Chewing and falling.

[Amberjw]

I got Boris two weeks ago and he has settled in well. He is an extremely energetic hamster who loves to play. At the moment he is in a wire cage. I found a few days ago that it was too small. Not drastically small like one of those tiny plastic ones. He has seemed to be fine and I have let him out to play and excercise. I have found that he has been chewing the bar's lots and the cage is quite tall so he climbs to the top but then falls (sometimes face first) and I'm worried he will hurt himself. Bar chewing is particularly worrying because of misaligned and broken teeth or him accidentally swallowing flakes of paint. We used to have a hamster called Bailey and apparently he always chewed the bar's and the cage was way to small but he lived happily for 2 and a half years. This night be true but I would rather be safe than sorry and I want little Boris to live the best possible life. What I'm considering is getting a large storage bin and converting it into a cage. I know to ventilate it well to prevent the build up of ammonia. Is this a good idea? Is it worth it?

[CMB]

Can you post a picture of his cage. It could be the way that it is setup. We could advise on how to alter the setup. Changing the setup could be enough to stop the bar chewing.

Tall cages are not the best due to the climbing and falling, like what Boris does. Longer, but lower cages are better. They do need to be tall enough for plenty of substrate and a suitable sized wheel (about 12 inches for a Syrian and about 10 inches for a dwarf). Zoo plus have some good cages like the Alaska, Barney or Alexander.

[cypher]

The falls are as much of a worry as the bar chewing, he could easily hurt himself if he climbs & falls & it isn't always possible to make sure they have soft substrate to land on in every spot they could fall so making a bin cage or getting a lower cage like the ones CMB mentioned would definitely be the best thing to do.