hi, wondering if anyone has any ideas to help me out

my 5 month old hamster has gotten into the habit of chewing it's cage at the front, it looks to be the bars, but she's also catching the edge of the base tray too

she's got plenty of other things to chew & climb on in there, bt she keeps going to this one spot munching on it for england

i'd really, REALLY rather she not destroy the base of this cage, generally, its a good cage & housed my lovely hammy for her gorgeous little 2 year life, and before that, my mr. moorely for her year and a half long life

it's a bit (read: VERY) stupid to get attached to a piece of housing equipment, i know, but if this doesn't stop i can really see myself having to go get her another, smaller cage out of the shed to live in, for nothing more than the actual cage itself means a lot to me
which... really sucks for her, she climbs like a trouper. ah well.

ideas welcomed.

This is very common but it can be a sign of boredom. It can also cause their teeth to break or become misaligned.
Does she have any wooden chews? Failing that a large chunk of carrot for her to chew on may help. Does she get out of the cage often, ( for example in an exercise ball, but not for too long and under supervision). A hamster wheel is a must because in the wild hamsters can travel miles in a day foraging for food. The best wheel is a solid one which does not have any spaces for her feet to become trapped.
There are some ideas for home made hamster toys here:

http://www.geocities.com/taffy3001/homemade_toys.html

Usually a sign of anxiety! My mum has a hamster and it only stops chewing after it has been out in its ball for a while usually upto 2 hours. If its had loads of out and about time it doesnt touch the bars but if it doesnt get out it starts chewing straight away. You also need to ensure they have lots of stuff in the cage to chew on...

she's got a sisal ball, playstix, a coconut, mineral stones, two houses, another rung of playstix as another level at the top of the cage in addition to 3 extra plastic levels with climbing tubes, a ton of open space that she can climb the bars in, exercise wheel, cardboard tubes, a corner toilet with bird sand in it and a shoe

she's out most nights in her ball, as she is now, tbh, she does stop once she's been out & torn the place up a bit... could just be that
must admit, i;ve had that much work for college lately i've not had a chance to handle her very much

the lego houses on the website above seem interesting, i may have to make a trip up the loft to try that out, as do the rope bridges, only snag is that i dont have anything other than baling twine i could use for it

Flippin' heck, I'm surprised she's got the energy to chew her cage.

Just let her get one with it. Doesn't do her any harm.

it'll do her harm once she's managed to destroy the base tray, get out & the dog finds her.

i wouldn't mind if she was JUST chewing the bars - my other two did the same
but she is destroying the tray too.
if she goes through that, it's £30 for the same cage - i didn't even pay that for this one brand new
or one less than half the size out of the shed.

If you want to get her a new cage if it seems like she's likely o escape any time soon, you could try freecycle. We got most the cages we have for the fosters on freecycle. Including some of the round rotastaks with no bars. (similar to this) We got a massive bag of rotastak parts from a recycling centre for £3 too

I've kept lots of hamsters over the years, but I will never have another, despite the fact that I always want one every time I see one in a pet shop, they are so cute. The reason being that I couldn't stand them chewing and chewing their cages. It's not because they want to chew for the fun of it, but because they want to escape from their prison. I hated it. No matter how large the cage, I had rotostak with about 6 units at one time and every toy under the sun, a nightmare to clean as well, but it still didn't stop my little one from wanting out at every available opportunity. Let's face it, wouldn't you?

thanks
in an emergency i have a spare "standard" hamster cage in the shed (IMO it's far too small for a permanent home)
i could take the upper door off and fashion a taller caging out of cage & aviary wire if i had to.

have to say, i'm not keen on rotastaks
too small for syrians and a bastard to clean
even the ferplast plastic dome ones i don't like.
i prefer a tall, barred cage so that they can climb and theres good ventilation.

i'm on an animal management course at the moment
the animal unit managed to lose three hamsters that were being kept in the dome type enclosures

they found the tiniest place to start of chewing & just went for it, eventually getting out when the hole was the size of a 50p piece, never to be seen again

they'll have all either gotten cold & hibernated, therefore died or have gotten in with the mongooses & meerkats and... well, you can guess.

for now, i've attached a wooden lat along the base of the bars, to stop her chewing them & catching the base
gives her something else to munch on as well, and it can be easily replaced, it's not solving the problem completely, but it's saving the cage somewhat

Ours are all Chinese hamsters except for Harry the Syrian who has a big 3 level cage.

