Shaking, falling, and getting stuck

[Lorn]

Hello,
Our hamster, Ms. Wiggles, is a Syrian hamster which is full of energy, has a large cage for her size, and is very skittish. She climbs on her cage, gets super high, and falls, which makes me worry that she is hurting herself falling. She also likes to chew on the bars, and I read that this might be because she doesn’t have a big enough cage, but she has plenty of room in our case. Most recently, about two hours ago, she was climbing the side of her cage, and got on top of her wheel, then she slid down in between the cage wall and her wheel, and got stuck... eventually she dropped back down, but she was stuck in between the wall and the cage for a good 5 secs. I’m pretty sure she was acting fine after, but I am very worried that she hurt herself. Any recommendations?

[Ria P]

Hi and welcome to HC!

Why do you keep her in a high cage where she is able to climb super high and then fall?

It is our responsibility to keep our hamsters in a safe environment and to eliminate or at least reduce fall risks so they don't get the chance to hurt themselves.

Hamster are good at climbing up but they are absolute rubbish at climbing down again so they simply let themselves drop down which is something we have to consider when setting up their cage.

If you could post a photo of your set up people may be able to come up with suggestions on how to make it safer for your hamster.