Bar chewing/nose rub

Jennem · 03-12-2022, 03:34 PM

I have a young longhaired Syrian, probably about 6 months.
He has a lovely large cage but he chews the bars all the time. He has a good wheel, a trapeze, tunnels, sticks, caves. He has whole walnuts, various balls and other chew toys, pear and apple twigs, cardboard, etc. He chews all of them a bit but goes back to the bars. He has many things to climb on and play with, he comes out to play for hours a day, so he is not bored, and he is not stressed. I am OUT OF IDEAS!

He is a happy busy calm hamster who just loves to chew bars. A tub cage is possible but it will be a downgrade for him from what he has now.

Amethyst_ice · 03-14-2022, 04:22 AM

Hello and welcome

What cage is he in? I have just finished drilling holes in some 2mm acrylic sheets to bolt onto the inside bars of my alaska, this stops him climbing and chewing and could be an alternative.

You could also buy some grass mats to tie to the inside of the bars to stop chewing but retain the cage

Pebbles82 · 03-14-2022, 05:26 PM

Hello. It can be something that's causing him stress. First thing to check is if everything is working ok - is the wheel stuck, is the water bottle working, can he reach his food ok. That kind of thing. Because sometimes it's the only way to try and tell us something is wrong.

If it's not that, then this can happen, even in large cage, if you clean them out a lot. That does cause stress. They feel invaded, their scent removed and bar chewing is to attempt to escape because they don't feel at home in the cage.

So it's usually recommended not to do full cage cleans or weekly cleans. How often are you cleaning him out? Might be partly that.

Has he always done this or has it just started recently? You could try weaving cardboard round the area he's chewing (just cut up a cereal packet or something). But he may (or may not) just move to another area of bars.

Also do you have a photo of your cage and set up? It may give some clues if something isn't working for him. They basically bar chew to escape. But sometimes it can just develop into a stereotypy habit.