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Old 08-08-2020, 11:05 AM   #1
Hammy_Newbie
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Default Escapee hamster now chewing bars

Our Syrian hammy (8 months old) has never been a bar chewer but a few weeks ago, while having a roam, she managed to escape under the floorboards. She was gone for a day and a half but we managed to recapture her using the bucket trick. She was fine apart from a cut on one of her feet. Not long after we went away for a few days and a friend looked after her and commented that she was chewing the bars.

Since then she has developed into a fully fledged bar chewer! I’ve bought more toys and things to chew and we get her out several times a day and let her roam a little but to no avail. Now she has seen there’s a whole world beyond her cage she is desperate to get out there and explore some more. I’m really not sure what to do to stop this as she’s never done it before except for a couple of days when we first got her. Does anyone have any ideas? Thank you.
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Old 08-08-2020, 01:18 PM   #2
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

Hi Hammy_Newbie, my hamster chews his bars, not all the time but he does chew them. It is almost an indication that he wants to come out. We get our hamster Buster out in the morning and the evening for up to 2 hours each time. After we put him back in his cage he never chews them until the following morning or evening.

Buster does have access to his cage when he is out and odd times he has went to the side of his cage and chewed the bars from the outside. I sometimes think its just a habit of his.
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Old 08-10-2020, 04:38 AM   #3
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

Thanks MyHamster. Wow, 2 hours at a time! I would love to get her out for that long but there’s nowhere truly hamster-proof in the house so she needs very close supervision. The bar chewing hasn’t been so bad the past couple of days so I will see how it goes. There’s always the option of a bigger cage as there are definitely larger ones out there but I’m not sure it would actually help as it’s still not the same as being outside! I guess she had a lot of fun exploring underneath the house for 36 hours!
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Old 08-10-2020, 05:32 AM   #4
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

Hi. We had a hamster who started bat chewing after we went away and left him with a pet sitter. He had never been a bad chewer before and it sounds like yours wasn’t either. He was also very stressy and hyper. It was quite upsetting for a couple of weeks and took a few things for it to settle. A change of environment can stress them plus your hammy has had a taste of freedom (although it sounds like you going away was what started the bar chewing.

What stopped it in the end was a full cage clean - it sort of shocked him out of it and distracted him but it also removed scents from the place we left him while we were away so he was able to get back to normal. Normally a full cage clean is a stressful thing for them and partial cleans infrequently are better - to keep their familiar scent.

Prior to that we found he stopped when we left the room and turned the lights out (ie no attention). We tried letting him out more and even set up a playpen round the cage and left the cage door open. But that didn’t help. As soon as the cage door was closed again he’d start bar chewing.

You have to be careful with that or the hamster can end up training you with the attention behaviour so it probably isn’t the way forward. Out of cage time at a set time each day as better (or alternate day if you can’t manage every day) rather than on demand from bar chewing.

Anyway it does sound like stress from changes. If his cage is a bit small then upgrading it might help longer term but may not stop this current issue - the timing needs to be right.

I would try doing a full cage clean. Not something normally recommended. If you have a pet carrier pop him in that in another room (I used to put it upstairs on the bed) so he’s well away from the room with the cage and can’t hear/smell you messing with his cage! Remove everything, clean the base and bars (I used vinegar very diluted and rinsed well - it left a very faint scent of vinegar on the outside which our hammy Seemed to find quite interesting - but it removed all other scents and soon wore off. White vinegar not the malt.

Put all new substrate in - a good 3 to 4 inches. Clean any toys and she’ll
- plastic and ceramic things just in washing up soapy water and rinse well. Any wood items just sit outside for half a day or so if you can. If not just wipe those or rinse and dry them. Our hamster would happily sleep in his pet carrier all day. For some half a day is the limit but I transferred him first thing in the morning as they normally sleep during the day.

Also clean food and water bowls. Put everything back in the cage. New nesting material (torn up strips of white toilet paper in a heap in the cage but not in the house - he’ll forage for them and build a new nest. Put a new “hoard” in his house or wherever the old one was - some new food. As well as in his food bowl. And also add lots of treats for him to find in various places so he’ll enjoy finding those and be distracted from the change a bit. Plus scatter some food and a new chew stick (eg the vitacraft ones with food stuck on).

Pop him back on the cage and leave him alone for a couple of days to settle. He’ll be busy building his nest and foraging. Continue to scatter a bit of his food daily as well as putting it in his food bowl. Adding one new toy before you put him back might help as well - eg a ceramic hide - or a new hidey place or tube. But otherwise put everything back in the same place. And a smelly treat in his wheel to tempt him back into it now it’s lost his scent.

Then don’t clean anything for a couple of weeks. See if he settles. If he starts to bar chewing a little bit again turn off the lights and leave the room.

Having said all that, if his cage is really small then now might be the time to upgrade him but in that case re-use some of his old substrate - spread it on top of the new - to help him settle in. And move his nest and hoard across and don’t clean things. The cage itself will be new and different and distract him enough.

