What can i do to stop my hamster from chewing the wires on her cage?

Question

Every night she chewes the wires. I put chew toys but she never uses them. What can i do???

Answer 1

Buy a bittering agent from your local pet store. There's a product called bitterapple that works pretty well. Spray it on the bars. When he bites on them he/she will get an extremely bitter taste in their mouths and will stop.

Answer 2

Contrary to what many people believe, hamsters do not chew on the cage bars to grind their teeth down. If they wanted to grind their teeth down, they would chew on something plastic, not the wire bars.

Your hamster is trying to chew her way out of her cage. Hamsters by nature are not meant to be caged or confined (I'm not saying they should all be freed, you just need to understand their behavior). Even if the hamster was to living in a 8' x 10' cage she would still try to chew to get out. It is their nature.

You may try giving your hamster toilet paper and paper towel rolls to see if that will distract her, though I don't they will completely eliminate the problem.

The wire cages really aren't that great for any small animals for just this reason. It's a constant torture to see and smell the "outside" just on the other side of the bars. It is only natural instinct to try to get out of what is confining them. The best solution would be to buy a new glass or plastic cage. She will still try to get out but she will do it by digging in the corners. She will also try to climb the water bottle so look for the specific kind of water bottle that is climb-proof and chew-proof. Lixit manufactures these.

A new cage is not the solution that you want but that's the only way to stop the bar chewing. Also excessive bar chewers are prone to a condition called bar rub. They will wear the fur away where the bars hit their face. In obsessive chewers, the hair loss will be permanent and they could begin cutting into their skin causing sores. If you see an signs of bar rub you need to get her a new home immediately. There was another question two weeks ago from a girl whose hamster chewed the bars to the point of making its mouth bleed. If the cost of a new cage is a concern, here is something new that many breeders, including myself, are using:
http://www.geocities.com/calhamassoc/FeatureBin.html

There are always suggestions of putting things onto the bars or to cover the cage with a towel/blanket to deter the hamster but I would not recommend anything of these as they can cause problems, possibly death, if ingested. There are only a few kinds of fibers that a hamster can safely ingest and any synthetics are not one of them. These days many blankets and fabrics (including pipe cleaners, it's distressing this is what the pet store has recommended) have synthetics in them so just a few nibbles can cause intestinal blockage, leading to a painful death.


-Janice
http://www.holmdenhillhaven.com

Answer 3

I have the same problem! But I read this magizene and asked my local pet store person and said i could. It said you could tape pipecleaners on the wires that the hamster likes to chew the most, and then ur hamster will not like the taste of the pipecleaners and will stop soon. Sience hamsters dont have very big brains lol, it will begin to think the rest of the unpiecleanered wires all taste the same.

Try it...it worked for me!

Answer 4

sometimes this is just something hamsters do. they're most active at night after all. how large is her cage? hamsters usually need much larger cages than people think. maybe if she had a larger cage to run about in she'd feel less inclined to knaw on the bars?

Answer 5

Absolutely nothing! My rat did that and the only way she would stop was if I took her out of the cage. You will get used to it, its just a weird quirky thing they do.

Answer 6

GET A DIFFERENT CAGE!!!!!!