We've had the one little devil escape from the pod style rotastak (twice) I still don't know how he did it. He's in the round enclosed one now and *touch wood* hasn't found his way out yet. He's too obsessed with his wheel to escape now anyway. I'm sure we could provide power for the whole country with Chinese hamsters. Who needs wind farms!

We have so many rodents between our own and the fosters that the rotastaks are ideal for us for the smaller ones, since we can fit them on shelves and the pod ones under tables. They are a bloody nuisance to clean and put back together though!

Anyway, yes I agree rotastaks aren't great for Syrians. I've got so used to the Chinese's now I tend to forget and assume everyone has them.

i couldn't have anything smaller than a syrian - i'd be scared of breaking them!

the hamsters we had, started out in a cage, then slowly as it got used to us we would close front lounge door making sure no wires etc it could chew, eventualy it made nest in corner of room and on a night when we were in leave door open, but close kitchen and toilet door, it would run around upstairs, liked going understairs even upstairs into our bedroom, would eventualy make its way back to cage area for drink and food
would shut it in front lounge making sure cage was open for food and drink, sometimes it would wait for us to get up in morning go in and see it then would go to sleep

to me sign of chewing cage is its stressed

edit ... now want another, shoulldnt have read your thread

She might be a hamster that really wants company.
If everything else isnt working then another hamster might make her happy.
Ive had hamsters for years....some love company some dont.
Ive got gerbils now and the general opinion is they must be with other gerbils but i have some that do not like being with other gerbils and prefer their own cage.
Like humans..animals have their likes and dislikes.

she's a syrian though

they're a solitary species that only come together to mate.
she'd kill another hammy, or the other ham would have a go at her :-/

if it comes to it, i'll try it... but i don't see it working out with the species.

i had two together (same cage with separate levels) when i first started, they were a lot calmer, despite the only contact being when they peered down/up the edges of the level
so you could be right...

i still have the level too, would take about 5 minutes to put back in, it just halves each of their climbing spaces

Would a glass tank be better? I know they are a must for gerbils as they like to dig tunnels etc. Do hamsters dig much? I've never had one so don't know, but that would keep her busy.

not so much as to require a gerbilarium...
they burrow, so like to have a deep substrate

i have considered tanking her when the guinea pigs go back outside, but she absolutely loves to climb, and it would mean having to go out and find a free standing exercise wheel that will actually do just that - stand free.

Hamsters dont dig as much as gerbils.
My gerbils dont use hamster wheels in cages at all...not one of them uses them but they love tunnels and cardboard tubes.
Also any hammys ive had in the past havnt dug(digged)much but they've enjoyed searching for treats and get all curious about new things you put in their cage.
I dont think it matters really whether tanks are glass or plastic as long as they are kept clean....only thing might be that plastic wears a bit quicker especially with gerbils as they burrow all the time and the corners of plastic cages get a bit cloudy looking eventually.

Ah yes it would be a shame if she couldn't climb and even if you got a tank with a cage topper she would probably chew the bars on that too. Maybe it's just what she does! As for keeping a free standing wheel standing (got one for the gerbils) I got around this by screwing it down to a heavy piece of wood.

hellsTinkerbell - I've had quite a few gerbils and only the recent two are interested in the wheel and they use it loads - infact they are arguing over it now.

I started off with a small cage for the first gerbil my son bought.
We had hamster cages(for roborovskis) so the gerbil went into one of the cages we already had.
It didnt take us long to realise that the gerbil needed something more....so we bought a gerbilarium and a friend.
Then we bought another friend....then a bigger gerbilarium.
I wasnt sure about gerbils but my son bought one and the day he brought her home i was hooked.
They are fab little animals ....friendly ,clean and very clever.
I adore them and im glad we have them. Even my hubby likes them.
Last edited by hellsTinkerbell : 06-04-2009 at 01:21

I adore them too, I have enough of the little nutjobs