At night my hamster wakes up and plays and stuff, well he has these plastic tubes that he can climb up to get to different areas of his cage, he likes to chew on them. My only problem is that it is REALLY loud and I hate the scraping sound it makes. I don't want to take out the tubes because then he would have nothing to play in. And I don't have the money to get him a new cage/glass aquarium and I really would like him to stay with the cage he has now, it's an all plastic cage except the metal bars to keep him in,lol, the brand is Super Pet Critter Trail if you want to loo it up to see what I'm talking about. Me and my mom have tried rubbing lemon juice on it but he liked the taste -.- please help?
Your not going to be able to stop him from chewing...thats one of the things hamsters do...chew on everything! I havent had a hamster for a while but I used a glass tank and just game him plenty of toys to chew on. If you keep him in the tubes, he is going to chew his way out eventually. You could keep replacing them but he might get lucky and chew all the way out without you not finding out until he is loose in your room.....and if you have a cat,,,,,that wouldnt be a good thing. I'd recommend getting an all wire cage or glass terrarium asap. They are cheap or sometimes even free on craigslist.
I've had hamsters escape from cages with tubes after they have chewed holes. I'd recommend getting an all wire cage or glass terrarium asap.
You can get this stuff called bitter apple spray that tastes bad but won't hurt them. Some pet stores have some for small animals, but the dog stuff is really the same thing so if that's all you can find, go for it. It's usually in the dog remedy aisle (with vitamins, hip meds, etc.) Do what the first person said and put it on a cotton ball and wipe it on the bars/plastic. And I agree with what someone else said, maybe he likes to chew on plastic. I don't think any plastic is okay for them to ingest, but then again maybe they're not ingesting it. I work at a pet store and all of our small animals chew up their plastic igloos like crazy, and none have died from digestive/stomach problems. So maybe try one of those? One the right size for a dwarf hamster is like $3-$4. You could try giving him a Nylabone or a Greenies dog treat, those both have a plastic-like texture. If you get a Nylabone I think i'd steer away from the meat-flavored ones. Also, what kind of food are you feeding him? If it's the seed-based kind, maybe if you fed him lab blocks he'd get some of the gnawing out of his system that way. Good luck!
Plain wood chew toys would give him something to play with (don't get coloured ones as the dye might not be safe). The chewing should be less noisy, but he might still prefer to chew the plastic (make sure he doesn't swallow any as this could give him an intestinal blockage).The alternative is simply to move him in to another room at night; that is safe and solves the problem.
