hamster brain damage from chewing

Dr. Marie replied:

Bar chewing is a common problem in hamsters. It sounds like you are doing all of the right things - offering wood toys, sticks and unflavored dog biscuits and giving her time out of her cage as well as enriching her current environment.

Here are some other things you can try:

-Buy a product called Bitter Apple to spray on the bars. This is a non toxic product that tastes awful to animals. You may need to spray the bars a couple of times per day but after a few days Fable should get the idea that it is not fun to chew the bars.

-Change her from a cage with bars to an aquarium type cage.

-Change the type of cage bars - i.e. if you have a cage with wire bars get one with either plastic or coated wire.

I'd like to address the issue of whether hamsters can get brain damage from chewing on the bars. This is highly unlikely. If you search for cage chewing in hamsters one of the first articles states that it is possible to get brain damage from the jarring caused by chewing. Then, it looks like everyone who wrote an article about hamsters chewing their cages has done a search, read this article and repeated the information. This is how internet rumors get started.

I did a thorough search for you in the veterinary literature and there is no evidence or even speculation amongst veterinarians that hamsters can damage their brains from chewing. The brain of any animal is well encased and protected.

It is, however, possible for a hamster to damage his or her teeth by chewing cage bars. So, for this reason, we should try to prevent this bad habit!

Dr. Marie

---This question was asked in our Ask A Vet For Free section.---


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