Gwen is a bar chewer!

SnuggleHam · 08-19-2006, 07:13 PM

Ya.. I noticed it a couple nights ago; when she wakes up around 8pm she just starts going nuts. She seems more intent on escaping by means of chewing through her bars then running on her wheel for exercise! The person who gave her to me had a right to be concerned about this hamster escaping; it’s all she wants to do. Of course I’m not worried about her escaping /my/bin cage, but the bar chewing it a no, no.

I’m able to distract her for a time but she always goes back to it. I think im going to have to take her out more for playtime. I set up her playpen the other night but she managed to find a way to climb the bars in such a way that she could escape! Lol. I have a hamster ball but I always feel weird about putting them in those things.

So the solution; switch Gwendolyn’s bin cage with the 29 gallon tank I had one of my male gerbils in. The tank its pretty much the same size as the bin, only now she cant chew on any bars! It’s a good trade of for her, but not for me! That little gerbil will probably have all the sawdust kicked out onto the floor by the time I wake up lol.

That crazy little ham, she has so much energy its suprising! Im not use to an overly hyper ham.

**babyboos** · 08-20-2006, 11:39 AM

Oh the choice - incessant chewing of bars setting your teeth on edge, and her's too probably, or vacuuming every day...

Can you place the bin cage in a large cardboard box cut down to a few inches high which will trap the majority of kicked out shavings?

SnuggleHam · 08-20-2006, 01:15 PM

Actually.. I thought of something last night before bed and applied the idea this morning. I took a zip lock bag and cut it down the sides to make it longer and tapped it to the front of the bin so shaving can get kicked out where the bars are. Then I taped cardboard to the outside of the cage where bars are there for ventilation areas on the sides. It should work out pretty good.

souffle · 08-25-2006, 11:04 AM

Sometimes they will gnaw their noses raw. We find most like to chew at one place and if you can block that place they forget about it. Pawaver was standing on his second level and chewing the roof bars on the Gabbar so we put a heavy ceramic tile on that area so he could not get his nose through and it still leave plenty non reachable areas for vertilation. Sometimes if you put a hard dog biscuit there they might chew that or give cardboard boxes for them to trash

SnuggleHam · 08-25-2006, 01:14 PM

Gwen is an odd one.. I offer dog biscuits on a regular basis to make sure the teeth are being worn down good enough. And I also put in lots of cardboard, which she does chew up! But when she had the bars it seemed once she got started she was intent to keep going. Things are working out now that shes in the 29 gallon.