Normal behaviour?

[GhostlyLynx23]

So recently I had to move cages around- I had to move my oldest hamster Merlin into one of my tank cages as she was having difficulty moving around her old cage, the tank cage I moved her into was home to Jett who is a 5 month old Syrian! Jett was quickly moved into the Alexander hamster cage and within a few hours she was chewing her bars excessively- over the next few days I couldn't sleep in my room due to her bar chewing which was constant (despite having a wheel that she doesn't have problems running on, several wooden chews, cardboard rolls and a large aray of hard treats)
After several sleepless nights I moved Jett (again) and she is now in a tank cage half the size which originally was for my runt Syrian Dexter- I feel awful for moving her into a smaller cage as she is quite a large Syrian and I can tell she is unhappy because of her constant attempts to escape- but I have NO other ideas for fixing this problem- I have tried blocking off the areas but she is VERY determined, I have tried covering the cage with a blanket (which worked for Merlin but Jett simply moved onto chewing the blanket) and I even coated the bars she chewed at in spicy sauce but that didn't seem to bother her.
Jett is also an extremely energetic hamster- I do TRY get her out as much as I can but I struggle to handle her due to this constant energy and her need to escape. Usually with my syrians I let them run around my bed whilst I watch a DVD but with Jett? this is near impossible as she will spend her time sprinting towards the edge of the bed, down the back of the bed- and has a few times bit me to get to what she wants which is onto the floor to get away. I also can't really let her free roam as she chews wires quite bad and I am not a fan of hamster balls due to issues I've had with Merlin in the past relating to the balls.

I've never had this problem before and I really am at a lost with what to do! I love Jett to pieces but I find my connection with her is almost destroyed because all of these issues- am I doing something wrong as an owner? should I just put her back into her old cage and continue to not sleep in my bedroom? Sadly moving her into her old large tank might be my only solution but I'm just worried Merlin will struggle to get around the Alexander cage because of her age (she is almost 2 years old)

[Drago]

That sounds like a very frustrating problem how long did you leave Jett in the new cage before the bar chewing became too much for you? If it was less than two weeks, I'd recommend putting her into it again and waiting about a month so she can get used to the cage. Bar chewing is sometimes done in response to a new environment so she may just need more time to settle in before she settles down. Move her to a different room where she won't bother you at night so that she can get used to it and more importantly, so you can get some sleep! To combat the bar chewing, using wooden bag/laundry clips attached to the bars can help. This will encourage chewing the clips rather than the bars (I'll link an example below). As for the issue with excercise, you could buy or create a playpen for your wild little Jett. Hoppinghammy has an excellent tutorial on her channel which teaches you how to make a very cheap and secure playpen! There's also a thread on here that shows how to create another style playpen if you wanted to refer to that instead. If you don't have the time for a playpen, a bathtub with boxes and toys in it can work just as well at containing her. I think it's important for all hams, but especially high energy ones like her, to get at least 15 minutes of exercise on a daily basis. More exercise will help drain her energy and hopefully make her a bit more manageable! I hope things start heading in a better direction and you can mend your bond with little Jett.


The link to the playpen
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=owtibCd-ygA

Wooden bag clips
US
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00XN...ShL&ref=plSrch


UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01...CQL&ref=plSrch

[cypher]

She sounds like quite a live wire who needs lots to do!
I think you're approach to bar chewing may have actually served to keep drawing her attention to the bars rather than distracting her from them, scatter feeding, hiding food & treats, lots of toys & burrowing activity can all help, there's a useful thread here on managing bar chewers here if you haven't seen it already.
Her behaviour out of the cage sounds totally normal to me, they often need lots to do & explore during out of cage time & running around on your bed isn't enough, try her with a play pen, you can use simple things like card boxes, tubes, scrunched up paper even as well as bought hamster toys to keep her busy.

[GhostlyLynx23]

She was in her cage for just shy of a week- I moved her mostly due to worries she'd break her teeth? because the chewing was so constant i didn't want her injuring herself due to it