Biting on bars

[lovelyhamsters5]

So my Syrian hamster, Einstein seems to be chewing more and more on the bars of his cage even though his cage has so much wooden toys he can chew on he continues to chew on the harsh metal bars more and it's starting to worry me. Is there anything I can do to keep Einstein from biting on the bars so much?

[Thin Lizzy]

How big is his cage?
Sometimes them biting constantly on the bars can mean something's wrong. It could be to do with the cage size or health wise.

[cypher]

From your other post (if I've got the right one!) it sounds as though your cage may be big enough so this could be more attention seeking, possibly the same problem as the bar climbing.
Have you tried whimzees/antos dog chews? They're a lot more popular with hams than wooden chews!
Have a look at this thread which has lots of advice on bar chewers http://www.hamstercentral.com/community/behaviour/54508-managing-bar-chewers.html

[lovelyhamsters5]

From your other post (if I've got the right one!) it sounds as though your cage may be big enough so this could be more attention seeking, possibly the same problem as the bar climbing.
Have you tried whimzees/antos dog chews? They're a lot more popular with hams than wooden chews!
Have a look at this thread which has lots of advice on bar chewers http://www.hamstercentral.com/community/behaviour/54508-managing-bar-chewers.html

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I will definitely get those!

[lovelyhamsters5]

How big is his cage?
Sometimes them biting constantly on the bars can mean something's wrong. It could be to do with the cage size or health wise.

Well he is always very active, and he does this before he goes to sleep in the morning. And whenever I walk into the room because I hear the chewing he stops and looks up at me then goes to the front of his cage and will stop and watch me. He chews on the same spot every time he chews so I put a small towel over the bars in that area so that if he does chew it won't hurt his teeth as much or it will stop the chewing hopefully. I just got him about a week ago and he's really young so hopefully he doesn't have any health problems.

[Thin Lizzy]

My oldest hammie was chewing the bars and he was doing it for attention, so I decided to ignore him whenever he started it, it was so hard but Imanaged it by keeping busy like tidying up, housework, ironing (I hate ironing), reading a book. He soon realised that he was being ignored and he stopped, but, the minute it started up, I would ignore him. When he stopped I would praise him, tell him he's a good boy.
He does it occasionally still but I ignore it. I've even started to enjoy ironing lol!

[cypher]

If you can try threading some cardboard between the bars instead of putting a towel over them, he can chew on the cardboard without harming himself but if he ingests some of the towel it could harm him.

[Thin Lizzy]

I've done the weaving cardboard through the bars, it's so funny to watch them trying to pull the cardboard out. Mine got bored after a while.

[crazyc4tlady]

My Syrian has started doing this for attention when he can hear me walking about. It's so annoying to listen to lol but don't give in to cuddles!

[bbbarker]

My hamster Tibbles previous owner had her in a tiny cage with 1 toy that was broken, she'd picked up a habit of bar chewing because she was bored. As soon as I got her I put her in a bigger cage with loads of toys and unfortuanately the bar chewing continued, I dont think her previous owner allowed her to come out of her cage and get exercise either. Her wheel was tiny so I doubt she ever used that's so when I first got her she was massive, she was literally the size of a guineapig. But since being with me she's comes out of her cage every night for a few hours in her ball which she loves and for a bit of handling aswell, she doesn't use her wheel maybe because she never had one to use in the past but she's always got one in her cage in case she ever decides to go on it. So back to the point she still chews her cage bars, not as bad as she once did but still does to a point where I feel she is damaging her teeth. I use carboard and wrap it around the bars but she managed to pull it off and shred it to pieces haha. Maybe try getting your hamster out more, other than that I do agree with what everyone else has said, I think my hamsters chews her bars a lot as a way of her telling me she wants to come out but I suppose it's something I should address and use the advice from everyone:)

[lovelyhamsters5]

My hamster Tibbles previous owner had her in a tiny cage with 1 toy that was broken, she'd picked up a habit of bar chewing because she was bored. As soon as I got her I put her in a bigger cage with loads of toys and unfortuanately the bar chewing continued, I dont think her previous owner allowed her to come out of her cage and get exercise either. Her wheel was tiny so I doubt she ever used that's so when I first got her she was massive, she was literally the size of a guineapig. But since being with me she's comes out of her cage every night for a few hours in her ball which she loves and for a bit of handling aswell, she doesn't use her wheel maybe because she never had one to use in the past but she's always got one in her cage in case she ever decides to go on it. So back to the point she still chews her cage bars, not as bad as she once did but still does to a point where I feel she is damaging her teeth. I use carboard and wrap it around the bars but she managed to pull it off and shred it to pieces haha. Maybe try getting your hamster out more, other than that I do agree with what everyone else has said, I think my hamsters chews her bars a lot as a way of her telling me she wants to come out but I suppose it's something I should address and use the advice from everyone:)

Aw that's so sad someone would treat such a cute little creature like that. Einstein loves going into his ball for awhile and does laps around in my room and he loves his wheel, I'm pretty sure he was just looking for my attention when he was chewing and or he was bored. His wheel broke the night before and I didn't know it until morning, so he was probably really hyper all night and didn't know what to do with his energy. Though, ever since I fixed his wheel he hasn't chewed on the bars.

[bbbarker]

lovelyhamsters5 I love the name Einstein, it's so funny watching your hamsters run around the room in there ball isn't it haha. A lot of people ignore bar chewing and think it's normal but it's obvious your hamster is doing it for a reason whether that's attention, because there bored or in your case there wheel is broken or they haven't got one. The simplest things can stop bar chewing like getting them out more, putting more chew toys in. Today I bought Tibbles and my other hamster Bruno these like corn on cob like treats, there are two in a pack and was only £1.25 I've put them in there cage tonight and they love them especially Tibbles she's been chewing on them all night fingers crossed I can use things like this instead of toilet roll tubes to distract her from chewing her bars because when she chews the toilet roll tube it makes such a mess haha. I'm so confident her bar chewing should stop at some point it's just getting her out of that habit:)

[Thin Lizzy]

I like to keep mine to a routine, Archie did become a bar chewer when I got twinkle 5 months ago, so I know he was doing it for attention, fortunately he never did it for hours on end, he knew him doing that wouldn't get him anywhere and the cardboard really helped.
Every so often he'll do it but, I give him the evil eye and he stops! lol!
But, if they do it nonstop then there's something clearly wrong.

[herbi7]

Willow chewed her bars like mad and drove me to distraction to try and get me to let her out even tho she had been out for ages already. The only real way I could stop her was by putting her in the other room after playtime, then she just settled straight away. It got less if I restricted her ball time so she didn't get too hyper but really she is a pickle and strong willed and there wasn't much I could do except banish her! I felt bad to start with but realised she was fine and it was much better than her getting in a stew as she used to get all hot and bothered with it too and punctuate the bar chewing with teeth chattering

[herbi7]

Ps she is currently asleep in her sand bath in the bath with me as I write this :)

[Thin Lizzy]

Am I right? She's in her cage where she's asleep in her sand bath while you had your bath?

[herbi7]

Ha,no we were both in the bathtub last night having playtime, I have put her fav things in there including a sandbath as she absolutely loves scuffing about in it plus she scent marks it and goes to it for security. We had been playing a while then I got my phone out so i could check the forum and she fell.asleep like a little blob in her sand bath, she looked so sweet.

[Thin Lizzy]

Thank you for clearing that up Herbi!