Bar chewing

[Ness]

Right I've only had this problem a few times before, and the best way to get rid of it is to just ignore your hamsters and do not get it out while its doing it or just afters. this has seemed to work for me anyway.

Though I was reading a dutch hamster site and it said that bar chewing can cause health problems with hamsters, and brain damage. what do you think of this?

And just for Matty, why do you think your hamster bars chews?

Ness

[Noodles]

Hamsters that I have had in the past(10 years ago ish) bar chewed and I just accepted it really but when I got Noodles and read up a bit, I read that it broke their teeth, causing them to grow into their brain and die
I couldn't say if that's true or not though - it was just on some website!!

Speaking for MY hamster, I think she chews when she is bored or wants attention. She gnaws by the door if we are on the sofa(opposite her table) and the corner of the cage if I am on computer (in line with her cage) which I think implies she knows what she is doing and is saying "Out out"!!

[sarahh]

Hi All our hammies or the majority of them are bar chewers you wouldn't stop it I think it comes from when they used to live in the desert the first hammies ran nine miles a night nower days they cannot do this and either go in a ball or run round the floor and this isn't like running 9 miles a night. Or no matter how many toys etc you give them they will still do it. I wouldn't worry about it. Yes they could break their teeth very rarely though Tochi my LH Red eyed Ivory broke one of his now I don't know whether it was done on the bars or on the monkey nut he had eaten. I check his teeth and they are nice now and have woren down.

Brain damage I have never come across a hammy yet in all my years or keeping hammies and in my mums of 30 years of having them has twe ever heard of hamsters teeth and bar chewing causing brain damage if this was the cse there would be alot of hammies in the world with brain damage.

[Jessalina]

Ness (my ham, not the OP ) is a terrible bar chewer. I tried to stop this by putting her in a Zoozone, she really didn't like it and was frantic, chewing the spout of her water bottle, and when that was replaced with a bowl obsessively trying to reach the roof bars to chew, which she'd manage and then be hanging off there. Tried her in a Gabber to see if she'd be more relaxed as the base isn't so high so she could see out better, thinking that might be the problem. She just didn't settle, and began to chew the plastic so it was clear that she was unhappy in enclosed cages and I switched her back to her barred cage where she is much happier. Strangely, now she's back in there she seems to do it less (although sadly it hasn't stopped all together). It's like an obsessive thing with her. However I've been trying her with much deeper substrate so she can dig and that seems to have had an effect