I just woke up this morning to the sound of nibbling!
I listened out and found the source of the noise beneath my shelving unit in my bedroom, instantly knew it could only be the hamster, due to other escape routines.
I am not keen on little rodents, due to their teeth and being bitten numerous times as a child. So I couldnt handle her, but I also didnt want to wake my Daughter (its her pet) at such an early ungodly hour, so I set about blocking of any escape routes from the shelving unit, then set up a safe trap ( a box on its side with food in it ) and waited for her to walk in, then I picked up the box and returned her safely to her cage.

Which is where I saw the massive hole in the side of her cage, over night she had chewed the plastic base away completely intil there was a hole big enough for her to get through it

Rosie is safely back in her cage and I have blocked up the hole with her tunnels etc inside and also taped cardboard across the outside of the hole.
This is just a temporary measure ofcourse.

This cage obviously has design flaws, because the water bottle comes through the plastic base, which is where she saw a small hole and has turned it into a big hole

I would urge people to avoid buying such cages! Especially if they have a little houdini like my Daughter does!
I wouldnt mind but Rosie is spoilt with toys, treats and play time... but all she ever does is run round looking for escape routes, no matter where she is ARGH

Is this just a young (I think she is roughly 6 months) hamsters normal behaviour to run fast everywhere and try to escape 24/7 ? Its hard to hold her because she is soo fast and wanting to dive off the edge of your hand

Rosie is officially causing grey hairs

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aww bless her, unfortunately some can chew out of the plastic bases. What cage is it?
Does she have a suitable wheel?
What hamster is she?

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Complete forgot I had posted this thread sorry!

It was a completely plastic cage, with just a wire flap lip on the top.I cant remember what make it was now, but it was brought from pets @ home.

She is a syrian hamster and yes there was a wheel in the cage, not sure how suitable it could have been classed as, but she used it altho not often.
She had alot of chewable toys in her cage made from all kinds of materials, like wood, rope and cardboard.
She just never seemed all that bothered with anything in her cage, just on how to get out of it !

She now lives in a large rubber/plastic bucket, which she has soo far not chewed her way out of or escaped from! I have looked at more cages, but all seem to have a plastic base with some form of lip on it that I just know she will beable to get her teeth round enough to beable to start chewing through it! I dont want to buy another cage intil I know she wont beable to chew through the base.

We let her out every day, but once out if we are holding her for example she just runs as fast as she can and tries to jump free from your hands and is just constantly on the look out for ways to get to the floor and make a run for it! I had her on my bed so she could run around with more freedom but she just ran straight to the edge and scarpered down the side of the mattress and hid under the bed for what felt like ages. Eventually we managed to lure her out with food and got her into her exercise ball for a proper run about. She is a very high energy hamster and seems to have a longing for freedom.
I have had my Daughter sat in the bath to handle her with no worry of her escaping, but Rosie just tries to climb up the sides to escape or like usual, runs as fast as she can around looking for an escape route

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The ZooZone 2 is a great cage for a syrian (they are offer at the moment as well, just scroll down to the bottom of the page) Range of Hagen Ovo luxury expanding hamster cage systems at up to 50% off the RRP all you have to do is mesh the lid as the bars are a bit wide
She shouldn't be able to chew out of those as there is no lip for her to grab hold of

What size is her wheel, as syrians need a minimum of an 8 inch wheel as any smaller causes them pain as it makes them arch their back in an un-natural way.

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