My hamster, Fudge, fancies himself as a bit of an escape artist. It's ALL he ever tries to do when he's not sleeping.

I've kept hamsters in the past and am aware it takes a few days for them to settle down- at first Fudge hid all the time, and then for a few days did normal hamster things like run in his wheel and chew things.

But, he escaped once thanks to my dad, and now that's all he ever tries to do! I thought the obsesive chewing of his cage bars was part of his gnawing instinct, so bought him things to chew on which he hasent even touched.
For the while, I'm putting bits of cardboard in which he seems to enjoy chewing and putting into his nest.

I'm just a bit worried because I imagine he gest very frustrated, even when he used to run in his ball he was still just finding a way to escape. (And he's managed to escape OUT of his ball twice, so I don't trust putting him in there anymore.)
The best I can do now is to build a hamster assult course on my landing and block off places where he could escape and keep a close eye on him. But I can't do that all the time and its the rest of the time I worry about.

I was wondering if anyone had also experience what we like to call "The Steve McQueen" effect in thier hamsters, and if so, how did they encourage their hamster to just...well...chill out a bit.