lock chewing!

[princessbear]

hello,

i have a syrian hamster named Bear, I've had her for about 8 months and she's lovely. However she is a VERY good escape artist, a few days after I got her she worked out how to unlock her cage door. So to prevent her from making a grand escape again we put a lock on the door and it worked fine.
This was until she started chewing at the lock constantly at night making the loudest clanging noises ever, this wouldn't be a problem if she didn't live in my bedroom but she does and I really don't want to have to move her.

So, I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to how to make her either stop chewing the lock, stop the lock making so much noise or a new way to prevent her escaping.

Thanks!


By the way she has two cages joint together, plenty of room and has at least 30 mins 'play time' outside her cage everyday.

[Piebald]

Can you get a picture of the offending lock?
Sounds like she has developed a bit of a Thing about the lock. A member here recently went through a similar obsession with his ham over the water bottle. The solution there was to remove that bottle or hang it so it swings freely. Obviously you can't have a free swinging lock. Sooo a picture would be helpful.

[Thin Lizzy]

She's very determined lol! She could the female Houdini.
A pic would be helpful.

[RubyDG]

I'm not sure what lock you currently have but maybe look at changing the type of lock to something that can't be easily banged around. I use clips on my doors and I use ones like the picture I have attached below. It's very secure and there is not enough room where it locks for it to be moved around in position (hope that made sense ).

[KMPlays]

I agree with Ruby, not much to add other than I also have a female hamster called Bear! She's also an amazing escaper and a destruction master lol. Good luck with the lock.