casuconsulto
11-26-2008, 05:05 AM
Oookay. So, I'm starting to think the person who gave Molly away wasn't entirely honest. The woman said she had three hamsters, and so felt she had too many... When we wnet to collect Molly, no other hamsters were in sight. Had Molly since Sunday now, and she's proving herself to be an obsessive bar chewer. It's not something she sometimes does. It's something she does for hours every night. I don't want her to hurt herself doing this, and I end up feeling sort of stressed watching her because I can't work out if she's in some sort of distress herself, to do this so single-mindedly?
She focuses her bar chewing on each of her three doors. She came with a three levelled cage, and it cost fifteen quid. I don't have the money to buy another cage at the moment (got one heck of a lot of problems in this house currently) and so I went tried to work with what I've got thinking if I gave her stuff to do, she might calm down a little. Last night she had her first ever dog biscuit, which occupied her for fifteen minutes. Then she went back to chewing the bars, and climbing like a little money around and around the top of the cage. She can force the doors open, and so I bought mini padlocks to prevent her escaping. These work up to a point, but she can fit through small spaces and could slip out the little gap the door still opens at - so, nightly, I'm tying three separate pieces of string around each door to offer a more secure way of locking it. I know she can untie these - with her teeth! Seriously, she doesn't chew them, she unties them! :shock: - but I don't know what else to do.
As well as hiding food all over, giving her tunnels, a little grass nest thing, chewstick (even though it was made with honey, but she'd had them in the cage when she came here and I thought maybe her old owners had used them with success to stop her escaping/bar-gnawing), little wooden blocks, I had her in her ball twice for twenty minutes at a time last night. Both times she lodged herself behind the ironing board to try and dig her way out. I used an old storage bin type thing to set up a playground for her. Filled with with deep wood shavings, because she also likes to dig. Put a bunch of cardboard tubs, little plantpot, and an old wooden see saw... Within moments she was trying to force her way out of there, too.
I swear her only purpose the moment she wakes up is to escape and run around. :shock: I really don't think she'd be happy unless she could race around for miles... During the day when she wakes up (and any slight noise must be investigated) she's chilled, and potters about happily, but after about 9pm she's like a little beastie possessed. :lol: I honestly love her, and want to make her happy. I just feel like some big failure already because she seems to get really worked up and I don't know how to fix it!
She focuses her bar chewing on each of her three doors. She came with a three levelled cage, and it cost fifteen quid. I don't have the money to buy another cage at the moment (got one heck of a lot of problems in this house currently) and so I went tried to work with what I've got thinking if I gave her stuff to do, she might calm down a little. Last night she had her first ever dog biscuit, which occupied her for fifteen minutes. Then she went back to chewing the bars, and climbing like a little money around and around the top of the cage. She can force the doors open, and so I bought mini padlocks to prevent her escaping. These work up to a point, but she can fit through small spaces and could slip out the little gap the door still opens at - so, nightly, I'm tying three separate pieces of string around each door to offer a more secure way of locking it. I know she can untie these - with her teeth! Seriously, she doesn't chew them, she unties them! :shock: - but I don't know what else to do.
As well as hiding food all over, giving her tunnels, a little grass nest thing, chewstick (even though it was made with honey, but she'd had them in the cage when she came here and I thought maybe her old owners had used them with success to stop her escaping/bar-gnawing), little wooden blocks, I had her in her ball twice for twenty minutes at a time last night. Both times she lodged herself behind the ironing board to try and dig her way out. I used an old storage bin type thing to set up a playground for her. Filled with with deep wood shavings, because she also likes to dig. Put a bunch of cardboard tubs, little plantpot, and an old wooden see saw... Within moments she was trying to force her way out of there, too.
I swear her only purpose the moment she wakes up is to escape and run around. :shock: I really don't think she'd be happy unless she could race around for miles... During the day when she wakes up (and any slight noise must be investigated) she's chilled, and potters about happily, but after about 9pm she's like a little beastie possessed. :lol: I honestly love her, and want to make her happy. I just feel like some big failure already because she seems to get really worked up and I don't know how to fix it!