Bar biting and monkey barring in new cage

[Shamuhamster]

Hello

I have had my hamster for eight weeks. At the weekend I upgraded my hamster's cage from a p@h 'large' to a Savic Hamster Heaven. She now has a twelve inch wheel, wooden perches, a large sand area and hides, I forage feed and she has lots of logs etc to chew. Her bedding level varies in depth across the cage, shallow by her wheel and deeper elsewhere. I did not put in the plastic levels and tubing as she would sleep in her last cage in bare tubes, and the slopes etc. on the hamster heaven are steep. Every evening she has play pen time in a large box with a maze, seesaw, hides and flying saucer, but she seems to prefer running around on the sofa and climbing over us which we let her do until she tires us out. Her bridge, one of the hides, her wheel etc. are from her old cage or pen, and I moved some of her old bedding in.

She is spending some time in the evening when back in her cage monkey barring and gnawing bars. She didn't do this in her old cage. She has finally made a nest to sleep in as I didn't give her any more tubes - I was concerned about ventilation as she used them as a burrow, blocking up one end then sleeping on bare plastic in the elbow of the tube. She does not use her hides except to chew, and never has.

When I picked her at p@h she was sleeping nonchalantly next to the glass in the open on top of her nest, and seemed unbothered by the world, and smaller than the other hamsters (I thought she might be a runt, but she has grown very quickly, she was the only one in that cage and I think just a bit younger). She has never been nervous of people, enjoys being handled, and learned very quickly to come over to the cage door to come out. She is curious about new people when we have visitors, and has never bitten. She hasn't displayed any signs of stress until now, and to some degree she seems to be enjoying climbing, but I'm concerned I've broken her a bit with the new cage. She used to spend a lot of time moving her hoard around her tubes, adding to the blocked end even more bedding, and scratched and bit at the tubes, seemingly in a fruitless attempt to extend her burrow.

When she is monkey barring she is dropping onto quite deep bedding or sand, so hasn't seemed to injure herself yet, but I don't regard it as a good thing.

Will this stop? She is clearly going over to the hatch at the top and door at the front, and the two stoppers where you can connect tubes, so she's definitely trying to get out. Equally she is very active in her cage and seems to enjoy it, loves her wheel and digging etc. I think she misses her tubes, but she was starting to struggle turning in them and had started to damage them, and the Savic ones aren't any bigger.

[Amethyst_ice]

She has gone through lots of change in a short time, new home and two cages.

You could put some hammocks up if you are worried about falling. It sounds like you are providing plenty of enrichment and things. Give her a bit more time to settle

[Shamuhamster]

Thank you, and yes she has had a lot of change, so maybe I'm worrying a bit quickly. I will have a look into hammocks.

It's been many, many years since we had a hamster and things have changed quite dramatically, so she's been putting up with me learning new things like adding sand, much of which she's really enjoyed.

[Hammy_Newbie]

I am having similar issues with my hamster. We adopted her two weeks ago and she is also in a hamster heaven cage. My previous hamster was in the same cage and I never once saw her bite the bars (she did in her previous, smaller cage). I have put in an 11 inch wheel, ferplast guinea pig house, plenty of hides, chews, boredom breakers and bridges but she is still biting the bars sometimes. I was warned she was a chewer, to be fair!

I’m trying to add cardboard to where she is chewing or to move a hanging boredom breaker there but to be honest I’m hoping it might reduce once she settles in more. With the previous owner she was apparently in a small cage with very little enrichment so I think it’s probably a bad habit she picked up then.

Hopefully your hammy’s behaviour will settle once she feels more at home in her cage.

[Ria P]

I think that you did the right thing by not adding the tubes because they can cause problems. I have a number of Hamster Heavens and always remove the tubes, penthouse and plastic shelves then start off with a nice, spacious, empty cage adding a more natural set up.

All you can do really is to make sure she can't fall onto something hard. I also have a monkey of a Syrian hamster and had to fix a boredom breaker mat on the inside of the roof of his Alaska cage to stop him from monkey barring across his ceiling.

I find that a large piece of cardboard hung up temporarily on the outside of their cage where they chew stops them and they go off to do something else. It works with mine because they chew to get my attention or to express their annoyance at a freeroaming hamster that is not them.