Bar biter

[Flamestriker]

Squeak is still biting the bars of the iMac fantasy, and it's driving me nuts because she is starting to lose the fur on her nose.

She has the basic cage, an expansion (2nd expansion is still in the post) and a 110L bin cage with 3 bags of carefresh in it for her to burrow and dig. I mix her food in with this carefresh, and she spends hours searching for it. In the bin cage is a huge branch from the reptile section fir her to climb over.

First floor in the cage has her water bottle, Karlie wheel, and treats, such as gnaw sticks, hanging toys and food sticks. Second floor holds her toys, including boxes and chew tunnels, and the third has her nest and potty.

I don't want to put cardboard around the bars because I won't be able to see her, and I don't really want to take her out if the iMac. I have a spare mini duna, but it's too small for a Syrian. I could convert a second smaller bin to another bin cage and connect it to the first burrowing cage.

What do all of you think? Bitter apple spray doesnt work either

I am not happy about her bar biting.

[Eleanor]

Hrrrm, it really does sound like it's an obsession and if that's the case, there isn't really much left to do. :/
You could try wedging sticks in her favourite chew places so that she might chew on them instead? If that doesn't work, I'd move her into a different cage as bar rub really isn't very good for them. I know that would be really irritationg for you though as she hasn't even been given her second extension yet, it sounds like a great cage >.<

[kyrilliondaemon]

I hate to say it, but I think you know what we had to go through to get Scamp off bars. It might be time you tried something similar.

If Squeak is losing fur it should probably be tackled as drastically as you can, Scamp is still regrowing the fur off her nose lol

Heres where I asked about it, and I got a lot of handy answers. I've also updated it with how Scamp has been doing so that everyone who finds it in future can tell how successful it was for us.

We sorted a temporary cage, left here there for nearly two weeks until we were sure she was behaving normally and had been for a while, then let her back in a cage with bars (and a few new toys and such to keep her mind off things). A week later and shes still doing fantastically and we have high hopes of her being cured of the addiction.
Only time will tell, but even this week with her back in a normal cage has been worth it. Even if she is sulking a bit lately and we're not sure why lol

There was also a "maybe it will help if she has a lot of space in one bit" theory that was suggested in the thread, and next week we change her caging over to involve a second hand hamster heaven in the hopes more space on one level gets her attention and keeps her occupied. (If nothing else she'll want to explore it a bit lol, should like the new tubes, and gets a new hammock to study so that'll keep her occupied for at least 20 minutes that day lol)