Bar chewing - persistent issue

[busylizzie71]

I have had Dora (a syrian hamster) for about 5 or 6 weeks. She is in a hamster heaven cage with a lot of toys such as a wheel, wooden and rope things to chew etc. But she is a terrible cage biter.

The worst problem comes in the little 'sky box' that comes with the cage. Dora uses this as her bedroom, so she sleeps up there and stores food too. In the evenings she chews the bars there dreadfully and I think even hurts herself doing it as every so often she makes a sound like a hoarse scream - I have never had a hamster make a noise like it!

We have begun putting cardboard over those bars (cut up amazon boxes usually) and she chews her way through the cardboard and just starts on the bars again We replace the cardboard at least once a day (good job we like online shopping )

I don't think she is bored and she comes out in her ball and/or playpen for at least half an hour every day. She has toys but ignores most of them except the wheel. We tried applewood sticks but she isn't interested in those either.

Does anyone have any other ideas how we can discourage this habit?

[cypher]

What kind of house does she have as an alternative to the penthouse on top of the cage?
I would remove the penthouse & tubes & just use the cage without them as it's going to get very unhealthy for her sleeping & hoarding her stash up there, it's a common problem with that cage & she may be a bit upset at first but if she has a good alternative she will soon adjust.
She does need a good size house to build her nest in, on the substrate with no base to the house, if you don't have one a cardboard box with a small door cut out will do fine for now.
The HH is a bit on the small side for a Syrian so she may be getting a bit bored, do you have a photo of your set up so we can see if there are any changes that might help?
As far as chews go have you tried whimzees? Most hams love them & will spend time chewing on those.
Other than that scatter feeding can help, plenty of deep substrate (fill the base of the cage entirely) to dig & burrow in. Hiding food & treats in cardboard treat toys, little boxes or toilet toll tube toys so she has to work to get them can all help a bit too.

[busylizzie71]

There isn't another house in there at the moment - I did buy another one but didn't put it in because she seemed happy with the upstairs part. I will try adding it and see if it helps, but not sure where as the cage is already pretty crowded because of the huge wheel I have put in to replace the one that came with the cage but didn't work.

I am tempted to remove the top box but I don't want to upset her and she does seem to like it up there. I will try the extra house and I am not sure what whimzees are but I will try a bit of googling and see if they are a practical solution. She has plenty of deep substrate and a little box of sand to dig in too. I have put toilet roll tubes in stuffed with ripped up toilet paper and treats inside but she has no interest in them. In fact she only chews cardboard if we hang it up on the bars of the cage, anything left loose inside the cage is ignored.

I can't believe you would say the HH is small - it was the biggest thing in Pets at Home and twice the size of any previous hamster cage I have owned. It cost £75 and buying another one is not a practical option. I am not sure they even make a bigger one!

I can't add a photo, I just don't have the technical know how I'm afraid. I just get error messages about photo size and I don't understand how to fix it. I will give it another go later but suffice to say the cage is full of toys and a huge wheel (which she does use lots) and everything else I could think of to amuse her.

[cypher]

I know the HH does seem really big in comparison to most of the cages you see in pet shops but they don't really sell cages suitable for Syrians, by the time you have a large wheel (anything between 8 to 12" for a fully grown Syrian) a large enough house, toys & room to move around you soon run out of space, adequate height for the wheel plus substrate is an issue in smaller cages too.
Examples of good size cages are the Barney, Alexander or Alaska from Zooplus o r the Savic Plaza from P@H (online only I think.

Do try to find room for another house if you can, it needs to be a good size too so you may have to move or remove toys she's not interested in, shoe boxes make good houses! And substrate as deep as you can below it.

Whimzees are dog chews, you can get them in P@H & other pet shops or online, most people tend to use the toothbrush shape ones.

There's a thread here on resizing photos.
How to resize photos 2018
And another here showing how to upload & embed photos.
How To Embed Photos