gettin close to the wood or something. If she did get a splinter she'd probably stop.

So try not to worry too much about the chewing right now. If she chews a hole right through you can patch it up from the outside.

If you can post a picture of your set up we might be able to spot something that isn't working for her. Does she have a house/nesting box and is it big enough and dark inside? They can feel too exposed in a large cage without somewhere dark to retreat to.
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