Little ball of furry destruction

[Twimper]

So my Sirian Penny has a tendency to destroy things and has taken to chewing her plastic sleeping area. She has sooo many things in her cage to chew; wooden toys, flavored wood blocks, a cardboard tunnel. Yet she's still chewing her plastic house. I had to swap it out for a new one as the house clips into her travel cage and is she chews through it she'll be able to escape and that cage becomes useless. Was foolishly hoping the new house might fix it but nope she's just started chewing that one too.

Does anyone have a clue how to persuade her to stop chewing her house? I know the plastic is animal safe but safe doesn't mean good few chewing :/

[mangoandmimi]

It’s not safe for hamsters to chew plastic - it’s dangerous and you’ll need to remove the house if she doesn’t stop chewing it now, and maybe stick to wooden items in the future. Lots of hamsters don’t chew wood so try giving a whimzee dog chew, those seem to go down well.
Manic chewing is a sign of boredom & stress so may I ask what cage you’re using?

[Pebbles82]

Id give her a shoebox house on the base of the cage. Just cut the base out of the shoe box and keep the lid for a lift off roof then cut a door in the long side near one end (makes the other end darker). A house that's open underneath and sat on top of the substrate helps them have normal behaviours and make a nice big cosy nest. You could even put a litter tray inside it at the door end (one of the corner ones). When I do that my hamsters have always used it - then the cage and nest stays clean and dry and less cleaning for you so less stress for her

Also cardboard is safe to chew if she decides to chew it.

[Ruth Edwards]

try giving her a house made of something else. my Peach likes a wooden house, not too big. Cotton has taken to living in a long cardboard box that is open at both ends so it's a tunnel too. he likes to stand on 2 legs on top of it and try to jump out of the Detolf but he just looks like a penguin jumping off a rock.

[Twimper]

Yeah, it's odd because she doesn't chew the plastic food bowl, or the plastic shell in her travel cage just the house and it's only been the last two nights.

I don't believe she's stressed or board. She has my old custom build fish tank. (5 foot by two, by two) so she has plenty of room and toys. Climbing tower, a bridge, a few cardboard tubes and boxes, sand bath, a wheel and flying saucer though she never uses the flying saucer. She gets out of cage time.

The only conclusion I'm coming up with is that it's just a penny quirk. She's a bit of an oddball personality wise compared to the hampsters I've had before.