Where did our hamsters go? Another update (possibly the end) Final update #183

[DisneyAndRedSox]

I am so happy DD has never asked for more than a Zhu Zhu hamster!
Good luck finding the little guys!

 

[csharpwv]

Seriously? Your pet is lost in your house and you're giving up and wondering if they'll "just die after a few days?" Perhaps pet ownership is not for you.

I think you are taking the poster's comments out of context - I think the OP is afraid the hamster will die if it isn't found.

And in addition, I don't think she's ready to give up on the search for the animal - I think she is ready to give up on having a hamster as a pet if this one isn't found.

We had hamsters growing up - and indeed the first one we ever had got out of his cage the very first night and we never found him despite a very creative sustained and exhaustive search.

We had many hamster after that - and yes, they are quite the escape artists. What we found worked the best was putting a piece of duct tape across the clips to prevent the clips from moving at all. Also - be sure you don't have anything in the cage that ENCOURAGES them to climb to the top of the cage. Also - if you have plenty of things for them to play with (tubes, tunnels, a couple different types of wheels, chew sticks etc etc) they won't get bored as quickly.

Hamsters can be a lot of fun - but just like any other pet... they require love and attention. We even gave ours a bath a few times of year - and it really seemed to enjoy the attention and playing in the shallow water.

The last one we had lived a very long time - almost 5 years - which is pretty rare as 2-3 years is about the maximum life expectancy. Nosy received a proper burial - in a piece of Rubbermaid with a hand crocheted hamster size blanket. When we moved away from the house I grew up in, I thought what someone might think one day when they find that buried in the backyard! LOL

Anyway - OP don't give up on hamsters! They can be very rewarding pets!

Good luck in finding your little Houdini!

 

[lukenick1]

Put the cage on the floor in the house somewhere with the cage door open. You'll be surprised to see how they find their way home to sleep and eat. Their eyesight is poor but they have a great sense of smell. Good luck! Another suggestion, if you find it, change the cage to a rubbermaid bin. Its much easier to clean and they cannot escape!

 

[seashoreCM]

....then jumped into the heat duct. I put a piece of cloth in the duct thinking that he could use it to climb back out. After a few days I realized that he wasn't coming back out and gave up.

... but after this one committed suicide I figured that hamsters weren't really our thing.

He probably got (or fell) to where he could not climb back to the open duct.
He probably starved to death.

 

[mrudman]

I had a hamster when I was younger, and when he (she?) was about 2 yrs old, it went missing. I would say it was around September that year.

We searched everywhere for it, couldn't find it, so each evening I would make sure the cage was on the floor with the door open with fresh food...

Don't remember if the food ever disappeared or not, but come Christmas-time (note about 2-3 months after disappearance), we were getting all our decorations out. We kept the decorations in our laundry room, which is down 2 flights of stairs, and all the way across a very long basement.

My hamster had built himself a little nest inside the box of my little fake christmas tree I kept in my room. Little bugger had chewed a hole in the side of the box and stockpiled wood shavings and food in there.

So they can live for a while, and can be very crafty, lol.

 

[dixonismydog]

They can live a long time, with very little to eat or drink. Get a live trap....you won't be long catching him!

By the way I second the guinea pigs......LOVE my piggies!

 

[reginaastralis]

My mom is a teacher and a teacher down the hall was always having trouble keeping her hamsters in their cages. It was weird, but they would always find there way to my mom's classroom.

Well, one hamster went missing, and they searched everywhere. They assumed the guy had somehow made it into my mom's classroom, so they left food out for him. Six months later ... my mom was sitting alone in her classroom after everyone had left and heard this weird noise ... the hamster was sitting behind really heavy bookshelves that were, of course, over stocked with my mom's teaching materials.

It scared the crud out of her .. but he was fine.

 

[DawnM]

NO! I mean future hamster pet ownership may not be for us. I am not giving up and I really didn't know they could survive for any longer than a few days outside of the cage, without food, etc......

Dawn

Seriously? Your pet is lost in your house and you're giving up and wondering if they'll "just die after a few days?" Perhaps pet ownership is not for you.

 

[Buckeye Princess]

Growing up my sister and I each had hamsters. I had one that was always escaping. We used to then take my sister's out and put him in one of those hamster balls. Every time mine would come out of hiding to chase the ball around.

