Can’t seem to keep my female syrian hamster contained
I’ve had my female syrian hamster since Oct 2023 so estimate she’s about 9 months old. Her first cage was from pets at home and the biggest one in store at the time but it quickly became apparent it wasn’t big enough due to bar chewing and wearing down the plastic corners. I purchased a pawhut 115 x 57 x 55 cm around Christmas and she seemed much happier in that for a while and we wouldn’t see her much. Around 2 months ago she managed to chew through the back corner of her cage in about a weeks time, she was temporarily put in her old cage while I reinforced the base with extra wood and wire mesh sheets. I also blocked the corners off as much as I could with wooden toys and hides.
However, she’s now hyper fixated on the back corner at the top and I don’t think it will be long before she chews through that as well. I’ve tried to give her all the recommended things (deep bedding, different substrates, foraging material, plenty of toys, big enough wheel) but she isn’t interested in anything but escaping. She barely uses her wheel and the only things she seems to have a remote interest in is collecting food from scatter feeding and occasionally using her sand bath. I try to rotate the toys in her cage but she doesn’t seem bothered by anything.
I get her out pretty much every day for at least an hour, she’s now so active it’s difficult to have her out for much longer as she spends the entire time trying to sprint anywhere unsafe. She used to be so relaxed and could sit on the sofa with us for hours while I watched tv or studied with no problem but that seems impossible now. There’s nowhere in my house I feel comfortable letting her free roam and there’s practically no floor space in my bathroom to put her on.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
|