Bar Chewing :(((((

[InLoveWithTofu]

Hi guys so I have a female syrian hamster that I got a month ago. I recently moved her to a bigger cage and she suddenly started chewing on the bars a lot and I'm not sure why.

Her previous cage has floor space of 339 inches which is below the minimum cage requirement yet she never/rarely chewed on the bars but her new cage has a floor space of 645 inches and she has been chewing on the bars almost obsessively. Idk why she would suddenly display this behavior because I usually hear the opposite where if your hamster chews the bars, you should get a bigger cage????

Also please give me so recommendations for big hamster toys because my female is quite chunky and noticeably heavier than my male. A lot of the toys i buy for her end up going to my male Syrian because she can't even fit in them.

I have a pic of my current cage setup for her in the first attachment. Second attachment is her previous cage. Pls help me this really makes no sense because in the smaller cage, she had even less toys than now because it was so cramped in there yet she seemed more content in the previous cage than now

[Razor]

My best guess would be that she's still getting settled into the new cage? But I will leave that to the more experienced folks to answer.

But from my experience, my Hamster tends to chew on the bars for the following two reasons (mostly):

1. When she really really wants my attention and wants to be cuddled. My girl has been with me for about a month and half and loves being handled. But that could be a dwarf thing, I think, like Cypher said in another thread I posted.

2. But this could be a more common thing I think, she gets really bar chewy when her wheel isn't spinning freely anymore. Like if it gets pushed up against the wall or there too much substrate below it and touches the wheel. Explore this option? The moment I fix her wheel, she stops chewing the bars. Boredom in short I guess.

[cypher]

It's a nice cage but it still looks very empty so she may be unsettled by all the open space, I would just give her lots more things to do.
You could put a bit more substrate in, fill the base if you can, for digging.
What house does she have? I can't see from the photo but it doesn't look like she has a good big house, if not a cardboard box will do, shoebox size if possible, with no base, just laid on the substrate & a hole cut out just big enough for a door, give her a nice big pile of shredded toilet tissue to make a nest too.
I would get more toys, for now you could just use things like cardboard tubes or boxes & maybe hide some of her food in those or scatter feed to encourage natural foraging behaviour.
Get her a whimzee dog chew (toothbrush is best) to chew on too.
If you have a look at other threads in the syrian hamster section you could get more ideas for what to put in her cage from other people's set ups, I know more about dwarf toys than syrians so probably not the best person to make more suggestions.
If you haven't already have a look at the bar chewers thread for more ideas.
Managing Bar Chewers

[InLoveWithTofu]

So i just updated her cage with a lot more things she can entertain herself with__ see attached. I actually had a pretty standard hideout for her but she never used it and liked to just sleep underneath the bedding so I just took it out and put a toy bridge in its place for her to play.

She still chews on the bars as usual AND like an hour ago i let her free roam in my room cause i thought she was just THAT BORED and i put her back in her cage and the bar chewing got worse cause i guess she got a taste of freedom??? Pls help. And the wheel spins just fine.

[CMB]

Maybe raise the platform. It would make access underneath easier and allow bigger toys underneath.

Have a look at the managing bar chewing thread, there are a lot of good ideas you could try.

Scatter/hide her food rather than putting it in a bowl, as it is will mean she has to move more to get the food rather than going to the bowl and eating/pouching all the food.