To let my hamster be a house hamster?

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I rescued a hamster about 4 months ago who had had a pretty shit life up until then (she was about 8 months old when I got her).

She had never really been handled, but is now super tame and friendly. Her (very large) cage is on the floor of the living room, and since she’s become tamer I’ve been just opening the door of the cage and letting her free roam around the living room every evening, usually for 3-4 hours, sometimes longer. When she’s tired she gets back in her cage and puts herself back to bed.

Last night I was —three sheets to the wind— tired, and fell asleep while she was having her run around. This morning, when I went downstairs, she wasn’t in her house. No sign of her all day, but this evening she woke up and has been running around as normal, popping back into her cage every now and again for food and drinks or a quick run on her wheel.

I closed her cage door at about 10.30, and her little face broke my heart! She just sat at the door of her cage looking very sad indeed. She’s now out running around again. So I’m thinking, people have house rabbits, how about a house hamster? I’d keep her confined to the living room and she’d have the option of being in her cage if she wanted to be there (and I’d obviously put all her food in there).

Is this a bonkers idea? She has a sand bath, soil, deep substrate, and more toys and treats than you can shake a stick at in her cage, but she’d far rather not be in there. We don’t have any other pets that could munch her, and the dc are well trained at keeping the doors closed.

I used to do this with my hamster - the room was secure and I just used to give her the run of it when I was home - with the cage door open so she could pop back for food /water/sleep if she wanted. She never chewed cables, but she did once get into the big sack of hamster food. She had completely stuffed her pouches by the time I found her - she was like a tennis ball.

Just no. Our hamster got out and ate through the table protector thingy we have. It had a sort of insulating thing underneath and I guess she used it to line her bed. She also got onto the bed and my dh woke up with what he thought was a giant rat walking towards him. She will eat through wires etc and probably kill herself. I know she's cute, but she is a rodenty thing.

Worse ever was looking after my friends "house trained" iguana. God never again. It was actually toilet trained and went in a bowl. It also had to be kept warm and if it got cold, it hid amongst furry toys. It looked like ET emerging from them as I quickly placed her back in her "home".

It will get in every little gap and shit and piss everywhere.

No way - mine was out for a night and made a hole into the floorboards and settled inside my sofa 🙈

We had the Barney cage for ours. It was the perfect space

You sound like a 10/10 caring owner, and I think you've already decided whether HH is a good idea or not...

Can we have a Peanut thread, though? Like Thug Cat? He's so full of expression!! I love him!

The cage is too small, really.

That’s a terribly cute hamster but for her own safety she needs to be in the cage, not in some inaccessible cranny behind the fridge.

We had a hamster called Houdini. It could escape from anywhere. It escaped one night, chewed through the winter coats and made a nest behind the cooker. My dad found it a week later after he spotted it walking behind the glass oven door.

As lovely as the idea sounds to have a house hamster, it would be bonkers.

Aww Daily Mail sad face hamster

She's gorgeous! What size is your cage? Hamsters need a lot more space than pet shop cages tend to be. Our hamster is in a Ferplast Maxi Duna Multy which is 100cm x 51cm x 36cm. An Alaska or a Barney are also good cages, as well as a Hamster Heaven. They also need to have a large 30cm wheel (Silent Spinner's are good). Your hamster will be unhappy if their space is too small.

Sorry I made the classic mistake of not reading all your replies. Hamster Heaven is a great size cage, just check her wheel is 30cm. Lots of free range time with you there will be great for her, but not without you there. Our old hamster escaped from her glass tank and got back in before we woke up, we thought we had mice because lots of things were being chewed. It wasn't until a few week later when she hadn't got back in before we woke up and we found her sitting on the living room floor we realised it was her and not mice! How she didn't kill her self and how she got out and back into her glass tank we shall never know!

She's lovely but she'll chew up your cables, curtains and anything else she can get her teeth on. And she'll shit and piss all over your house. It's a no from me ...

Looks like a hamster in a Pixar film. So cute and I understand why you want to let her have freedom. Letting her out while you're in the room and watching her is the best idea.

Can we have more photos please? :)

We used to let an elderly gerbil out for 20 mins every evening in the living room (with the door shut) because he was the last surviving one and missed his partner and we thought he was lonely. He was too old to chew anything - he had not been chewing toilet rolls for about six months - so we thought we were fairly safe from any cable-chewing business. I forgot about him during a gripping part of a film and only realised later, when he reappeared looking very pleased with himself, that I hadn't seen him for about an hour.

The next evening we watched him more closely and discovered that he could squeeze under the door like Houdini, and also climb the stairs, so presumably had been happily exploring the upstairs rooms the night before.

Moral: never presume that you have safely enclosed a rodent.

Your hamster is having you on with that DM ready sad expression.

Just like some people have a default resting bitch face a hamster has a default woe is me resting face. It's genetic not emotional.

I believe that in their natural environment their instinct is to tunnel. I am assuming you have sofas and chairs in your living room? Perfect tunnelling material........

Don't do it! A friend's hamster escaped and went missing for a week. The result was a very tragic ending - death by piano pedal!

Our hamster (RIP) used to love his cage - he would voluntarily walk back in there if he'd been out and seemed to love nothing more than tidying up his bed and making sure everything was in order (hated anything being moved - had to replace everything exactly after cleaning). The problem with letting him roam free is that he might get lost, stuck or crushed - not really comparable to a house rabbit as they are so much bigger. I also think your house would soon start to smell - I found ours phenomenally smelly if his cage wasn't cleaned regularly. I don't think yours looks sad - she just looks like a hamster (very cute).

How are going to collect the droppings?

Rodents' teeth constantly grow so they need to chew on something all the time as well.

Terrible idea. They continuously pee and cannot be trained so you will now just have hamster pee and poo all over your room... They also chew through absolutely everything. My Uncle had a chinchilla once, it escaped from its cage while he was at work and he returned to find his living room absolutely destroyed. It had chewed through all of the cables, the sofa, curtains... Nightmare.

Mine regularly escaped, ruined lots of clothes, carpets, wires. It wasn’t pretty. Mum wasn’t happy.

I'm really enjoying the idea that "DM sad face" might become "Hamster sad face" 🤣

We never found Maud after she made her break for freedom.

No we used to let our out it found a gap under kitchen unit to below floorboards took ages to coax it back. They can also squash their bodies through the tiniest gaps such as under doors

It will piss and shit everywhere! For this reason alone you couldn’t do it.