Argh, hamster

ergonomics

Hi all,

Some of you might remember me posting a while ago to say that my hamster had escaped. Well we never found him and have since bought a new hamster, Daisy. Daisy has a habit of biting the bars of her cage and kinda scraping her teeth off them. She's not chewing them just dragging her teeth upwards along the bars. I have no idea what to do to get her to stop and it's worrying me. I take her out whenever I she her awake (she's very active) but as soon as she's back in the cage she starts this behaviour. She also does it when she's been awake and hasn't been let out.

Is there any way of stopping her?

Thanks.

Edit: When we got her she had a small cage with one platform and a wheel. The cage she has now has about 8 levels, a wheel, a tunnel, a thing for chewing, and places to burrow. She also has a seperate cage with 3 levels, buried food and a maze, and she has a ball for running around in so if she's bored I don't know what to do!

Sigma Force

She's bored lol hamsters can get really bored easily the larger the space you give them the more they want. Especially young hamsters as they age they become more chilled and just potter about.

You could get her a large tank instead, that will stop the bar biting, it can be so annoying and she could also end up damaging or breaking her teeth on it.

What I used to do was give them a small amount of bedding (plain white kitchen roll) after cleaning them out, then when they stuck their nose between the bars I would post in a sheet of kitchen roll the hammie would take it and tear it up and make his bed.

Or I would put a kitchen roll tube in between the bars about 1/4 ways in and as he chewed it just move it in a little more. Kept him busy worked well.

Also plenty of chew toys and vary the cardboard boxes, they love tea boxes I used to give mine the empty chammomile tea boxes he used to love them.

How deep is the litter, is there a part of the cage where the hammy can dig really deep into the litter.

genegenie

It sounds like you're doing everything right when it comes to stimulation within her environment, her setup sounds wonderful so fair play! What could be the problem then, hmm... My best guess would be that it's either a conditioned/attention seeking behaviour or a genuine urge to wear her teeth down.

Firstly it's a bad idea to take her out of the cage when she gnaws the bars, as this will teach her to gnaw when she wants playtime. Don't give her any attention at all when she gnaws. If she stops gnawing for an appreciable time, then take her out and reward her with some treats. If it's attention seeking behaviour, positive reinforcement when she doesn't gnaw should help.

Though it could just be that she feels the urge to wear her teeth down, but is picky and doesn't like the gnawing materials you've provided. So maybe keep trying different materials until you find one she really likes. Things like Mini Bonios, little rawhide sticks and commercial "Branch Bites" have worked very well for me in the past, the Bonios in particular. Perhaps stick something like that, to which she's preferential, through the bars at a point where she likes to gnaw. The bar spacing is hopefully tight enough that it sticks there and she won't be able to pull it out. If you're lucky she'll gnaw this tasty treat instead of the bars.

You could also try getting her to associate bar gnawing with something negative. Maybe rub a little lemon juice or something else bitter over the bars?

Actually this reminds me of funny story about one of my hamsters... [tangent] I had a hamster who liked to nibble me when I handled him. Nothing sore or damaging (he probably just liked the salty taste of my skin) but I decided to try and rid him of the habit anyway. So what I did was to put him straight back into his cage if he nibbled me, no playtime for being a bad boy. If he didn't nibble, he'd get treats, playtime and lots of attention. It worked like a charm. One day, a little while after he'd stopped nibbling, I had him out for an especially long playtime. When he got tired of play, what did he do? He came over to me and nibbled my hand. It seems what I'd actually taught him, was that when he wanted to go back to his cage all he had to do was nibble me. Smart little chap [/tangent]

Anyway, there's some ideas, hopefully they'll help

ergonomics

I tried a couple of things today and they didn't go as planned.

First of all I bought a box of the bitesize Bonio and stuck them between the bars of the cage where she chews. I broke them in half beforehand also. Upon smelling the new treat Daisy woke up and went down for a nibble while I moved a couple of things about in her cage. Her food and water are level with her house but they are on two seperate levels. I swapped these around and moved her toilet down a level or two and her chew thing up a few.

In the meantime Daisy was furiously nibbling and pulling and pushing at one particular Bonio. Next thing she's gotten it free. It's too big to put in her cheeks so she runs upstairs to hide it in her house (when I say run, I mean stumble - she couldn't see a thing) but her house wasn't there. She spent the next five minutes running around and around the cage looking for her house (despite getting on top of it and putting her head inside it) before I felt sorry for her and swapped everything back. She's now in her house, happy with her prize.

If nothing else the running around looking for her house will have stimulated her - I hope!

Sigma Force

lol poor little thing.
Bonios are great as a treat.
She might benifit from a hamster version of a treat ball. If you can get a hamster safe block of timber with small holes in it and stuff it with food that's difficult to get out so she has to work at it a bit.
Also as they are pretty clean creatures you could try instead of putting her food in her bowl sprinkle in around the cage that way she'll have to forage for it.
A wee plate with some chinchilla sand for her to roll in would be fun for her.

Some cool hammie toys here although sounds like she has loads already lol http://www.pet-bliss.ie/acatalog/Hamster_Toys.html

animalcrazy

I love that pets bliss site, it has a great range of products, I also love www.zooplus.ie

genegenie

Ergonomics, I'm actually laughing out loud picturing what you just described, brilliant!

I second the chinchilla sand bath, great suggestion. My dwarfies absolutely adored rolling and digging in theirs. It really helps coat condition and it's lots of fun to watch! Though be careful that you don't get chinchilla dust instead of sand by mistake. This is made of much finer particles and can create respiratory issues.

My fingers are firmly crossed for you. Keep the faith and keep us updated!

animalcrazy

They have the chincilla sand on zooplus, they have everything there, love that site.