Bar Chewing!

[Tammy22]

Hi Everyone,

one of the new owners of one of my Syrian babies has emailed me to say that their new hamster is chewing the bars of his new cage and asked me if there is anything she can do to stop him.

I did a quick search on the net and came up with a few ideas:

Change the cage around to make it more interesting
add chew toys
give them more things to do
etc.

i also saw an article saying to coat the bars with something like lemon juice, bitter apple juice or cooking / vegetabel oil etc.

Is that ok to recommend or not?

Sorry, it's not something i have had problems with as i dont use cages with bars.

Thanks,

Tammy x

[Basia]

I wouldn't coat the bars with anything personally. They could try theading cardboard through the bits that are being chewed.
Give him or her plenty of chew toys and playtime. Some hamsters just like chewing bars unfortunately. Sometimes they stop as quickly as they started but if it becomes a real problem they might consider moving him into a tank cage. If the baby is already in a tank cage there is not much more they can do.

[vnewman236]

I did everything to stop Bowser chewing his bars. He is such an addict he actually made his nose scabby. My final attempt to stop him was to get a gabber - but he still does all he can to get to grill - some hamsters are just stubbon I guess.

I would say go for more toys etc but tell them they may have to be prepared to change to a tank style - at least this limits the bars they have to chew if nithing ekse works

[xkaytix]

The best thing they can do is just put lots of toys and things they can chew on. If it doesn't improve then there are anti chew sprays you can get from P@H but wouldn't use it personally

[Noodles]

I read that putting vinegar on the bars worked and one day Noodles was just chewing constantly...so I put balsamic vinegar on ... Noodles licked it all off and looked round for more so I wouldn't recommend doing that either!

I like the Snakshak stuff - she really likes chewing that - and she likes her kabob too.

I put sticks through the corners that she chews and that stopped her going at the corner of cage but she tends to chew under the door now so I think it's a signal she wants to come out, as she only does it when she can see us in the room.
Also as her cage has got bigger (from a normal wire to Imac to expanded) she has chewed a lot less. That makes me think (for Noodles) it's boredom that makes her chew, so maybe more toys etc would help your new owner? Although I think some hams just chew the bars anyway!

[souffle]

They usually tend to chew at one area and if you can block that bit off with a large box or toy they often stop. A clean teraccotta pot wedged against the bars maybe? Give a large hard dog biscuit to keep them busy and as Basia said weave card through the bars.

[Tammy22]

Thanks everyone,

i have given her this link, so she should be able to stop it.

Thanks,

Tammy x

[crawleytown]

As I have mentioned on another thread, my hamster chews the bars on my cage constantly. Have tried to stop her using various methods as the sound gets very irriatating after a while. It seems she just won't give up though!! As long as the bars aern't broken I can't see why it's too much of a problem...

[souffle]

As long as she is not hurting herself crawleytown and you don't mind the noise then it's fine. They can however rub their noses red raw from chewing and break teeth on the bars. We had one who would not stop even when her nose was bleeding. She had to go in a tank cage and never again even thought about the bars even though the tank had roof bars.

[Ness]

hey tammy my syrian girl started bar chewing because andrew put the gabber lid on funny and we spent a few mins trying to get it off, she thought it was a fun game. but then she did start doing it to try and make me get her out, but I told her that I wouldn't if she kept it up and just ignored her. by the end of the evening she stopped and hasn't done it since.

Now she just climbs upside down on her gabbers bars,