My Hamster Is Constantly Biting Her Cage Bars Is There Anything I Can Do To Stop This?
Monday, July 12th, 2010 at
5:34 pm
She has different levels to play. A chew toy, ball, tube, wheel a hanging toy with carrot and an excercise ball. She is about 3mth old and seems very friendly, we bought her on sat, is this just habit?
Tagged with: Anything • Bars • Biting • Cage........ • Constantly • Hamster • Stop • There • This
Filed under: Hamster Questions
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
The best thing I have found to keep them from doing it is to give them a plain dog biscuit! It is totally safe, and actually could be good for them. It is cheap alternative to lots of the toys you can get that don’t even interest them. My hammy loves the dog biscuits. She can chew on them for days. It is true what everybody says, they have to keep their teeth filed down. Mine was chewing on the plastic cages, and that was awful! She doesn’t do it anymore, though!
I had loads of hamsters when i was younger and every single one of them did this, however may chews and toys they had. they do it to wear their teeth down otherwise their teeth get too long. it’s normal.
put something really hard to bite into around the bars
HIS TEETH ARE TO LONG AND BUGGING HIM AS THERE TEETH KEEP GROWING,THE VET SHOULD TRIM EM DOWN OR GIVE HIM A HUGE WOOD LOG
my hamster do this, and seem to enjoy it, so let them it keeps their teeth healthy
Erm, there isn’t really anything you can do…I’ve had alot of hamsters and they all did this. My daughter’s got one now and this little one doesn’t tend to do it but that’s a rarity!
No im afraid not its just nature
They are trying to wear their teeth down- they often do this no matter how many toys, and chews you put in there. My budgies do it too. I’ve found animals rarely take to the shop- bought wood blocks you give them. I find they prefer chewing a branch from a tree. You must make sure the tree isn’t poisonous though. Any fruit tree is usually okay, as is ash, and hawthorn (but pull the thorns off before giving it to them). They like eating it I think, unlike a block of plain wood!
maybe all these hamsters want out of “jail” claiming innocence……..
FREE THE HAMSTER!!!!!!!!!
THE HAMSTER IS INNOCENT.!!
put her out of her misery – cannot believe ppl are saying ‘they all do it and seem to enjoy it’ they are WILD ANIMALS and shouldnt be stuck in cages poor things!
Thats just what hamsters do. I had a hamster and a budgie, ther cages were next to each other for a long time… in the end the budgie thought it was a hamster, it stopped sitting on the perch, lived on the bottom of the cage and climbed the bars… strange
hi i have had loads of hamsters . and they all do this . it is nothing to worry about . sometimes it is for attention .
ageWell….. i have had many hamsters and they seem to bite their cage when they are bored or if they have too many toys or even if they are dirty hungry or need a bit of love!!
maybe a bigger or smaller cage will help?
i know one of these will help as my sister is a trained vet and she has looked after my hamsters for ages and they love her!
GOOD LUCK!
x
like other rodents , Hamsters need chewing to triming their teeth. if u give her some thing to chewing like a wooden sheet or a small stump or twigs from fruit or willow tree , she will be very happy.
Hamsters chew on their cages when their teeth are too long. Try
Floss-eez, they are made for hamsters and rabbits and such. My baby mini lop rabbit loves them! They may give your hamster and alternative, she may like them, she may not. I would try it, as they are not that expensive, and they will probably help.
Are you wondering what Floss-eez are? They are rectangular pieces of wood stuffed with alfalfa hay and parsley.
Hope I helped:)
i had like 40 hamsters, u cant do much, my hamster did it, give them lolly pop sticks or chews, that helps , they do this to keep thier teeth from over growing, u should just let ur hamster do it, or ur hamster could die, it would die because the teeth would over grow, its true. u should try and just stick with it, i had to get used to it, its ok after a while.
I have the same problem except I have one of the Habitrail cages so she is literally chewing her way through it! I have looked into this so much and there is a bitter apple spray you can get by Grannick’s (dont know if there are any other brands – this is the only one I know) I went to the pet shop to get it and the girl advised me not to as she said my hamster would get depressed? But if you take her out nearly every night in her ball and give her loads of other chews I dont see how she can get bored so I would suggest getting some of that, I am going to buy some tomorrow! Also, some people might recommend rubbing lemon on the bars but I have read a lot of things that tell you not to do this as it is bad for their insides.
If Shes Chewing The Bars. Get Her A New Cage.
Get A Plastic One With Two Levels.
Sorted!
Rodents teeth grow almost all the time so they have to chew on things regually so maybe she just prefers to chew on the bars, or you don’t handle her enough so she’s trying to escape.
My daughters hamster did this until we started hiding her food inside 2 or 3 cardboard tubes( with a bit of bedding either end, the ends pushed in to close them, the food hidden in the middle.).
We’ve done this the last few nights and the hamster has a good chew on the cardboard tubes(kitchen roll inner tubes, loo roll tubes would do) then stores the food, and then goes back to her nest.
In the Desert their main activity is searching for and then storing food.
We are also careful not to keep her food, or any food near her cage, so that she can’t smell it, and want to get out to fetch it.
I don’t know if this will work for you, but it’s very boring for them to have their food in a bowl, and this is a good “enrichment activity” for them, and quite a lot of fun as you watch them getting into the tubes!
M : )
P.S. we are re-using the same tubes and bedding every night, they are getting a bit shorter each time !
Don’t worry, all hamsters do this, it’s to grind their teeth down. Sounds like you’ve got lots of toys for her to chew and play with, so it’s not that. They can’t help it, my hamster does this, too, but mostly for attention, but i don’t think this is the case. I’m sorry but you can’t do much about it!
They often chew on the cage bars while asking to come out and play. If she doesn’t stop if you take her out for a while, try spraying a “Bitter Bite” spray available at pet stores. It is often used to nip train animals. 100% non-toxic, it has an awfully bitter taste (believe you-me; talk about the ultimate “yuck”!). Spray the stuff on the bars of the cage and she will most definatley leave the bars alone, but don’t forget to renew the layer of Bitter spray once in a while.
My hamster has done that before… just give him a frozen carrot, a peice of wood, or small hamster chews you can buy at petco. He does this to file down his teeth, because hamster teeth grow constantly.
When they bite bars it means they are stressed.
Is the room too hot? cold, noisy?
But you say you only got her saturday, give her time to settle in.