I have had my Syrian hamster for half a year now. He's about 8 months old. He has never been agressive with me, he is really nice, BUT he is so strange.
Whenever I take him to the playpen, he just runs around the sides of the playpen and bites the bars and tries to climb them. He doesn't want to be held, he is super fast, he just sniffs the hand and continues running next to the bars, seeing if there's a hole where he could leave. So I've never been able to hold him or cuddle him, because he is so nervous. He does eat treats out of my hands though
But when he is in the playpen he usually doesn't use his toys, he doesnt eat the treats I give him, only sniffs them, and just runs around looking for an exit. Sometimes he is a bit calmer and actually eats and stretches.
But now he's also started
bar chewing. He's never done it before. He runs around in his cage and sticks his nose through the bars and starts chewing them. He also climbs the bars a lot. He exhibits this behaviour when I put him back in his cage after his playpen time or at night when he isn't running on his wheel.
But I don't know why, he has a TWO LEVELED Alexander skyline cage -101 x 52.5 x 51 cm (L x W x H) connected to a 70x50 (L x W) bin cage. He has a 28 inch wheel that he loves, lots of toys that I try to switch up from time to time, water, food, hideout, sandbath... What does he want?? I'd take him out more, but I know that if I do that, he's not going to like it, as described above. I took him into a hamster-proof room today and he did the same thing, just ran next to the walls, tried to squeeze through the doors and when I showed him my hand he just sniffed it and continued. I was also there on the floor and he didn't even try to climb on me.
My question: Why is he bar chewing, what am I doing wrong, how do I calm him down?
He is so frantic and crazy and looks unhappy, cause he constantly wants to get out, runs around like he was panicing and chews the bars and I just want him to be happy
What should I do?
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