What cage is he in - do you have a photo?
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Old 08-14-2020, 11:21 PM   #5
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

Thanks Serendipity for all the advice - I will give the full clean option a try. I don’t have a pic of the cage to hand but it was from Wayfair and it’s one with tubes and a couple of ledges. It’s not tiny but the ground floor space isn’t as big as some other cages I’ve seen since. She loves her tubes though!
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Old 08-15-2020, 02:14 PM   #6
Ria P
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

A Syrian hamster needs space and a big wheel and a big house. You could have a look on Zooplus. They sell the Alaska cage for £35 and that's the minimum cage size you need for a Syrian hamster.
You could also have a look on Amazon. The 28cm Trixie wheel is the kind of size wheel a Syrian needs to run with a straight back. There are other suitable wheels and cages of course but those two examples will enable you to compare with what you have now.
Sometimes hamsters stay in the tubes because they don't have a big, bottomless house to make a big nest and keep a hoard in but i'm not saying that's the case with your hamster. Tubes can be a problem when the hamster hoards, sleeps and pees in them because they lack ventilation and are really meant for running through them.

There is a threat on the Forum under Housing called "Let's see your cages" where you can get ideas of cages and set ups.

When i got my first Syrian hamster last year i bought a cage that was suitable for a dwarf hamster but not a Syrian because that's all the pet shop had and i didn't know any better at the time.

It could be that your hamster isn't happy with her habitat and now that she knows that there is lots of space to run around outside her cage she wants more space to live in.

My young Syrian sometimes rattles on his front door but is fine after a run around on the floor.

A playpen may be a good idea if you can't hamster proof an area in your house, with lots of toys in it to give your hamster space to run around in and something different to do. I know people who use pop up kiddies ball pits which sell for around £12 on Amazon.

It can be difficult to figure out why a hamster chews the bars, sometimes it becomes a habit.
My older Syrian does this token bar chew some evenings in the same corner for about two minutes then comes out of the corner and gets on with hamstering about. No idea why he does it.

Your hamster may like a Whimzee chew to keep her busy if she hasn't already got one.
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Old 08-15-2020, 02:22 PM   #7
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

Ria has a good point there. I didn't realise your hammy's cage was a bit small and that would explain why he is now bar chewing - after a taste of freedom.

So forget the full cage clean! Just upgrade him to something like the Alaska cage. If you have space, there is also the Barney cage which doesn't cost much more and has a better house and shelf.

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small...r_cages/284288

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small...r_cages/189303

However if you're worried he might still bar chew, the maxi duna multy is a great cage too - it's a perspex tank style. Plenty of space for toys, hides and tunnels and a good sized house and wheel. It's a bit expensive though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ferplast-Ma...7526365&sr=8-1

Examples

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ma...w=1366&bih=598
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Old 08-17-2020, 07:44 AM   #8
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

I was thinking the Sky Metro might be a good option as it is bigger but still has tubes. She really does loves her tubes but never stores food or wees in them - just likes scurrying through them and sometimes resting/ sleeping.

I haven’t actually seen her chewing for a few days. It was really hot here last week and I moved the cage downstairs to where it is cooler and that’s when it got worse. The heat and change of location might have made her a bit more stressed. I am still considering getting the bigger cage though.
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Old 08-17-2020, 01:23 PM   #9
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

The Sky metro is also a good cage. Although the height is a bit limiting with a Syrian sized wheel. Although I have a Syrian in that sized cage (slightly different model). The Alaska is a better height than that. Most people end up removing the external tubes - either because of nesting/peeing etc or because they can be an escape route, but if yours is fine with them then it should be ok. They do better though with more floor toys (eg tubes, tunnels, hidey places at floor level). I also have a rat sized tube tied to the roof of my cage, inside the cage - leading from a platform to a sputnik. So it makes a bit of a roof run.

If you had the Sky metro with the tubes left in it would leave very limited room to fit in a wheel and a decent sized house and a shelf - that would be the issue I think. They do well with a good sized house/nesting box that's dark inside.

I have the Savic Mickey 2XL - it's exactly the same cage but with narrow bar spacing and no external tubes. It means you can attach things to the roof. It costs more but it's a good futureproof cage as the narrow bars means it's suitable for any species of hamster.

As an upgrade, the Alaska probably offers a bit more space but not much of a bigger footprint. Something the size of the Hamster Sky is fine though, if set up carefully (it can easily fill up with syrian sized toys).

I'll add a photo of my set up in the Mickey XL (same size cage). It only works because I have a long narrow house at one end. It was basically a "from scratch" set up as the plastic stuff that comes with the Savic cages isn't that great really. The hamster heaven comes with one half decent shelf but those little pod houses aren't big enough and get stinky and sweaty inside - they're easily removed from the shelf though (I use on in the pet carrier!)

Zooplus sell the Hamster Heaven a bit cheaper than you can get the Sky I think. Still better without the tubes and penthouse! And just one of the shelves. I find the cage even with one shelf, doesn't allow enough room for a good house - so I just added a small shelf at the back instead.

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small...r_cages/197362

This is the Savic Mickey 2XL I have. Exactly the same cage as HH and H Sky except for the bar spacing and no holes on top (the metal grid shelf needs removing though). Mine has a replacement base which is why it's a different colour.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Savic-Micke...7695675&sr=8-1

It might seem like the same idea tying a large tube to the roof inside but it makes a different having one short run of tube rather than a longer run which can get blocked or be an escape route. The rat sized tunnels and sputniks work well for syrians.

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Last edited by Pebbles82; 11-27-2022 at 06:54 PM.
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Old 08-18-2020, 12:18 PM   #10
Hammy_Newbie
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Default Re: Escapee hamster now chewing bars

Thanks Serendipity- I bet your hammie is very happy living there! On the hamster heaven cage, if you remove the penthouse, does it not leave a hole? How would you block it? Same question with the tubes?

The wheel I have is smaller than 28cm but she is happy in it and doesn’t arch her back. I think she’s on the small size for a Syrian - I expected her to grow bigger but she never did.
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