Play time

[xFluffyHamsterx]

Hi guys. Routinely every night i let my hamster out for a run in his play pen for about half an hour. I handled him into the play pen perfectly fine today however over the last week or so he's been more interested in bar chewing in a certain corner and ripping up my mums rug! Today, he ignored all his toys and ran straight there and gnawed. He also climbs the bars and almost escapes. Today i put my hand (with gloves) next to him instead and he chewed on me instead! Then I thought as he's doing this I will put him back in his cage (he wouldnt move from that corner for anything) so I tried to scoop him and he bit me really hard through my glove! I managed to get him in but is he unhappy? He usually loves coming out and waits for me!

[CMB]

Can you move the rug? Or put the playpen somewhere else? You could put something in the playpen in that corner.

If your playpen is a wire bar one, a lot of hamsters can climb them. A solid sided playpen may be better. You can make a playpen out of cardboard quite easily. There are diy playpen videos on YouTube. I like the one using storage cubes (come in flat panels and are joined together by cable ties)

If he is chewing bars or the rug it might be better to use a box or something else to scoop him up.

Distraction in the playpen may help divert from chewing.

[cypher]

Barred play pens aren't ideal for syrian hams really, they can escape quite easily, it sounds as though your ham has just got a bit fixated on that corner rather than being unhappy necessarily.
Could you move the play pen to a different area of the room & rearrange the set up in it, or maybe make a different kind of playpen?
What do you have in there? Try to give him lots of interesting things to explore, maybe hide some of his daily food or a few treats for him to find & work for, cardboard boxes & tubes are good for that, a box with some substrate in can be fun too.
If you can find something he won't chew it might be an idea to cover the floor too!