hamster chewing on door lock

Question
Screech chewed at his door lock and it opened while we were at work.  Since
then every night, at about midnight, after running and eating, he starts the
chewing.  He has chew logs, toys, ect.  We take him out regularly.  What can I
do to stop this..  2 days in a row I've woken up at 6am to him chewing on his
door.  It is a habbitrail  w/o bars.  Is there a bitter spray or should I just block
him from the main room?

Answer
Hi Shannon

This is a very common problem and in all honesty I'm not sure what you can do to stop this.  

One of my hamsters chews her bars and often has bald patches on her face.  When she goes in her exercise ball she sits and picks at the joins so there is often a pile of plastic wherever she has been!

It is almost as though they get into the habit of doing this. Also, once they have found an area that they can chew they just keep going back to the exact spot all the time - but it could also be that he is bored.

One thing to be careful of is that he doesn't chew a hole and get out again.  One of mine used to do this and in the end she escaped (in fact she kept escaping as she managed to vibrate the door to the cage so much it would open).  In the end I blocked it off, wired it shut and she was really depressed.  I know this might sound dramatic, but she couldn't be bothered to come out of her nest at all - her usual inquisitive self was reduced to a hamster that wasn't interested in anything.  I then decided to get her a different cage - this was a much larger wire cage - one that I could attach rope and wooden ladders from the top - she loved it and seemed to completely forget about wanting to escape or chewing at the bars again.  I know this is a costly remedy, but it might be worth a try although you have no guarantee that if you do buy a new cage he will be happy - if you decide to I would strongly advise a wire one.  Although they do often chew the wire bars they are less likely to escape, plus they can climb a lot more easily and it is easy to attach hammocks, ladders etc from the top to create an assault course.

You could try blocking off the area but I suspect he will either find a way through or find somewhere else to chew.  With the toys you've given him, have you seen the 'snack shaks'?  These are edible houses/tubes and are sold in pet shops - these are quite good.  

I don't know if this helps you at all.  Sorry there is no simple answer to this problem.  Good luck with this.

Regards
Sheila