My girlfriend has two degus. They used to chew on the bars in their old enclosure, so she bought them a much larger one that they seemed content with. Today, when she got home after a long day of work/school (so she was gone a bit longer than normal), she found that they had eaten a hole the size of 1.5-2 human fists in the side of their new enclosure (the base is plastic). There was no chewing damage to this area of the cage last night.
Is there any reason they suddenly would have decided to consume that much of their cage? That seems like an absurd amount for such small creatures to me, especially given how long it took them to damage anything else they tried to chew on. They have had plenty of food and water available, so they shouldn't be hungry.
