What should I do?

[RedJelly]

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

[Thin Lizzy]

Hi Red Jelly,
I really feel for you and your hammy. How about you start at the beginning on getting him use to your smell and voice - stuff some tissues up your sleeves for a couple of hours and then place in his cage, this will let him be able to smell you and get use to you. Repeat the tissue trick daily for a week and talk in a quiet and soft voice to him whenever you can, also everytime he comes out of his house praise him.
While doing the tissue trick, offer him a little treat and if he takes it, praise him. This will give him more confidence.
He could find his out of cage time a bit overwhelming, it could be the size of space and him keeping to the walls suggests this. I would put his cage in the hamster proof room and take a couple of toys out and place them near the cage. Also use some empty boxes so he can run and hide under them, this will make him feel safer. Build this time up gradually, start with 15 minutes and then when you put him back in his cage reward him with a tasty treat and praise him.

[Tyrion Hammister]

Mine is a bar chewer as well, and when I upgraded his cage I created a bin cage so that he wouldn't be able to. Jokes on me, I guess, because his latest craze is stretching up on a level and chewing on the wire I used to create ventilation in the lid :/

I have a similar issue with play time. Tyrion tries to find any way out. In fact, he just found a way underneath the blocker I had concealing the bottom door crack and squeezed his skinny bum right beneath it. Needless to say, tag is a little less fun when your hamster is "it."

I wish I could help, but you really brought up an issue I feel a lot of hamster owners go through, myself included!

[RedJelly]

Originally Posted by Thin Lizzy

Hi Red Jelly,
I really feel for you and your hammy. How about you start at the beginning on getting him use to your smell and voice - stuff some tissues up your sleeves for a couple of hours and then place in his cage, this will let him be able to smell you and get use to you. Repeat the tissue trick daily for a week and talk in a quiet and soft voice to him whenever you can, also everytime he comes out of his house praise him.
While doing the tissue trick, offer him a little treat and if he takes it, praise him. This will give him more confidence.
He could find his out of cage time a bit overwhelming, it could be the size of space and him keeping to the walls suggests this. I would put his cage in the hamster proof room and take a couple of toys out and place them near the cage. Also use some empty boxes so he can run and hide under them, this will make him feel safer. Build this time up gradually, start with 15 minutes and then when you put him back in his cage reward him with a tasty treat and praise him.

Thank you for the advice, next time I will put some stuff in the hamster proof room so that he can hide and explore.

I already do the tissue trick and I cuddle him all the time :3 he's tame, just not so much that he would let me pick him up, he just jumps away when i try to cup him xD I guess it's my fault as well as he is my first hamster and I'm scared to scare him or something :P

[RedJelly]

Originally Posted by Tyrion Hammister

Mine is a bar chewer as well, and when I upgraded his cage I created a bin cage so that he wouldn't be able to. Jokes on me, I guess, because his latest craze is stretching up on a level and chewing on the wire I used to create ventilation in the lid :/

I have a similar issue with play time. Tyrion tries to find any way out. In fact, he just found a way underneath the blocker I had concealing the bottom door crack and squeezed his skinny bum right beneath it. Needless to say, tag is a little less fun when your hamster is "it."

I wish I could help, but you really brought up an issue I feel a lot of hamster owners go through, myself included!

You named your hamster Tyrion omg that's so cool! Game of thrones fan?

[RedJelly]

Well, here's an update
Day 1: he chewed bars and I was like "Wot ar yu doin m8"
Day 2: he chewed bars, I turned on the light, he hid, I noticed his wheel wasn't spinning well and fixed it. And then my hamster being as dumb as he always is, he didn't go check on the wheel and just continued biting. So i thought "Oh well, then it wasn't the wheel that was making him unhappy"
Day 3: He noticed his wheel was fixed and ran on it like crazy, he's stopped bar chewing and is back to his normal self

So I learnt that I should check on his wheel each night, I didn't know it could just stop working like that lol. Good thing he warned me, I don't know when I would've noticed :O
I will keep the thread up, cause you guys gave some good advice that might come in use for other people too

[Tyrion Hammister]

Originally Posted by redjelly

you named your hamster tyrion omg that's so cool! Game of thrones fan? :d

yes yes yes And glad to hear you solved the issue!

[Pebbles82]

Excellent! You know they really do try and tell you something sometimes and it's the only way they can get your attention. Our hamster recently started attacking his water bottle spout then stopping and staring at me then attacking it again. I looked and the water bottle had drained itself empty. Clever hamster!

[herbi7]

About the out of cage time, my ham was just like yours, I felt I couldn't make her happy as she just wanted to get out of wherever she was. I eventually made her a ramp in and out of the playpen and put loads of large tubes and piles of duvets and stuff all over my room as she loved to climb and just kept her company in there for a couple of hours each night at the same time each evening, and eventually she settled, really enjoyed her playpen now she was free to come and go and had a whale of a time running round and round my room and through all the tubes and stuff. She even loved my parent's caravan when I took her away with me as I set it up all the same with the same stuff and it smelt familiar to her. She was hard work but we got there in the end!

[Thin Lizzy]

They really are such amazing and beautiful fluff balls!