hello! Iv'e not actually used one of these forums before so hope i'm doing this right...

I have a beautiful, healthy 10 month female Syrian hamster, Florence. She has a large cage with 4 different levels, with the cardboard tubes, fruit sticks and wooden toys etc. I hide her food around the cage, get her out for around an hour every evening and clean her out every week and change the toys, cleaning her potty every few days yet she STILL CHEWS!!!!! She is kept in my room where it is quiet but i am around in the evenings, so its not like she can be bored. She gets fruit and veg (no sweetcorn, it makes her hyper!)and has no reason to chew on the bars.
Chew stopper doesn't help, she just goes to another bit of the bars. I have tried to break the habit buy squirting her with water when shes chewing, which helps but i cant sit up with her all night, and i can hear her doing it after iv'e gone to bed.

Please can i have any new ideas? sorry to leave such a long post! I have had hamsters before but none this determined... I'm really worried about her damaging her teeth and rubbing her fur away.

Unfortunately this does seem a trait in hamsters. They do chew. All 3 of my Syrians do...though two are worse than the other. As long as they are otherwise OK I wouldn't worry. Maybe put some gnaw blocks and things...but to be honest it's just something they do. Their teeth grow continuosly so it's actually good for them to gnaw anyways. Check her teeth but I don't think there's anything to worry about. Some just do it more than others. xx

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MY ZOO-LET
Syrian: Dini
Winter Whites: Alaska, Apollo, Hero and Ares
Bunnies: Saffy, Gus, Cookie and Cream and 5 babies!!
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RIP Tilly, Thom, Tiny, Cassius, Stuart Little, George, Baby Pom (Mice), Melvin (Chameleon) Harry (Cambells Russian) Charlie and Roma (Syrians) Eros (Winter White) Jet, Rainbow and Angel (Rabbits) Neva (Ratty girl)

You can buy bitter spray from a pet shop to deter bar chewing, just trying to remember what its called....

ETA Bitter apple spray! Hope this helps xx

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Cats- Ivy, Grace, Jez, Bert
Rabbits- Marmaduke
Hamsters- Billie Joe, Mike, Mr Cool & Chewy

Checkout Ivy's FB page- https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-l...83943391665243

Thank you for your suggestions so far!

i have used the spray, she just moves to another part of the cage, as well as smearing things like grapes onto the fruit sticks to try and get her to chew those instead to keep her teeth down, but shes not having any of it! the thing is it is a problem as she really goes for it and is noisy, and i live in a shared house, as well as she managed to actually chew one of the bar joins so much that it came away from the other bar when i was cleaning the cage one day. I have also read to much chewing can give them abscesses, and am worried as it is not easy to treat them.

I mean using the bitter apple spray on all the bars of the cage?
And you could move her into a plastic cage, like my hamster is in a zoozone which has ample space x

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Cats- Ivy, Grace, Jez, Bert
Rabbits- Marmaduke
Hamsters- Billie Joe, Mike, Mr Cool & Chewy

Checkout Ivy's FB page- https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-l...83943391665243

If you could afford a zoozone (or my boy is in a Duna Multy) it could solve your problems.
I think girl rodents are worse for wanting to be busy all the time then boys though.

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SUMMER...JUST SAY NO!

I love my furkids.
dogs-Adam, Hannah, Heidi.
cats-Banjo, Bess, Eric, Tootsie, Blossom, Gracie.
Syrian Hamster-Inigo Montoya.
Rats-Ezri, Audrid, Emony.
Corn Snake- Kiora.
Kenyan Sand Boa- Kushti.

RIP- Winter, Autumn, Leela, Spring, Gandalf, Summer,Jet, Pip, Moo, Lilac, Wild Thing, Patrick, Frisbee, Echo.

Yeh, the boys just eat and sleep

Here's Stewies setup, to give you an idea of how big it is. it's changed a little since this photo (the lid for a start has been meshed!)


You will HAVE to mesh the lid if you get a zoozone cos the bar spacing is too big x

__________________

Cats- Ivy, Grace, Jez, Bert
Rabbits- Marmaduke
Hamsters- Billie Joe, Mike, Mr Cool & Chewy

Checkout Ivy's FB page- https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-l...83943391665243