Enrichment

[Jennie F]

Hi everyone.

My girl has started to chew the bars again this last week. At first I thought it was because I cleaned her first cage on Sunday for the first time since I had her ( first time in 3 weeks). I made sure to put things back where they were and put some of her old substrate in with the new so she had her smell in there. But she has carried on chewing all week. She has two main spots for it, which I check daily to make sure she hasn't got through or broken anything. Ive tried putting a chew toy in the way to get her to chew that instead, but she just moved that out of the way and carried on.

Im wondering what you guys do for enrichment. She has a wheel in each cage ( which ive notice she seems to be using less and favours chewing instead), chew sticks ( which she was only interested in when new) and a wooden chew toy ball thing, which she doesnt do anything with. What would you suggest?

She has two cages to choose between and regularly goes between the two and a ball as well as her wheels. She escaped her ball on Monday evening and I let her have another roll about tonight ( secured the ends with tape this time). But she seemed more.... agitated after being put back in after the ball and is chewing not stop

[Drago]

It certainly sounds like little khaleesi is causing you lots of heartache! If she only enjoys toys when they're new, try removing some then weekly rotate between stored toys and toys in the cage if you get what I'm trying to say. Something you can do as a permanent fix, is add a strip of plexiglass all along the bottom area of the bars where she can each to chew, and it will block it off, preventing her from damaging her nose and teeth. As for the agitation after exercising, this may have to do with her needing more time out of the cage. What you can do is leave her for 15 mins then a quick break (as the ball gets stuffy) then back in 15 minutes then a break and so on and so forth until you feel she's sufficiently tuckered out. Good luck trying to handle your little furry nightmare and if you have more questions, ask

[AmityvilleHams]

I like to scatter food around a cage.That's extremely simple,won't cost you any extra(unless you choose to do a homemade treat mix instead of using your hamster food),and tends to be very popular with hamsters!I don't just put it on the substrate though,either buried into the substrate a bit or on top of the flat roof of a house or some sort of platform.

Offer as much of a variety with wood chews and wood toys as you can.Don't just use one type or one shape,as this would get very boring and some hamsters may not like every single shape or every single type of wood(I know my Syrian has a definite preference for apple but will chew willow and loves to peel the dyed wood off of shaped chews).

Something I also do which is very easy is instead of keeping toys the same day in and day out is somehow changing them.I tie toys together with a safe string(jute,hemp,sisal,or if you don't need it to stay together for long raffia is perfect though a bit harder to work with),as well as sometimes sticking seeds into the toys.You can drill holes into old toys as well which gives more spaces to hide seeds!Repurposing old toys and certain new toys with unsafe parts(unless it were impossible to completely remove whatever makes them unsafe)is a great idea for lots of different pets,since it keeps things interesting and means that you don't have to constantly get different toys.

If you can get plain natural raffia and poke some through the lids,that has gone very well with my Syrian.I think it can look very interesting too,somewhat like little roots!

Just make sure to give as much variety as possible,as long as everything is safe and hamster-appropriate

[cypher]

Scatter feeding is definitely a good idea if you don't do it already.
As she obviously enjoys chewing try making little food/treat toys out of cardboard, toilet roll tubes are good so she really has to work at it to get her food.
Have you considered a playpen (needs to be home made for a syrian), getting agitated after going in the ball could be due to needing more out of cage time but it could also be that she gets stressed in the ball & needs an alternative for out of cage time.
A playpen is much more suitable as you can put lots of toys, cardboard boxes etc in it for her to explore & have fun with.

[Fluffagrams]

Originally Posted by cypher

Scatter feeding is definitely a good idea if you don't do it already.
As she obviously enjoys chewing try making little food/treat toys out of cardboard, toilet roll tubes are good so she really has to work at it to get her food.

Food/Treat toys were suggested to me for one of mine that was going through a spell of chewing the bars of her cage and it works very well at keeping her occupied. Things like treat kababs are another option you could consider too and can be made relatively cheaply if you can't find them in shops.

There's some great suggestions on managing bar chewers in this article by Vectis: Managing Bar Chewers

[Jennie F]

I'm already looking into a playpen, will be going on an exploration on Tuesday to to the find something suitable for her. Either looking for some storage cubes or I know Ikea sell a massive plastic clear box that would be long and tall enough for her for £10. Watching her last night, I was thinking that I dont know whether she enjoys the ball or not. Hopefully if I can find her a playoen it will be an alternative for her.

I do occasionally do scatter feeds, but will see if if they work for her. Ive also got cut up toilet rolls for her to hide things in, so will start to use those a bit more as well. I'll also try rotating her toys and see if that helps. Thanks everyone

[Pebbles82]

You could scatter feed half the usual amount each day. I used to do that because our hammy used to look worried if there was nothing in his bowl. So I'd put half in his bowl and scatter the other half. It does seem a bit linked to the first cage clean. What did you use to clean the cage with? Just wondering if the scent might be bothering her - they have a much more powerful sense of smell than we do.

Also if her hoard is gone that might freak her out a bit. It can help to leave the nest (unless it's pee'd on) and most of the hoard, back in the same place. If some of the hoard is wet then it needs removing, but try and replace some of the original hoard and add new food to it so she still has her hoard in the same place.

Re the enrichment. I think one larger cage may work better for her than the two connected It just gives more of an overall sense of space and things to do all in one place. Also easier to have plenty of substrate for her to move around and bury things.

Playpenwise - I found a large box didn't work well and drove our hammy a bit frantic. It would need to be really large to work probably and with the bottom cut out so it doesn't feel like a box. Something home-made could work, or the bathtub if you have a bathtub

This was our playpen - it didn't work out any cheaper than buying one though (cost about £25 in coroplast). Zooplus also sell this one - supposed to be good for a Syrian or a dwarf hammy.

Skyline Ranch Arizona Indoor Run | Free P&P £29+ at zooplus!

We made ours with A1 sheets of Coroplast - I could put it up anywhere, in different shapes/sizes or put it up round the cage and leave the cage door open - but it still needed constant supervision or they can chew at the joints

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvXJ-Jbo0CM

I think the Zooplus one looks good.

I think rather than spend money on a playpen though, it could be better to put it towards something like an Alaska or Barney cage maybe, then she can have more space, lots of substrate, different levels, bars to climb and plenty of space for enrichment in one continuous enclosure. You could still make something like the Coroplast playpen out of cardboard boxes. In fact the box the Barney cage comes in is ideal!

[Jennie F]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

You could scatter feed half the usual amount each day. I used to do that because our hammy used to look worried if there was nothing in his bowl. So I'd put half in his bowl and scatter the other half. It does seem a bit linked to the first cage clean. What did you use to clean the cage with? Just wondering if the scent might be bothering her - they have a much more powerful sense of smell than we do.

I used a bit of petsafe disinfectant and then added a nice thick layer of substrate with some of her old stuff mixed in

[Pebbles82]

That sounds fine, but maybe she can still smell the scent. Personally I find warm soapy water (washing up liquid in water) is fine - they don't need disinfectant unless there is illness or disease. If using the disinfectant it could be good to rinse really well afterwards (even though they usually say it doesn't need rinsing) just because they have such a strong sense of smell.

[cypher]

I wouldn't use disinfectant without good reason either, it may not smell like much to us but can be really overwhelming to them especially & very unsettling when it's masking what's left of their own scent in the cage.