Water Bottle Trouble?

[Swirls]

Honey, my syrian ham, has been trying to escape her bin cage by scratching at the walls. We don't have mesh at the top of the cage- instead, with a drill, we made holes at the top and on the top sides of the bin cage. Around the bottom, there is a large hole for the water bottle.

Honey has began to chew on the water bottle.. And this worries me because at one point she had gotten her water bottle out of her cage and began chewing on the hole for the water bottle. This scares me, because I'm afraid she can escape by when I'm not home during the day she chews on the holes.

I don't know if she's bored, but I highly doubt it, because she has lots of chews, three hideouts, and some toys.

This morning, she began doing it so much I had to get out of bed around every minute to stop her from chewing on the water bottle.

I lightly blew on her face when she chews it, and she stops for a bit, but then when she believes I'm not around, she continues!!

The bin cage is 22 inches over the US recommended cage size. 455 in.

Does anyone have any ideas on why she's doing this and how I can stop her from chewing on her water bottle? I don't want her to escape or damaging her teeth from chewing on her water bottle.

[mangoandmimi]

I reckon she’s probably bored and now that she knows there’s a hole there, probably won’t stop. I’d suggest blocking it up if you can although often that doesn’t deter them. It happened with my old syrian too - chewed a giant hole in a plastic base and refused to stop even after blocking it up twice. Cage was large too.
The cage is definitely on the small side for a Syrian and if there’s no levels etc to make it more interesting she might be getting frustrated.
Also is there definitely enough ventilation? If it’s hot it’ll get even hotter in a bin with a lid - even with holes.

[Swirls]

We're going to try to invest in a bigger bin cage so we can use mesh- right now the holes in the lid are quite large. We don't want to take off the lid because it looks like she can climb out if she gets on top of her hideouts- we don't want to risk it.

Although thank you! I'll try blocking it up the best I can without blocking where the tube is.

[mangoandmimi]

I’d block it entirely and get either a freestanding bottle holder, one that dangles over the top or just use a water dish for now. Partial blocking will almost definitely not work unfortunately.
A bigger Cage might well solve the issue - probably stay clear of barred ones though!

[Swirls]

Alright! I do have a water dish from our previous hamster who had a water bottle chewing problem, so we got a water dish.

Thank you so much! I'm not at home right now, but I'll do it as soon as I get home!

[mangoandmimi]

I’m afraid some Syrians are just big chewers - especially females. Sometimes not an awful lot you can do to stop it. Hopefully this works though do update