Attention seeking

[bbbarker]

Hi everyone! I haven't posted on here for a while due to college and work, but I just wanted to leave a quick question before going to sleep.
About 2 weeks ago I got my new Syrian Judy, I rescued her from my local rescue. She was one of two hamsters I talked about on my last thread. She was dumped outside in a tiny dirty cage with a male Syrian, of course she was pregnant and went on to having babies at the rescue. I met Judy and fell in love.
Anyway personality wise she is quite shy and jumpy compared to my other two. Despite this she's a massive attention seeker. She chews on her water bottle spout every few days for hours on end until eventually I put my hand in her cage and she jumps straight on. Like I said she only does this every few days, the others days I barely see her she stays in bed all day and all night. It's like the nights she doesn't come out she makes up for it on the nights she gets up. I can put her in her balls on and off all night, and play with her but it still makes no difference. I put her back in her cage and she heads straight to her water bottle. I now have to take her water bottle out when she does it and put a small bowl of water in her cage. I was just wondering if anyone else's hamster does this?

[cypher]

Chewing on the water bottle for attention or other reasons isn't that uncommon but it can be a bad habit so it might be an idea to keep the water bowl in for a while just to break the habit & hopefully she'll find a better way to let you know when she wants to come out!

[Piebald]

There have been others with water bottle chewers. First check that it is working properly and the water comes out easily. Check it with your finger. Some times the bottles work better at a particular fullness/emptiness so check that too-- does she attack the bottle when the water is at a particular level?
You could try changing the bottle to one that has a different orientation or move it to a different position. Some require the ham to get into an awkward position to drink and it may be annoying her. Some might just work better for her.
If none of that works, you could try setting it up so it swings freely. Be sure she can still drink from it but it is apparently less fun to attack a bottle that is not fixed.
You could also try one of these:
EXO TERRA REPTILE VIVARIUM WATER WELL 250ML DISPENSER BOWL DISH | eBay
She sounds like she's seen some trouble and may have confidence issues because of it. I'm glad she has her forever home with you.

[bbbarker]

It's hard because she's in my room right next to my bed and as I'm sure you can imagine the noise is enough to wake me up and keep me awake so sometimes taking the water bottle out is my only solution (I'm in full time education and have a part-time job so I cannot loose any sleep). I'd hate to move her cage to a different place in the house. She has a zoozone 2 so putting the water bottle in a different position is impossible due to the hole. She can be out of her cage like I said for hours but as soon as she's put back in she goes straight to the water bottle to chew.
She's such a pain but I love her to bits haha. She definitely needs a lot of time and patience because like I said she'd quite shy and jumpy.
Thanks for the replies

[Piebald]

Check it's functioning tho. You can hang it from the top bars if you had to?
Funny the last bottle chewer I saw on here had a zoozone also.

[Tildauk]

Awww you have Judy I have Ember the biggest one of her sable sons.

My other rescue Lois bar chewed (still does a bit) and bottle raged when we first got her. We tried moving the water bottle (helped a bit) and putting in a bowl but the thing that helped the most was swapping back to her old crappy bottle so god knows what she didnt like about the new one.

Lois was pretty jumpy /slept a lot for a few months and weirdly changing the room her cage was in sorted that out. She is the friendliest little ham now the scamp.

Ember is still pretty new and is perfectly fine with being held but pretty nervous about being out of his bed when we are around (though getting better).

[bbbarker]

I checked the water bottle and it's working fine, I could hang the water bottle from the bars but it's then covering the hole the spout should go through. If it's not covered and I've removed her water bottle she chews at it, if I do put thingd in front of it the cheeky girl manages to find a way to get to it. I think I'm going to buy a new water bottle a different one and see if it helps, prepared to try anything at the minute haha.
And yes Tildauk I was the first to meet the babies and was originally going to adopt one of them but I met Judy and I just knew she was staying with me. She looks the double of my older hamster Tibbles, could almost pass as being her mum lol difference being Judy is a lot smaller. Focusing on fattening her up at the minute, other than the chewing she is doing really well she enjoys being held when she wants to some days she's just not in the mood. I'm working on her taking food off me also because she's not completely confident doing that, considering her past she's a really friendly hamster

[flowerfairy]

Awww how sweet. Family connections on HC.

I have a real soft spot for black eyed creams as that was what my first ever hamster was. He was so friendly and tame from the word go.