Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Lost hamster !

233 replies

Bowbellsx · 21/01/2023 18:00

last night we cleaned him out and my daughter didn’t close the lid and he must of escaped over night, we’ve checked everywhere no doors were left open. I’ve literally searched every room cupboard? Any tips

OP posts:
PortiasBiscuit · 22/01/2023 08:39

Put some food and water in a humane mouse trap. He will be thirsty as well as hungry very soon.

Deathraystare · 22/01/2023 08:41

Our first escapologist marched out from behind the fireplace.

My last one broke out of a cage on top of the piano in the dining room, got past the cat (how???), marched up the stairs and was making a nest out of some paper in my bedroom side table! I kept seeing a flash of golden orange go by and then lot of rustling!

Chickoletta · 22/01/2023 08:43

Try underneath the bottom drawer in chests of drawers, sideboard etc. This is where we found Basil after 48hrs many years ago. Good luck.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Other pets & animals
hashbrownsandwich · 22/01/2023 08:54

I would be questioning your partner to be honest....

Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 08:54

I’m so upset

OP posts:
Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 08:55

hashbrownsandwich · 22/01/2023 08:54

I would be questioning your partner to be honest....

me and my partner don’t live together he wasn’t here when he went missing

OP posts:
bellamountain · 22/01/2023 08:59

We returned from holiday twice over the years to find our hamsters missing. Neighbours didn't close the doors properly! One was found behind the fridge and the other was found upstairs under the floor boards in the airing cupboard. They will come to get food and you will hear them scurrying when they are awake. Fingers crossed OP.

Elisheva · 22/01/2023 08:59

Build a trap by getting a high sided box and building stairs up to the top. Put a little trail of food up the stairs and something tasty in the box - peanut butter or cheese, plus a bit of his used bedding. You could also put little dabs of sunflower oil. In the box put food, bedding and water. Put one trap upstairs and one down.
He won't come out again until this evening now, if you keep moving furniture and things to try and find him he'll stay hidden.
Put the boxes out and then go to bed.

dolor · 22/01/2023 09:07

I had a hamster as a child. She was a MASSIVE ADVENTURE. unbeknownst to me when we got her, she was pregnant, so one day when I got home from school and I went to check on her, I pulled her bedding aside and saw all these pink legs. That was one thing.

She was absolutely mental. She would manage to escape her cage a lot of the time despite my best efforts of clips, cable ties etc, she just chewed through everything. She always came back to her cage, but I felt her sitting on the side of my face one night, before she curled up into the crook of my neck and went to sleep. On several occasions, my mum found her sleeping in HER SHOES, after she scrambled out of her cage, across the landing, UNDER my mum's bedroom door, and into her wardrobe. She also decided to empty her cheek pouches in people's coat pockets and such.

We found apples with chomp marks in them, and all sorts. She was a proper little adventurer.

They can and will climb everything. Don't underestimate their ability to survive though, they're very tenacious. I hope you find your hammy soon.

Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 09:11

bellamountain · 22/01/2023 08:59

We returned from holiday twice over the years to find our hamsters missing. Neighbours didn't close the doors properly! One was found behind the fridge and the other was found upstairs under the floor boards in the airing cupboard. They will come to get food and you will hear them scurrying when they are awake. Fingers crossed OP.

Wouldn’t he have come out by now though for food and water?

OP posts:
WrendaleCountryDogs · 22/01/2023 09:12

Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 08:54

I’m so upset

Seems a bit of an over reaction to a hamster who you know must be in that room.

Get yourself one of those humane traps and don't go into that room again until he's caught.

Exdpisatwat · 22/01/2023 09:13

Don't give up hope op! As pp have said, it sometimes takes weeks or even months for them to show up.

Also, the cage you have is no longer recommended for hamsters. I'm not saying it to be judgemental, I used the same type for decades, but it's now recommended that hamsters have at least 6 inches of substrate to burrow into. I've moved my hamster into one of the Pawhut cages and just nailed the bottom drawer shut. A lot of people use glass fishtanks as well.

hamstergeek.com/how-deep-should-hamster-bedding-be/

Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 09:15

I gutted

OP posts:
Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 09:15

I’m

OP posts:
Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 09:17

WrendaleCountryDogs · 22/01/2023 09:12

Seems a bit of an over reaction to a hamster who you know must be in that room.

