Not using wood chews?

[Rawrasaurus]

We have had Akbar for just under a week. He does not seem interesting in any of his wood chews, nor the toilet paper roll, or any of the other items. He only chews on his food and the bars here and there. Any thoughts on how to get him interested in his wood items?

[cypher]

I have yet to have a ham show the slightest interest in wood chews!
Whimzees, dog biscuits (no onion, garlic or spice) & nuts in the shell are a lot more popular & good for their teeth.

[Willow Wisp]

I have yet to have a ham show the slightest interest in wood chews!
Whimzees, dog biscuits (no onion, garlic or spice) & nuts in the shell are a lot more popular & good for their teeth.

Yep I totally agree with this :)
Plus expensive cages, Ebony loves to eat her way out of those too :)

[Rawrasaurus]

Wonderful! I will have to give those a try.

[Skeever]

Also, try a dab of peanut butter or similar treat on a wood chew. See if it inspires them. My hams don't chew on things I've given them, till I forget I've given them to the lil monsters. I put in chopstick pieces for a chew toy, but it also gave me something to prop things against or hang something off of....months and months later, they suddenly discovered how much fun chewing on the wooden sticks was....I should take pictures of the damage they eventually did to the wood they initially ignored ;)

[greysome]

I know most haven't had luck with wood chews and I find it can be a hit or miss as well.

I've been using a variety of wood and each hammies seem to have varying levels of interest in them. Hazel Nut has the greatest interest in wood chews at the moment--she like popsicle/craft sticks, apple wood and cotton wood, and has only had sycamore once but I think she liked it (can't remember) with popsicle sticks coming in first followed by either cotton or apple. She very recently got fresh pear but I don't know how much she likes it as she tends to bury a good amount of what she plans to chew and chews on it randomly throughout the day. Even if she doesn't bury it, I'll leave it in there so long as it doesn't get peed on or wet as she will ignore it for a while then demolish it randomly. She won't touch willow though and seems to be picky with her apple wood, once ignoring all the sticks from one packet but chomping on the ones from a different package (even though both were bought at the same time and were the same brand)

The two newest ones have only had fresh pear and fresh blueberry twigs so far and from what I can see, one like the blueberry twigs and the other has either buried or hidden it or chomped it down to little itty bitty pieces. I don't believe the pear was touched by one but that may be because of its location on the other side of teh cage from the wheel although the other did chew on it a bit.

Honestly, if you can, I would try a variety of things and just see what works. Mine also have milk bones and dog biscuits and I've tried yucca with Hazel Nut but she prefers to use it as a perch. I also have bits of elk antlers I'm going to give them to chew/gnaw on. All love (well, like in Teddy's case) pistachios and Chubby and Hazel Nut go for the walnut (although Chubby didn't figure out how to open it probably because he couldn't open his mouth without food spilling out and Hazel Nut's walnut, shells included, have not been seen since she disappeared into one of her hiding spot with it so her success is only assumed) in shell although Teddy has been ignoring hers, even after I crushed the shell for her.

I'm thinking since Teddy absolutely loves coconut if I need a fresh coconut soon (heheh, let me rephrase that, when I need a fresh coconut), I'm going to cut off a tiny piece with bits of the meat still attached to the shell and let her have at it.

[Thin Lizzy]

My 2 will gnaw on the wood chews but they look at me as if to say - 'Is this it? I want chicken now'lol
I'm going to get some peanut butter - I don't eat the stuff myself but for my hammies I'd do anything!
Within reason lol.

[greysome]

LOL! Yeah, I recently purchased a beet. Mind you, I don't care for beets but I understand hamsters can eat them so....yeah.

[Teddy001]

My hamsters do not chew wood other than " bark" if it's attached to wood. Teddie prefers to chew " plastic" hince; cage trays. Lol. I'm in the process of replacing plastic trays with metal trays. She's not chewed on the bars ( thank goodness!).
What I do when she looks bored, ( what? Hamsters get bored?) lol. I cut up a few toilet paper rolls, and make like a chew toy. I put seeds and a few treats inside of them to encourage her to chew them, to get to the yummys.. Keeps her busy for a while.. There's a thread on how to make these under DIY. :)

[Thin Lizzy]

I might try some bark - not me personally lol! I would probably end up feeling really wuff lol!
I have noticed that some wood toys come with bark.

[SinNyx]

I don't buy wood chews any more, unless maybe those with bark.

If you have plain chews, try soaking them in a bowl with a bit of berry juice, which is hamster safe. It will give them a taste and encourage chewing, but don't get too excited about the idea until it happens :p

I find that wooden chews with food stuffed in them go down well, plus good for teeth. Dog biscuits do the trick too.

[Hamsterlover19]

I would not worry about them nto chewing wood, most of mine have showed no intrest and current one has never wanted to chew wood, i find dog biscuits are the best to get his teeth short and he will always chew on them. Some may just find the wood to boring or tasteless to chew, you could try putting some treat on it. Or just supply dog biscuits instead and see if will chew them. Even if the hamster does not like chewing wood chews, always make sure there are some in the cage just in case

[Rawrasaurus]

I tried rubbing the treats on the wood chews, now he loves them! Every time he chews on them I go over and praise him for it.

[Thin Lizzy]

Congrats on getting your hammie to gnaw on the wood treats.
What treats did you use ?

[Rawrasaurus]

I rubbed yogurt drops on the wood sticks

[buckybaby]

You could try taking his toys and rubbing his food all over it or even sticking it in his food bag and shaking it around so that the food smell is on the toy. That or spreading a little peanut butter on the toy helps too.

[Thin Lizzy]

I rubbed yogurt drops on the wood sticks
I have yogurt drops, so I'll give it a try and see how they get on, will try peanut butter also.

[itswendy]

My hammies loveeeeeee luv LOVE the cheesie chews by ecotrition. My chewer, Honey demolished it in under a week and my dwarf (who chews on only the things i dont want her to chew on) is 3/4 done with her cheesie chew since it's been in her cage for 2-3 weeks.

Whimzees would come next, both of mine love them so much they've deemed it worthy of having it kept in their nests \\:D/