My hamster has started nibbling his bars all night, he gets loads of attention and time out of his cage, plenty of monkey nuts to chew, and his cage is the right size....what more does he want! Any hints on stopping him doing it, only I noticed he has a little sore patch on his mouth from it now, I think it might be a case of getting him a new cage with no bars!
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I don't think you can stop them doing it, they seem to love doing it. Some people recommend putting lemon juice on the bars but it could be bad for the hammy as its very acidic. You can buy sprays that say they stop bar chewing but I'm not so sure about putting chemicals on the bars as the hammy will ingest it and it may not be good for them.
Do you have any apple trees near you? or any other fruit trees? If you get a bit of fresh fruit wood with leaves still on it that might keep him busy. Twiggy always used to chew bars but since she has some apple wood branch she chews that instead.
The ones you can buy in the shops are a bit useless as they are all dry, but with a fresh one it more natural and it has so many smells on it for them to go mad for. If you get a large one with plenty of off shoots they can climb from branch to branch which they love to do.
The only other option is a plastic cage, but even then they can get to the bars on the roof.
thanks for this, I will hunt down an apple tree! I was looking after a friends female hamster the other day, I trhink her smells have wound him up as he never used to do it like he does now! I reckon he is a bit spoilt and wants even more attention
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it's a "hammy" thing, Minxy, it's just "something they do"..
I've had shedloads of hammies, and they all gnawed the bars of their cages, even when given chewie toys and wooden gnaws, they much preferreed the cage bars! lol.
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I know its perfectly normal, its just worrying when the hamster develops a sore patch on his mouth - I am away this weekend and worry it might get worse whilst I am away
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