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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think this Mum killed her sons hamster?

67 replies

KittysMyName · 31/03/2017 19:27

A woman I know bought her 3 year old DS a hamster. They went on holiday for a few days, so just "left its bowl full of food and made sure it's water bottle was full." A day after coming home the hamster died and she posted on FB how she couldn't believe it and how upset her and her DS were. She didn't seem to think the death was in any way related to leaving it and her or anyone who commented didn't mention it. They all just said sometimes hamsters don't live very long (she had it for just a few months!)

AIBU to think you can't just leave pets on their own for a few days with a full bowl of food and full water bottle and think it's ok and nothing will happen??

OP posts:

ahamsternest · 31/03/2017 20:39

I was expecting an exciting murder mystery...

A child has a new hamster. The mother expresses signs of jealousy and begins to talk negatively about it. One day, the hamster is missing from its cage, and the mother claims it has run away. Do you think she killed it in a fit of rage?

Mouikey · 31/03/2017 20:39

I'll probably get flamed, but we have had a fair few hamsters as pets (as adults with no children). All of them have lived long, healthy and happy lives and all have been left for 3 or 4 days at one time or another.

As others have said they hoard food and hide it away, as long as there is fresh food (and a fair amount) and a good size bottle of water this wouldn't cause them to die. If it's a Syrian hamster they are solitary and don't require the interaction of people/hamsters! As long as they have a good size cage and a safe wheel that period of time should generally be fine to leave them.

Like many animals, some get sick and don't live very long. With hamsters you don't know they are ill until generally it is too late (as they hide any ailments to protect them from predators), when you do see something they generally only have a day or two.

HorridHenryrule · 31/03/2017 20:42

I left our family hamster alone for a week so we could all go on holiday. We came back and she was fine she was with us for 3 years. The holiday didn't kill her off natural causes did.

Original poster

KittysMyName · 31/03/2017 20:43

Thanks for the replies everyone, sorry for bad punctuation on title, didn't mean to alarm anyone!

So pleased the majority think leaving a hamster for a few days is ok, I genuinely didn't know hence my post. I agree with some posters though that getting a hamster for a 3 year old might not be the best idea, especially as this particular little boy is quite boisterous! I'm hoping dear old hammy just died peacefully, wasn't squished, dropped or buried alive!!

OP posts:

Cheby · 31/03/2017 20:45

I think leaving a hamster for a few days is fine. We leave our cats for 36hrs or so (e.g. leave early one morning, back late the following night, more than one night away and we get a cat sitter). Put down plenty of dried food in multiple locations round the house, same with water bowls, and they have free access to the outside. They have always been fine. If a little standoffish when we return, but that's just cats for you.

Screwinthetuna · 31/03/2017 20:46

I can't see why that would kill it? I had hamsters as a kid and didn't change their food every day and they never died of starvation

WankStainWasher · 31/03/2017 20:47

I had a hamster that got his foot stuck somehow and was trapped kind of hanging in his cage. Fortunately I noticed and sorted him out. He may have been like that for about an hour, but what if it had been 4 days? Awful. Surely it's not that difficult to find someone to leave a little pet like that with!

Olympiathequeen · 31/03/2017 20:48

I suppose if the water was still in place and plenty of food left for the hamster when they returned, it probably died of natural causes. Presumably not icy cold at the time?

I wouldn't personally leave any pet on its own though except a tortoise.

pictish · 31/03/2017 20:49

I also agree that hamsters do seem to die at random. I don't think she killed her son's hamster.

PyongyangKipperbang · 31/03/2017 22:36

My sister has a mini petting zoo in her house and her pets get treated better than most peoples kids (well mine anyway!) and she has had many hamsters. A couple have just died when they looked and seemed healthy and were nowhere near the age that they should have died. They just... did.

Texted her and she said that she would leave them for 4 days and they would be fine.

PyongyangKipperbang · 31/03/2017 22:36

That is, a couple have simply died, not just died as in this week or something!

BonjourMeDarlin · 31/03/2017 22:43

Maybe it wasn't dead it was just annoyed they had buggered off for a few days away and played dead when they got back.
The jokes on the hamster now I guess if he got buried because he was too convincing.

Hulababy · 31/03/2017 22:55

Weekend would definitely be fine. 4 days should be fine too.
For holidays of any more than a long weekend (3 nights) we booked our hamster in to a pet shop to be cared for. Other than that it was left with ample food and water and survived perfectly well. Coped very well when it escaped too!

Hulababy · 31/03/2017 22:56

One of our gerbils (not quite a hamster but similar) - I swear caused its own demise. It had a tube and stuffed one end full of hay and sawdust, then stuck its head in the other side and promptly got stuck over night. Was no more by the morning :( That wasnt a fun morning.

kali110 · 01/04/2017 00:01

Olympiathequeen no me neither don't understand how anyone can. What if it got sick?
We've always taken ours with us, ir left it with family if we went abroad.

PaulAnkaTheDog · 01/04/2017 00:41

I agree with some posters though that getting a hamster for a 3 year old might not be the best idea, especially as this particular little boy is quite boisterous! I'm hoping dear old hammy just died peacefully, wasn't squished, dropped or buried alive!!

Ahhhhh. There's the real reason for the post. A sly wee dig at the kid and the parents' judgment for getting a hamster. Not very surreptitious OP.

AKinkAdmirer · 01/04/2017 00:43

Agreed that leaving a hamster isn't going to kill him. However water bottles can randomly stop working sometimes, I nearly lost one to dehydration this way although he recovered when we realised his bottle wasn't releasing water properly.

Three years is really too young for a hamster though. They're much too small and easy to squish. It wasn't responsible to get one in the first place.

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