Escaped hamster

[whatdoidonowffs]

Morning all
My 8 year old daughter had a hamster for Christmas bloody thing has houdinied it’s way out of the cage
Do I tell her or replace it ?
Does anyone know the likelihood of the original Ozzie coming back ?

It hopefully hasn’t gone too far (although when ours escaped it enjoyed a romp around the whole upstairs!) -have. Look in the corners of the room-behind furniture etc and leave the cage open on the floor. You could try leaving a trail of food.

You can’t replace it!

in the evening when they are more active turn off all noise & listen for scratching sounds - hamsters are Houdini's they can open cage doors we used plastic bag ties to keep doors shut! check behind tall cupboards & the inside of kitchen cupboards - they can climb stairs!

My friend lost her hamster in uni and it did not end well. But my brother's hamster escaped once and they found it a month later in perfect health (despite the two cats!).

You've got to tell her, then try to catch it tonight. Importantly though, do you have a dog or a cat?

If so, your chances of finding out alive are lowered somewhat.

Out = it

One of ours used to escape, wander around a bit, and then come back because it was hungry!

Use peanut butter to entice it back.

Sometimes after several days

Yeah don't replace it yet!

Put food in each room, a ring of flour around the food so you can see if it's been there, and doors closed.

There's a bucket trick if you have a small one - food and bedding I. The bucket, a ladder/ramp up to the top and in theory the hamster climbs the ramp, goes in the bucket for the food and can't get back out.

Check your loft

This happened to us. My son left a bag of unsalted peanuts on the floor and came back a little later to find Houdini sitting in the bag gourging himself.

I heard mine, she was moving between the kitchen and the bathroom. I left her cage in the bathroom and loads of food. Found her snuggled up in there one morning.

Ours came back 2 months later. We have those huge boxes of washing powder, I put my hand in and scooped her up. I may have screamed.

She'd clearly had such an amazing adventure, oh the things she'd have seen!

So never say never (she was okish - very thin and I had to wash her with a cotton bud. Had only been in the powder for a few hours. She lived another 8 months post adventure)

A bridge up to an angled bucket with soft landing containing food.
Angled enough to be enticing, but steep enough that once in they can't get out.

Ours has escaped twice, each time through breaking a joint in an external tube.

First time stayed in the room (I think the door was shut) and hid behind the dresser, we could hear him scrabbling. I put some food out and sat very quietly and then cornered him with cardboard panels.

Second time he climbed the stairs and found DD in her room!

We have now reinforced the tube and always make sure the door is hut at night.

Our hamster made nests in the bottom drawers in the kitchen and ds1 bedroom both of which had towels/ clothes in them

Might be worth a check

We used to let her out though so it was our own fault

My housemate’s hamster escaped. We found him 48 hours later in a dried flower arrangement in the fireplace - the rustling gave him away, as did a trail of fluff where he’d chewed open the underside of the sofa to get bedding out. I would also go round checking floor/ankle level electric cables, as he’d also gnawed at the flex to the TV, exposing the wires. My housemate nearly electrocuted herself unplugging the TV a couple of weeks later.

Also, if you do have cats and no murdered hammy corpse has yet appeared, watch your cats showing sudden, persistent interest in specific cupboards, drawers, hidey corners etc. That’s where your renegade hammy will be hiding.

Mine ended up under the kitchen floorboards

Check underneath and behind all furniture in the room where the hamster was. We had two or three escapes and that seemed to be where they made for every time. Apart from the time when the silly creature must have climbed up on something and fallen into the waste bin.

Ours escaped once and went behind the fire, before making an appearance half way through my parents’ cheese and wine party. Oh, how they laughed (eventually)
Then there was the story of another (belonging to friends), which escaped and was hastily replaced by an identical model. This worked well until the original one turned up, fossilised in a vase...

I’d tell her - is also not replace it yet

DD’s escaped from the cage in DD’s upstairs bedroom. We found it a few weeks later when the cooker wouldn’t work. Pulled cooker out and found hamster who had eaten the cooker electric cable - god knows how it didn’t electrocute itself.

He was a regular escapee. In the end we had to keep something heavy on his cage as he worked out how to open the catch, push the door up and wriggle out

Ozzie has been found 🙌🙌 hiding in her school shoe 😂😂
Thanks for the advice though will be handy next time he makes a bid for freedom 😂😂

Yay!!!

Yay! Ours escaped so often that in the end id let her. Lid off the cage, main doors shut. She'd always be back by morning. (Usually needed a clean too.) Never known a hamster like her!

Once a hammy gets a taste for freedom, they are likely to do it again IME. Consider countermeasures if you don’t eant want a repeat attempt.