Bar Climbing and Developing Chewing

[M3gan]

Hi Guys!
Bad news. My latest post explained that my male Syrian hamster, Percy was a major bar climber. He was unstoppable so I installed multiple levels and hammocks and use extra substrate and keep toys out of the 'danger zone.' So that was all fine until 2 days ago I was woken up by bars being chewed by him! I checked his wheel, bottle, gave him a home made treat chew and left. In the morning a little of the black stuff on the bars was gone and damaged. I applied olive oil and had to leave for school. He was asleep until he woke up at 10 ish and I took him out for 15 mins in his playpen. I was here checking posts when I heard the wheel stop. I looked up and he was nearly out of the playpen by climbing the vertical bars!!! I popped him back down and watched closely to see if he used any misplaced toys to aid him. But no!

Anyway I am totally confused of what caused this and why he all of a sudden has started this bad habit? Any help wanted!

Extra Information
He is 4 months old give or take
He is a short haired Syrian
He is store bought
He is in a 100X50cm cage
He has 5 inches of hemp bedding
He has a 12 inch wheel
He is almost fully tame

[herbi7]

My Syrian could climb up vertical bars as well as horizontal, it didn't faze her. She could also do great leaps out of things if she felt contained. She just loved climbing and escaping, maybe ur boy is the same.

[M3gan]

Thank you for your imput. I agree, but the bar chewing is worrying me

[herbi7]

Yeah, chewing is a worry. I totally failed to stop my Syrian chewing, she only did it while I was there to get attention and ask to come out although she occasionally did it from stress or boredom. The only thing that worked for us was to keep her in a different room, it kept it down to a couple of minutes while I got ready to play with her which didn't do her any harm. As long as she had a couple of hours out each evening and a predictable routine she was ok but she was high maintenance to look after. The lively ones are a handful. Hope yours settles down before it turns into a habit. Good luck!

[M3gan]

Thank you Herbi for the recommendations. Unfortunately moving him into another room is not an option as I live with my parents who are not big fans of him or hamsters in general I don't think it is to get attention to get out of the cage as he does not really enjoy me handling him or his playpen I do make sure he does not get bored so I frequently make home made toys and puzzles to keep him busy. He is scatter fed too. I change his toys around every week give or take to keep him interested. He does get free ranged every few days and atleast once a week but he does not really 'enjoy' it. He says around the edges and is spooked easily. I know this is normal for the first few times but he has been doing it twice a week for 3 months! I am looking for a suitable ball to try out.