Behavioural issues

tabithakat64 · 09-02-2016, 01:56 PM

I've had my 5 month old rescue Syrian, Jam a week.

She has daily free range time in a secure room and lives in a Alexander cage.

Last night she started chewing the cage bars which kept us awake. I gave in and gave her a new toy and some food. She didn't get her free range time yesterday.

Today when she was free ranging she seemed really tense, teeth chattering, nervous of us and was digging, chewing at wood and carpet frantically every few minutes, please help. I just want her to be happy.

We've brought her more toys including a wheel and some chew toys as recommended on my other thread plus some healthy treats.

We will start scatter feeding her before we go to bed, swap her toys around provide more bedding.

I'll add pictures of her current set up later.

AmityvilleHams · 09-02-2016, 02:03 PM

It seems like it's just an issue of having a nervous new hamster.A week isn't really that much time for a hamster,especially if you started handling and things like that after around 3 days!

If you give your hamster more time to settle in and the bar chewing continues even with other methods being attempted,then consider that it could be having too small of a cage.Try other things first though,like making sure the setup is appropriate with lots of areas for hiding with plenty cover,deep substrate,etc.

tabithakat64 · 09-02-2016, 02:30 PM

The cage she has has 4 hideouts and two levels and is 101 x 52.5 x 51 cm (L x W x H) which was the biggest I could find with 1cm or less bar spacing

Hopefully she's just nervous, we only attempted to pick her up once, we move her by carrying her in a toy if needed, she is happy to hand feed & be stroked.

Her free range time is over an hour in length each evening when she's at her most active and she takes herself back when she's tired.

She doesn't seem crepuscular as she's active from about 5pm until 4am, will she adjust?

She was stuck in a tiny glass tank with only one toy and hideout prior to us adopting her, could she just be overwhelmed?

AmityvilleHams · 09-02-2016, 02:42 PM

Could you get a larger cage and mesh it over if it had larger bar spacing?There are some 1 square meter rabbit/guinea pig cages available which would work wonderfully once meshed!

For now just try and work on letting her be less nervous and settling in,it does seem like a lot of nervous behavior.Eventually you could upgrade if that is an option and have a large single level cage instead of having levels.

Indoor Square Cage Rabbit & Guinea Pig by Little Friends - Little Pet Warehouse 100 cm x 100 cm rabbit/guinea pig cage.It would need meshing,but would be more natural than having a cage with levels.

In terms of hideouts,lots of things that you don't expect to function as such are actually perfect for hiding!Examples would be bendy bridges,levels(these provide roof cover which is very important for prey animals like hamsters),tunnels,etc.

velma · 09-02-2016, 02:53 PM

I think her cage size sounds very spacious as it is, without needing to upgrade further. And quite aside from that, I think if she's feeling unsettled moving her again will only unsettle her more.

As you've only had Jam a week and you've adopted her from tiny surroundings, I'd say there's a good chance she's a bit overwhelmed by everything. She may have bar chewed to get attention if she hadn't been out that day. And she might have had to get used to being out again so been a bit unsettled with it. It's very early days. She has a lovely big cage to get used to and sometimes it just takes a few tweaks to keep them happy. And she also has new humans go get used to and a new routine. Take your time with Jam and find out what's her personality and what's just her settling in. And though I've not had a bar chewer (i use tanks) it does seem to be that some hams will use it to get attention so if you've given her a treat/toys immediately after then she may learn it's a way to get what she wants. Quite often I find that with hamsters you have two steps forward and one step back - they like to keep you on your toes! But be consistent and I'm sure you'll have a happy ham in no time at all.

tabithakat64 · 09-04-2016, 02:18 AM

Friday night with the scatter feeding and more toys and bedding as well as a long free run, we only had one small lot of bar chewing.
Saturday night we did the same plus swooped toys round and put the new wheel in and no bar chewing happened.
She loves the wheel though and was racing round in that at the times the chewing was previously happening.
We're working on stroking and hand feeding as she's definitely nervous and we'll slowly build up to handling her.