I have a problem... please help.

[AndTheSwiftCriedNews!]

Hi

I adopted Chibikuma, a long-haired Syrian from a friend who had rescued the litter from a bad situation.

I moved her to a 2ft vivarium when my housemate had no further need for it. Lots of space to run. She seemed to like it. I left for an hour and a half and when I came back, she had climbed up the water bottle holder, pulled the air vent INWARDS into the cage, climbed through the hole, gone along my windowsill, gone into my dwarf hamster Snowdrop's cage (fold back lid also) and killed him. Naturally I was distraught. I could not have seen it coming. I blame myself entirely. I miss him very much.

After making sure anyone in a similarly accessible cage was securely out of reach to Chibi, we turned the vents the other way around and taped them down to the outside with sellotape. Moved the water bottle away from the vents, at the front of the cage. Put extra nails in the back for security. Put the lock on the sliding doors, even though they were heavy enough for even me to have trouble moving. The next morning, she had shaken the water bottle until the water had doused the cage, soggied the backboard and she had been able to eat her way out from the inside. Fortunately I found her and put her back into her flip-top bin as a temporary measure, as the viv was now worse than useless.

When I had money (money has been very tight, poor mental and physical health and being a student had taken its toll), I bought her and my other Syrian Mamble 80 cages. Roomy, secure and filled to the brim with enrichment toys.

So she starts bar biting. I've tried everything. I tied an old hamster ball to the bars with cable ties where she liked to chew. She changed where she chewed on. I put a wooden hanging toy there. She pushed past it/continued biting elsewhere. I wove cardboard in and out through the bars where she chews. She destroys it in less than an hour and is chewing again. The cage is about two months old and has visible damage from her teeth. Also, she chews on the door mostly which I worry is weakening the security. All of my other hamsters are in barred/Mini Dunas, but she clearly is aggressive enough to reach them anyway. This is not to mention my fear of neurological damage and bar rub. She was actually showing thinned fur on her nose at one point but that's gone now so there's a chance I imagined it.

I cannot afford a suitably sized tank style cage. I do not trust her in the viv, even with a backboard made from Plexiglas/etc (which we would still have to buy and assemble). I am at my wits end. I don't want to rehome her. She's family. She's cuddly and soft and friendly and clever, and I've been teaching her to climb stairs. But I don't know what else to do.

Please help. This is really getting me down.

I included a picture of her set up so you can see the amount of toys she has. I don't think it's boredom, more a penchant for bars in particular. There's more cardboard and two more chewing toys in there currently.

[BrainGirl]

Poor you! All I can think of though I don't know if it's the same in the UK is to ask around for a large free aquarium. You might contact a local fish club and ask them. Quite often enthusiasts aren't interested in anything under 50 gallons and can't sell them. If they're not watertight any longer the smaller ones often aren't even worth fixing. I kept my gerbils in tanks for years with home-built wood and mesh lids and never had any escapes. The only problem is that they're heavy. Wish you were closer, I know someone who could find any number of huge tanks for free!

[AndTheSwiftCriedNews!]

I just don't know if we're a bad match. I only adopted her in the summer and there've been so many problems. I vaguely know the person who adopted her sister and said she was a troublemaker too, but not so badly.

[BrainGirl]

I have more experience with gerbils and chinchillas than I do with Syrians, but one of my chinchillas (most of mine have been rescues or rehomes) is proving to be a tough nut to crack. She is aggressive and fearful (a bad combination in anybody) and I've even hauled her in to my vet because I thought she had a respiratory infection which turned out to be just her hyperventilating due to anxiety. Nothing seemed to be getting through to her but then someone suggested an herbal mixture from a place called Fuzzies Kingdom formulated especially for herbivores. I didn't want to wait for it so I picked up the ingredients at a local herb store and started her on it right away. I'm shocked but her behaviour has changed since then. She's still nervous but she's not nearly as angry and doesn't pick fights with my other chins. Might be worth a try?

[AndTheSwiftCriedNews!]

I'm glad she's settling down. I'm not sure how well it would work for an omnivorous animal :/

[AndTheSwiftCriedNews!]

I forgot to mention, she's on supplemented water which is meant to keep her relatively chilled anyway.

[BrainGirl]

Brew her some chamomile tea and put that in her water bottle? Seriously, some of the things that are supposed to be good for anxiety that are in the mix are skullcap (I take this for sleep), chamomile, and oats or oatgrass. Oatgrass is easy to get because it's usually what's sold as cat grass in petshops

[BrainGirl]

Hmm, is it a vitamin supplement?

[AndTheSwiftCriedNews!]

Can they have camomile tea? I thought they weren't allowed caffeine.

I believe it is, yes!

Thanks for your help. I apologise if I sound really off, I'm just quite down about this and missing Snowdrop.

[BrainGirl]

It's ok, I totally understand!

There's no caffeine in chamomile tea, it's made from a plant of the daisy family