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Old 05-20-2020, 03:33 AM   #1
Vierville
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Default Preventing monkey bar hanging

So my very special little guy Baldrick has started climbing his bars and then monkey walking across the roof hanging by his arms, sometimes hanging by one arm. Wierdly he also bar chews the roof bars while he's doing this.

It's very wierd to see. He has a fairly safe cage, but it is still about a 15cm drop if he lets go and I can't remove everything that he might land on.

Is there a way of preventing him monkey walking across his roof? I was thinking of placing something like a kitchen cutting board or similar on his roof so he can't grasp the bars? I just don't want him to fall and hurt himself.

I don't think he is doing it out of boredom as he has a very spacious cage, two wheels, a flying saucer, tunnels, a sand bath, four houses, very deep Kaytee Clean and Cozy substrate...basically a hamster mansion.

Any ideas to stop it are greatly appreciated.
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Old 05-20-2020, 03:44 AM   #2
cypher
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

I think they often do things like this just because they can rather than from boredom!
You could try putting a strip of cardboard around the top of the bars just deep enough to stop him reaching the top, or maybe use things like lava ledges or little shelves that attach to the bars to break up the space.
You could put something over the whole top but it would make it very dark inside.
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Old 05-20-2020, 09:02 AM   #3
Vierville
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

You're right Cypher, also, I've just looked and putting something over the top won't solve the problem as he will still be able to grip the bars due to how the cage is made.

I'm going to put an A4 piece of cardboard over the central hole in the middle of the cage to prevent a long fall.
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Old 05-21-2020, 06:25 AM   #4
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

So this was my solution... I have placed a cardboard lid over the open rectangle between his upper and lower levels. This should prevent him falling from the ceiling down two levels all the way to the bottom of his cage if he lets go.

I also replaced his food bowl with one that has very gentle rounded edges incase he falls and lands on it. The previous one had dangerous edges if fallen onto.

I spent about an hour last night setting this lot up and guess what? The little bugger did absolutely no monkey bar hanging at all last night!

20200521_151819_resize_41.jpg
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Old 05-21-2020, 06:05 PM   #5
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

As Cypher says - it’s because they can . Also it tends to be to see if they can escape out of the top. I was going to suggest adding things to the roof inside the cage to block certain areas of the roof over items he could fall on otherwise. I use rat sputniks and a tunnel tied to the roof leading between a shelf (or house roof) and the sputnik. This blocks most of the roof bars and as it provides a “roof run” they are more interested in using that than other things at roof level!

Alternatively adding a shelf/platform means you could put some harder items under or on the shelf so he just lands on soft substrate.

I have actually stuck hemp mat to a ladder in case it gets fallen on.

One other thing that works is attaching shelves at roof level. I did that when our first hamster was older - didn’t want him climbing and falling when doddery but he liked sitting under his shelves- so instead of removing them I just moved them up so they were flush with the top of the cage inside the cage - so he was still able to sit under the shelf and couldn’t get at the top bars if he did happen to try and climb the bars.
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Old 05-22-2020, 03:10 AM   #6
LunaTheHamster1
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

Like Serendipity's idea, instead of shelves I tied these mats to the inside of the roof on one of my cages.
I wondered if that could help you. Serendipity helped me a lot when I was setting up my cage for an elderly hamster, it gives them a bit of cover still, but in your case it may help prevent monkey barring.

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small...es/mats/204595
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Old 06-05-2020, 01:32 AM   #7
Vierville
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

Just an update, since putting in the cardboard 'safety cover' in his cage, Baldrick has completely stopped monkey bar swinging! It's almost as if he thought "Haha! I'll scare my human and let's see what he comes up with!".
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Old 06-05-2020, 08:07 AM   #8
Pebbles82
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

Glad to hear it
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Old 06-05-2020, 12:53 PM   #9
Ria P
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vierville View Post
Just an update, since putting in the cardboard 'safety cover' in his cage, Baldrick has completely stopped monkey bar swinging! It's almost as if he thought "Haha! I'll scare my human and let's see what he comes up with!".
LOL!!! The little monkey!
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Old 06-05-2020, 11:39 PM   #10
Kyrkogrimr
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Default Re: Preventing monkey bar hanging

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vierville View Post
Just an update, since putting in the cardboard 'safety cover' in his cage, Baldrick has completely stopped monkey bar swinging! It's almost as if he thought "Haha! I'll scare my human and let's see what he comes up with!".
Lol They can been so cheeky! I suppose at least you don't need to worry about it now? :P
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roof, bars, hanging, monkey, cage, preventing, walking, bar, boredom, wheels, spacious, hurt, kitchen, grasp, similar, cutting, fall, flying, board, tunnels, mansion, hamster, basically, ideas, stop

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