BAR CHEWER!

[rugoo]

My youngest, Kirby, is a bar chewer. He won’t chew for days and days but then he gets interested. I know by now this isn’t a stress behavior for him and he’s just a bar chewer I guess. Even though it stresses me out when he does so (since that behavior can mean stress in other animals). He has lots to do and is typically a very busy guy. However, recently I’ve noticed he had a “bald” spot on the bridge of his nose. this grew back quickly and he let me touch it and didn’t mind it at all.

Now he has a half circle spanning from both sides of his face. I don’t know what it’s from but he lets me pet him and move the fur around and he doesn’t seem bothered by it. He had been showing on the bars a lot lately since I wiggled some cardboard into it for enrichment. Do you think it’s the bars causing the lines? I cant brush them away.

Lastly, his cage mate Scout, has never had these marks, and he used to be a bar chewer when I fist got him (he’s a senior and this was the first time he had a new home in a while)

[savvy]

Mine get various lines on their faces when they've been a bit obsessive with the bar chewing. It is literally where they have worn their fur away.

As long as the skin isn't broken or inflamed its nothing to worry about and should resolve itself over time.

[laiyah]

My degus love to chew the bars as well. At first I thought it was a sign of anger and wanting to get out, but...


One of my degu would even climb the cage during free range and THEN chew the bars mid-air because I stuck some paper to stop them from going too far (my degus would let themself fall if I made any sudden movement or someone passed by). I install some wooden toys on some spots to kind of... force them to chew wood as much as possible (and delay the bar chewing), but it's just not possible to stop them...

I think they just find it to be a good outlet to express their anger for not being able to dominate the world.

[teemu]

Oh yes, it's quite common. I have/have had some degus as well who like to chew on bars and have had those marks on their face. The fur there is rather fine, so it seems like it can get worn down quite easily. As Savvy says, as long as there is no skin damage, it should be harmless. And I would assume that most degus will stop if it starts to actually rub their skin raw.

The reason that Scout did not have those marks may be that his chewing technique was a bit different. The marks occur when a degu really pushes their head against the bars and chews up and down (or left and right) along one, so that the bar next to that rubs against their face. If Scout kept his face further away, or pulled on the bars instead or something like that, there'd be no scraping. Or maybe his face fur was just tougher.

It's intresting that some degus just seem to be bar chewers. My Suti does it consistently quite often, and some others I've had have done it at various points for no apparent reason. I think it might be more common with more active degus, who may be frustrated that they can't just go wherever they please. Suti certainly seems to do it more when she's interested in what's happening outside the cage.

If you haven't tried it, you could see if attaching a carabiner clip or a binder clip (or basically anything that will dangle from the bars and can't be pulled off easily or chewed through) to the bars would divert his cage chewing energy a bit. Some degus find them absolutely fascinating and will spend a whole lot of time just fiddling with them.

[savvy]

I think the reason they chew the bars could be to help keep their back teeth in trim. Their front teeth they can wear down on wood, but their molars need another hard medium.

I did once catch Reggie chewing on a small stone she'd found in her food, that's probably what they would do in the wild.

[bouncy]

Yep, all of mine chew! Add a fold back clip for added fun (aka obsession and volume)