Bar chewing?

[kyrilliondaemon]

So you've gone from saying that bar chewing is because the cage is too small, to saying we should drastically downsize our syrian to a cage 1/3 of the current size?

You may say you're not advising downsizing but you've also said...

"or a bar chewer and needs put into a large cage that prevents this behaviour for it`s own good"

That clearly states you think it needs to go into a different cage, which in Scamps case means a drastic decrease in the space she has avaliable. Despite the fact that with work we can help make sure she doesn't bar chew in her current setup.
It is better to stop them bar chewing without changing cages if at all possible when the cage is big enough - especially for hams like Scamp and Pepper.

Seems a bit silly to advise changing cages given that there are actually answers that don't involve downsizing when a ham has tons of space. And that don't involve upsetting a ham with a whole new cage.

Yes, sometimes people do need a bigger cage or a better wheel or whatever - but if you read any threads you'd see that those things are usually queried first. The rest of it is solutions for those of us with bar chewers in huge cages who'd prefer to let the ham keep its cage if at all possible.
In our case because anything else would be drastically downsizing.

It needs to be addressed in a case by case manner, not your "one size fits all" philosophy. Which is what the rest of us try and do when someone asks for help.



Edit - For the record, I don't mean any of this rudely, but your advice seems to be conflicting and I'm a bit confused.
I've spent ages thinking about bar chewing and the solutions and I really do believe that changing cages isn't always the best solution.

[racinghamster]

I believe you have misunderstood what I was trying to say kyrilliondaemon. To clear the confusion (and the aforementioned threads do get long winded and confusing to read) I was actually saying, IF you have a hamster who bar chews and it gets on your nerves, or you fear your hamster will do damage to their teeth/mouth (very likely), the barred cage they are in might need changing to a perspex tank or glass aquarium. Now if the cage you are currently using IS a big cage, then you need to look for something the SAME SIZE or bigger. Did you think I was saying remove your hamster from a large barred cage and put it into something smaller that doesn`t have bars? No, not at all.

A Zoozone 2 would be just an example of a non-barred cage for a syrian who bar chews, or of course, something man-made from copying our German members. Ideally. Changing a hamsters cage should only be done if there is an issue with bar chewing to try to solve the behavour, or to upgrade the cage size because the owner feels its the right move.

Sorry if I came across as confusing. I think most of us already know what to do in these circumstances anyway, but it`s beneficial to point out some of the actions which can be made for new members or for anyone joining who may have bought a pet shop starter cage and wondered why their syrian was spending most of it`s time chewing the bars.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Given that there is no option for Scamp with anywhere near the same size and no bars, the options are downsize or leave her where she is and work to keep her distracted. Now it seems as though you're saying both are bad.

We own zoozone two cages, and they're considerably smaller than what Scamp has. A detolf would be considerably smaller than what Scamp has. Two detolfs would be smaller than what Scamp has lol

And yeah I know its beneficial to explain all the options, but this person had already been advised on changing cages and such, and the advice being given was the best possible given that the ham has just had an increase in size and the owner (if I remember correctly) had reasons against going bigger or making another cage change so soon.
When changing the cage isn't possible the advice given was the best we could give really.

We work with our syrian to keep her distracted and I do believe that for other owners where changing the cage is unfeasible (for whatever reason) the suggestions given are the best we could provide really.

[racinghamster]

Scamp sounds as though her cage is much bigger than the usual estimations then, (what is it exactly?) so downsizing would mean a smaller cage in your circumstances so that move wouldn`t be in Scamp`s best interests. Most cage upsizing though would mean going from a smaller barred cage (Cambridge or similar) up to a Zoozone, which was my main point really.

[kyrilliondaemon]

It is. She has a lot of stuff joined. A hamster heaven, a ferplast mary, a bin thats about the same size as an imac fantasy with three full levels to it. Plus a load of modular stuff thats there because she likes it (and never grew too big for the tubes).

Even excluding the modular stuff she has 14435 square cm of space. Including the modular stuff it gets to over 20000 square cm of space lol
We'd need three detolfs joined to equal (and slightly better) that and we really don't have the space.

You're right about upsizing with some cages, I just wanted to make sure no-one thought it was always going to be the answer.

[Amethyst_ice]

Can we keep on topic please to the OP question. They have asked for tips not changing a cage.

Personally if there are options to chew on and you get hammy out just keeping an eye on teeth. I sometimes give a short little blow on the nose, works and they get bored. Some hammies just chew, you can weave cardboard between the bars that gives them things to focus on for a while.

x

[racinghamster]

Advice on using a different type and size of cage could be an answer, but if the original poster want`s to stay with the same cage, there are other little things that can be tried like wrapping cardboard around the lower bars and distraction, but these could prove to be short term answers. Worth trying though.

[kyrilliondaemon]

And they were all listed at the start of the thread

[racinghamster]

Yes, very true. But mentioning the cage changes wasn`t, which is why I thought it useful to mention. Quick fixes are fine, but sometimes looking at the bigger picture is also useful.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Yup, but as I said - She had upgraded the cage and already shown there were reasons against. Making cage size irrelevant in this case.