Excessive bar chewing and hyperactive hamster help!

[Amyhx]

Hi,

So i have recently adopted a syrian female approx 3months old. I have her in the alexander cage with levels and lots of enrichment and the 11/12inch wheel. She also goes out in her ball alot and when we can we handle her alot. She is extremely hyperactive and attention seeking and constantly running around the cage, climbing the bars constantly and is also constantly chewing the bars we have tried putting lemmon juice on the bars and even tried blocking them but she still chews and its damaging the bars and her teeth. Any tips and as a last resort we would get a tank although thats a last resort.
Also as a bit of backstory I heard the reason she was taken in was because a friend of the owners didnt like the way her or her mum were being treated and they were not kept in appropriate accommodation and then the friend couldnt afford to keep all the hamsters she rescued so put them up for adoption at the centre.

[WinnieTheHam]

Hi there,

Unfortunately before things get quite serious, I highly recommend moving her into a tank. Bar chewing can seriously damage their teeth. My hamster Myrcella had the exact same personality as yours! Some hamsters are just hyperactive, and I find these are the ones that get into bad habits! (Like excessively running on their wheel, bar chewing, and monkey barring) I have found it to be quite impossible to train these hamsters not to do those things, so the only option is to take away the issue and that would be to get a cage without bars. A bin cage with ventilation on the lid or a tank would be most suitable.

Unfortunately I was too late with swapping Myrcella into a tank and she permanently damaged her teeth. She had to be on a soft food diet for the remainder of her life.

[Amyhx]

Originally Posted by WinnieTheHam

Hi there,

Unfortunately before things get quite serious, I highly recommend moving her into a tank. Bar chewing can seriously damage their teeth. My hamster Myrcella had the exact same personality as yours! Some hamsters are just hyperactive, and I find these are the ones that get into bad habits! (Like excessively running on their wheel, bar chewing, and monkey barring) I have found it to be quite impossible to train these hamsters not to do those things, so the only option is to take away the issue and that would be to get a cage without bars. A bin cage with ventilation on the lid or a tank would be most suitable.

Unfortunately I was too late with swapping Myrcella into a tank and she permanently damaged her teeth. She had to be on a soft food diet for the remainder of her life.

Thankyou for your reply do you have any recommendations for terrarium or tank style cages the maximum i can go is 100cm in length and as she is kept under the stairs its hard to find one without a top lid as the only option or one around 80-90cm that has a top lid only

[WinnieTheHam]

No worries So you want a 3 ft tank maximum to fit the space. The minimum width should be 30cm, and height a minimum of30cm also because you want to be able to fit the wheel in as well as have some room for deep substrate. I made my own lid for my 4ft tank, it's quite simple and there's many tutorials on youtube.