Get yourself one of those humane traps and don't go into that room again until he's caught.

Show quote history

ive searched the room since yesterday morning and nothing I’ve ordered the trap. It’s in my living room that I have to go through to my kitchen and it’s not a over reaction I’m allowed to be sad as a human

OP posts:
Fixthesinks · 22/01/2023 09:17

When I was a child, my hamster escaped a lot and would be found behind the cooker (parents would be cursing at having to pull cooker away from wall).

I'd be upset too. I hope you find it x

Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 09:18

Fixthesinks · 22/01/2023 09:17

When I was a child, my hamster escaped a lot and would be found behind the cooker (parents would be cursing at having to pull cooker away from wall).

I'd be upset too. I hope you find it x

I’ve got a built in oven x

OP posts:
Vegetablesupreme · 22/01/2023 09:20

Have you checked your handbag? I remember watching a Topsy and Tim episode on cbeebies with my son once (I think it might have been a Guinea pig though) and they discovered lost furry pet in Mum's handbag!

Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 09:22

Vegetablesupreme · 22/01/2023 09:20

Have you checked your handbag? I remember watching a Topsy and Tim episode on cbeebies with my son once (I think it might have been a Guinea pig though) and they discovered lost furry pet in Mum's handbag!

ive checked everywhere

OP posts:
OfTheNight · 22/01/2023 09:27

I know it’s different but one of our snakes escaped in August. We put a line of flour over every door threshold in the house so we could see if he moved around.

After a month I had completely given up hope. We had a reptile specialist out, going under all the floor boards and through every conceivable hiding spot.

Last week DP found him casually climbing the stairs! He looked in really good condition but we had him checked by the vet just in case. He was totally fine and she said that smaller animals like lizards, snakes and rodents are far more adept at surviving in the wild than dogs etc. So don’t give up hope OP. Really hope he comes back.

Pinkysunset · 22/01/2023 09:30

He may still turn up! I was always letting mine out of the cage to stretch his legs a bit as a child- and inevitably loosing him. Some times it took 4 or 5 days but I always found them again. I did have one make it downstairs once- we had carpeted stairs so expect he gripped that and climbed- or maybe he just fell down? Used to leave grapes by the holes where the radiator pipes when in to the floor- but usually they were under/ behind something. It’s not all lost yet. Completely understandable to be sad and worried though.

MikeWozniaksMoustache · 22/01/2023 09:32

We lost 2 hamsters when I was little.

One we got back after a day or two. My
dad set up a trap (food on vhs leading to a metal bin which had a little bedding in the bottom to cushion the fall).

Sadly the other was lost forever. They can squeeze through teeny tiny gaps. Have you noticed any droppings? We gleaned ours had gotten into the kitchen cupboards and squeezed out through a gap where a pie was.

I do hope you have a happy ending though.

KnottyKnitting · 22/01/2023 09:32

Ours disappeared down a hole at the back of the bidet in the bathroom where DD was letting him run. (We didn't know there was a hole behind it. )Bidet was taken out but we couldnt see him ( used a video camera with a night vision setting!) We set a trap (step ladder of books into a bucket with a trail of food. ) We thought all was lost but 5 days later after having put the tube from the cage into the hole leading back into the cage- we went in in the morning and he was asleep in his cage!

Original poster
Bowbellsx · 22/01/2023 09:36

I’d have more hope if he would of touched his food he must be hungry and need water

OP posts:
Scootergrrrl · 22/01/2023 09:45

We had one which escaped, climbed into the back of the cooker and chewed through one of the wires which short-circuited all the electrics in the house when we tried to turn it on (luckily for him!). We knew it was him as he shot out from under the cooker. We were in army accommodation in Germany at the time, which meant we had to call out the German tradesman who covered our estate, and try to explain to him what had happened pre-Google Translate. That was an interesting conversation....
Good luck with finding your little escapee!