 

[susykt4]

My daughter had one that was gone at least 6 weeks with NO signs, etc. We had both a cat and a dog at the time and assumed the worst. One night I was asleep and woke to the hamster leaping up the head of my bed, trying to scramble up by my head. The thing scared me to death because I was SLEEPING and totally thought it was a rat in my house! We had given up on ever finding the hamster and were shocked to have her back!

 

[DawnM]

Thanks guys.

We do have a live trap set in the living room. It has been set for the entire time the hamsters have been gone.

I am going to try the CAGE set up on the floor with food and water though and see if that helps!

Here is the entire story. We received 2 hamsters from a coworker of DH's about 4 weeks ago. They got along great and we had them in the same cage.

13 days later one of them gave birth to 8 babies! Coworker didn't know she had given us a pregnant hamster.

The two original hamsters stopped getting along. We got another cage and separated them.

The Mom hamster escaped last Friday while her (and babies') cage was getting cleaned. It was a horrible mistake of not securing part of the extra cage. My 10 year old feels horrible about it.

In the meantime we have been taking very good care of motherless babies and 7 of them are thriving and sweet as can be. The runt did die.

Yesterday Max (other adult hamster) was fine, but while we were gone for the day my two dogs jumped the fence and got into the office where the hamsters are and knocked Max's cage over and it split open (one of those habitrail type plastic cages) and Max is now gone too.

I think we have homes for 6 of the 7 babies and most of them will be picked up by this Friday.

We DO feel horrible about this.


What I meant by maybe this isnt' the pet for us is that particularly while we still have dogs, hamsters may not be the right pet for us. I wonder if sticking to dogs and not adding into the mix would be a better idea.

Thank you all for the suggestions. We are continuing to look.

Dawn

 

[mrsklamc]

DH lost one as a kid. It was inside an armchair.

 

[DawnM]

Yikes. DH did cut a piece of wall recently to put in a cable and I worry about that. It is still exposed.

Dawn

my sister's hamsters would always end up in the walls.

 

[DawnM]

We have a live mouse trap and we have set it up. Nothing yet.

My 10 year old was horrified that we would kill baby mice in the basement and asked if we could just let them go.

So we got a live trap and when we caught something I made the boys go let them go in the woods behind our house.

They were awfully cute. Little gray things with huge pink ears.

Dawn

Get a "Have a Heart" animal trap and put it out and bait it with something that hamsters love to eat. You have to check it a couple times a day though or he will die in the trap from dehydration and exposure. While you are waiting, figure out how it happened and fix the cage. You could leave a trail of food to the trap - like E.T. and the Reeses Pieces.

 

[sjs314]

When my best friends hamster got loose many years ago, they searched high and low in the house upstairs and down to no avail. They did not think it could have gotton outside, but one day we were sitting out on their porch, they had one of those wrap around porches you see on older houses, and there he was, bad thing it was fall and the nights especially were colder, the was alive but just barely so my friends mother wrapped him up to try and warm him , he would not eat they took him to the vets but he died anyway.

Don't just assume he did not find a way out of the house. I hope you find your hamster. Good Luck

 

[aaronella]

My son had a hamster who escaped a few times. First time, we found him in the basement by the hot water heater. Second time took a bit longer but finally found him in the bathroom sleeping with the toilet brush, in the little holder. I guess it liked the dark and had chewed the brush for bedding!

 

[EllenFrasier]

They are nocturnal, so your best chance of hearing them munching on food or scrambling around will be at night. Could be fun to camp out with some flashlights in the house and try to find them.

 

[thebeesknees]

My brother's hamster got out when we were kids and wound up in my bed a few nights later. Woke me up by climbing on me and scared the **** out of me! Another time, my brother found one in the middle of the street when he was out at 4 AM doing his paper route. We put up signs but never found the owner, so he kept it. I still wonder how it got out of the house, but as previous posts show, these little guys are clever and quick!

 

[DawnM]

Ok, open cage is set up with a wheel, food, and water. I put it where we can hopefully hear the wheel if it goes in the middle of the night.

Dawn

 

[marie1203]

OP as many had said before the hamster probably can avoid the dogs and even cats. we have 5 dogs and a cat our hamster got out often but they were smart enough to get out of the way. I hope you find them soon.