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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think a hamster cage should last more than 2 months?

18 replies

AlmostAJillSandwich · 16/03/2017 16:12

Bought on Amazon mid January, £30 cage. Ok cage, not the sturdiest ever built but good enough i thought. Bars were a little bit flimsy in that could bend them apart a bit if you pushed your finger between them but not that much give.
A horizontal bar that was secure this morning has snapped off not one, but two of the vertical support bars, and with that bar out of the way and the give in the ones above and below it, the bloody hamster has managed to squeeze out.

Typically happened the one day i don't make sure to pull my bedroom door completely shut, so it could be anywhere in the house, if it's toddled in to the bathroom it could have gotten under the floorboards.

If she had eaten through the plastic base fair enough thats something they do, but surely the bar welds shouldn't snap off?

OP posts:
Original poster
AlmostAJillSandwich · 16/03/2017 16:15

The bars aren't even wide set, and look at her gorgeous greedy face!

AIBU to think a hamster cage should last more than 2 months?
AIBU to think a hamster cage should last more than 2 months?
OP posts:
Giraffe31 · 16/03/2017 16:17

Oh no have you found her yet?!

Original poster
AlmostAJillSandwich · 16/03/2017 16:43

Sadly not, she got out sometime between 1 and 4, turned my room upside down looking for her but she's not in there, she could be anywhere in the house and she's probably asleep in some corner. She's a major food monster so i'm hoping she comes out wanting to know where her dinner is.

OP posts:
StarryIllusion · 16/03/2017 17:21

Make a bed in the corner of the room with some kind of furniture in front as shelter and put food and water near it. Chances are you will find her asleep in there at some point during the day.

Meekonsandwich · 16/03/2017 19:50

Hmm, 30 pounds should buy you a cage that actually stays together so I think this one may be faulty. but maybe go to a pet store next time and check out the bars for yourself, they shouldn't really bend too easily. Or go for a fish tank, with a mesh lid for ventilation. Now, finding the hammie, I've had 3 escape, (never buy a cage with bloody tubes for a Syrian hamster they're too heavy) and every time I found them with the bucket method. Put a bucket or box in the room you think they're in with books or DVD making a stair case up to it, place a piece of paper or material over the hole of the bucket or box. Fill the trap with tissue or shredded paper to make for a soft landing and bait the steps and paper/material with yummy food like cheese or small pieces of chocolate. They'll follow the steps up and step on the paper falling in the box. Voila.

Giraffe31 · 16/03/2017 19:55

oh i really hope you manage to find her OP!

amberdillyduck · 16/03/2017 19:56

Put peanut butter on tin foil in a deep bucket with a book ladder up. You will catch her.

ColourfulOrangex · 16/03/2017 20:05

I hope you find her OP and yes if expect a cage to last longer than that

ColourfulOrangex · 16/03/2017 20:06

*I'd

Peachypeaches · 16/03/2017 20:16

Sloping bucket with book ladder baited with hamster chocolate drops worked every time my hamster escaped.

Original poster
AlmostAJillSandwich · 16/03/2017 20:59

She's found :D I went for a wee, popped in my room to check on my other hamsters, walked out and had a heart attack as she was stood there, right on the edge of the top of the stairs. I was more scared she'd try to run and fall down them, she's only 4 months old and she will take food off you and let you stroke her whilst she eats but she doesn't let you pick her up.
Poor thing was really distressed at being put in the little travel case too, she literally screams (sounds just like pigs when they squeal) cue mad dash to pets at home half an hour before they shut to get a new cage with her screaming the whole way there trying to talk to her to calm her down.
She's in her new cage (no tubes, had the falling out hamster trick myself) with some of her bedding in with her smell on it and her toys to try to make it familiar and leaving her for a few days to settle in again. She's inching about millimetre at a time barely moving, but at least she's stopped screaming. Few days she'll be throwing herself round the cage coming running for food every time you walk in.

Thankyou everyone for the tips, just got very lucky she came wandering out from wherever she was right in front of me.

OP posts:
AnnieAnoniMouse · 16/03/2017 21:04

She's so cute, I'm glad she's safe again. Ours was a right little Mischevious Madam, full of life and not the slightest bit shy from day 1. We lost her at the end of last year & I really miss her :(

Why did you take her with you? It's not like she needed to choose the cage 😂

Original poster
AlmostAJillSandwich · 16/03/2017 21:13

My dad wasn't risking me leaving her in my room in the little travel case as it's only plastic, in case she managed to get out of it while we were gone and disappeared again. I thought it was un neccessary to take her too but he's the boss (read: Taxi Wink)
She would have been just as distressed screaming in my bedroom and possibly upset the other hamsters, and at least i could talk to her and try to calm her down taking her with.

OP posts:
Original poster
AlmostAJillSandwich · 16/03/2017 21:16

I'm sorry you lost your little girl, i miss every one of the little fluffy pets i've had over the years, probably got to take my very old gerbil to be put to sleep some point in the next week or so too, it's so hard losing them.
I've been really quite unlucky too, one died on my 18th, one on christmas eve. Doesn't get any easier no matter how many you've had.

OP posts:
unlucky83 · 16/03/2017 21:22

Glad you found her ...(and you haven't got a cat...when my DD's hamster got out I realised because I saw the cat suddenly go into alert hunting mode ...luckily I managed to keep them apart ...)
My DB lost his hamster in his house...and they had a cat too After it had been missing for several weeks, they assumed the worst had happened and got a new one...a week or so later he heard scrabbling in the extension ceiling... single story he couldn't get in from above- he had to carefully cut a hole in it whilst hoping it wasn't rats or mice ...It was the original hamster - a little thinner but otherwise fine. (It must have found something to eat and drink somewhere ... and he had to go and buy an emergency cage too...)

In fact DD1's rescue hamster had been a stray - found in a block of flats where no-one admitted to losing one...

TheHouseOfIllRepute · 16/03/2017 22:41

Our hamster escaped and got under the floorboard. It lived there for 3 months
I set numerous traps but they all failed. It collected food and took it down
I sat up one night and caught it. It was never the same though. It actually growled when i caught it and remained feral

shortsaint · 16/03/2017 22:49

Our lovely hamster escaped once and after we'd given up hope was found in the recycling box in the shed of the house 2 doors down. I still have no idea how she got there.

Original poster
AlmostAJillSandwich · 17/03/2017 01:14

I don't have cats no, but i do have 2 adult snakes :P
One of which escaped last year, took 4 days to find him, never even went in my room where there were 2 dwarf hamsters, 4 gerbils, and my lovely syrian (who has escaped 8 times, 3 times under the floor, he gets sneakier every time, he has extra clips on his cage door because he can and will open it and run off even if you're stood there)
Thankfully he is a sweetheart of a snake, and a fussy eater, will only eat rats and chicks, won't touch mice for some reason.
Other snake will eat anything, if he ever gets out i'm camping in my room 24/7.

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