Help! My Syrian keeps chewing cage!

[Audel14]

Hi everybody! I am new to this page and I wanted to know how normal it was for Syrians to chew on their cage! Choco is in a pretty big cage right now, we just moved her into this one, it is 33inx19in. She had problems chewing with her last cage so we got a bigger one but now not only is she chewing but she’s also climbing it! Is this normal? Does this behavior pass eventually? I am not sure how old choco is, but we picked her up at the store a week ago! Please help me out! Also! She does have a wheel it is 12” and a lot of chew toys! Let me know!

[Shannonmcn]

Hi Audel! You're asking a good question! Bar chewing and bar climbing is "normal" in that a lot of hamsters do it but it is not a good or healthy thing. It's a stress behavior that can have serious consequences for teeth and mental health. One of my fave youtubers ErinsAnimals just did a video on it recently actually https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0g7L5BS0K8

It is unlikely to pass, once they get started it can become a hard habit to break. The most effective solution is to move her to a cage without bars, i.e. a tank. There are other distracting techniques like weaving cardboard through the bars where she normally chews or attaching the wooden chews you get with bolts. You can also just make her cage more enriching with more hidey places, more bedding to burrow into, give her regular puzzles to work out for treats, scatter feed so she has to spend time working for her food etc. Keep her little brain active.

I'm in a similar situation myself at the minute, I have a syrian who is unhappy in 980sq inches of space and chewing her lid mesh relentlessly and I am in the process of just getting her a bigger cage because nothing else is working but you have other options to explore if that's not a possible solution for you.

[chloeeruth98]

Hi there! It's very normal... but also not good... and won't unfortunately pass... sorry to have to say! Longer term bar chewing can cause significant damage to teeth, to jaw development and alignment, and can result in balding patches and pressure wounds on the nose and chin. My Syrian girl Maisie was exactly the same, she had more than the minimum floor space and plenty to do, but she hated the bars and would chew for hours at a time on them.

A few ideas to try; just the ordinary whimzee dog chews are hamster-safe and can provide a better distraction than plain chew toys. Weaving cardboard through the bars in the go-to chew areas to stop Choco getting her teeth around them is another idea, and hanging chew toys made from rustly, distracting materials, like the ones from Rosewood made from banana leaf.

I'll be totally honest with you though, the above did not work for Maisie, and she only started using those above named chew toys after I put her in a bar-less DIY cage. Unfortunately if you have a bar-chewer, the only solution really is a bar-less cage... which is kind of heart wrenching to have to say because I know what it's like to buy a nice big expensive cage, only for my Maisie to decide it's the perfect place to damage her teeth for hours on end each night...

Bin cages are a budget friendly option, IKEA do some nice big storage bins. DIY cages are marginally more expensive, but much cheaper than another option which would be an aquarium tank (buying one large enough with sufficient floor space is, well, a lot of money!!). Modifying the IKEA detolf is probably the most simple and common one, or, like myself, you can have a go at winging it with plenty of research on YouTube about materials etc. In 'standard' premade pet cages, about the only one would be the Ferplast Maxi Duna Multy, which does have bars on the very top, but careful placement of toys inside could help. The only issue to bear in mind here is fitting a Syrian size wheel in aswell as deep enough substrate, although you shouldn't have an issue with a 10" wheel.

Hope this helps! x

[Pebbles82]

Is she actually chewing the bars or the base of the cage? Her new cage is a good size, but a cage change can very much stress them - it's usually recommended to move everything across to the new cage without cleaning anything, for that reason, including all the old substrate.

So she may just be stressed by the cage move and that can take a couple of weeks for her to adjust while she goes cold turkey.

So I suspect it is stress behaviour due to the cage change. It's important now not to do a clean out for at least two weeks. Maybe just spot clean the pee area after a week. ie take a handful out and mix a new handful in.

Also check her wheel is spinning freely - they often go crazy climbing and bar chewing if they can't burn up energy if there is no wheel or it's not working properly.

You said it's a 12" wheel - if it's the 12" Silent Spinner they are notorious for not spinning well and being hard to push. So if it is that wheel I would recommend taking it back for a refund and getting a different wheel (the 12" Silent "Runner" or the 11" wodent wheel).

Assuming you're in the US. If you're in the Uk there are other wheels too.

For now, try and distract her out of it. Add more substrate so she has loads - they like that - you could heap it up in the middle of the cage if the base isn't deep enough to hold much more.

Scatter feed as well as putting food in her food bowl. A whimzee chew as suggested above - and hide 2 or 3 tasty treats in different parts of the cage - eg one on a shelf, one on top of a floor toy, one somewhere else - so she hunts them down - you could put them out every couple of days in the same place so she knows where to hunt for them and it becomes the first thing she does when she wakes up. eg half a walnut, a pumpkin seed or two, or some commercial treats. A tiny bit of apple or banana goes down well too.

Suggest checking the wheel - adding more substrate etc as above, and leaving her alone to settle in. She may also be stressing and trying to escape because she feels a bit lost in the new cage and a bit scared. Does she have somewhere dark to retreat to in the cage? eg a shelf to go under or a large house to nest in?

They can also feel a bit exposed from above so overhead toys can make them feel more secure.

Do you have a picture of the cage set up? Might be able to suggest adding something that would help.