Please help- skittish and shy!

[cypher]

The cage does look a bit small, the substrate doesn't look very deep, with most barred cages if you fill the base completely the depth will be just about enough, any less than that doesn't really give them enough to dig, burrow or make a proper nest really.
What kind of house does he have, I can't make it out. A Syrian does need quite a large house, maybe shoebox sort of size, it's important the house has no base & is sitting on top of the substrate so they can dig in below. The other things you have in there look ok but just making some small changes like the substrate & house may help make him feel more settled.
With this kind of sized cage it is difficult to have deep substrate & fit the wheel in, you may be able to fence off an area with bendy bridges for the wheel & have more substrate in the rest of the cage unless you want to look into getting a larger cage for him.

[luckadoodledoo]

Aye, I thought as much; he currently has about 3 - 4 inches of substrate in but- like you say -it doesn't leave much room for the wheel. Seeing how the wheel only just fits in the cage really isn't any good He does have a wooden house; it's in the corner underneath the platform (directly below where the coconut is) and it's this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm thinking of upgrading to something without bars for the sake of his teeth, the only issue is cost and having the ability to deconstruct the cage since I'm a uni student that moves a couple of times a year, but I'm sure there's plenty of forums on here that suggest some cost-effective DIY methods

[cypher]

I think that house is probably a bit too small for a syrian tbh, I did have one & I think it's more dwarf ham size really.
You could easily make a larger house with a cardboard box, no base & just a door cut out on one side, putting a bendy bridge over the door to make it darker inside can work well too.

It sounds as though a bin cage might work for you but finding a large enough bin isn't easy, on the plus side you can have more depth with a bin cage so more substrate & still room for the wheel & no bar chewing! He may just be bar chewing because the cage is too small for him but it's not easy to tell until you've tried something else.