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Original poster

To let my hamster be a house hamster?

394 replies

DifficultSituation19 · 14/07/2019 01:30

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.

To let my hamster be a house hamster?
OP posts:
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52
Isleepinahedgefund · 14/07/2019 15:15

How big is her cage? Those fancy ones with the tubes aren't usually big enough. You want something at least a metre long.

I wouldn't let her out without supervision - they can get up to all sorts. But I used to do the same with my hamsters - I had two so they had to come out at different times but they both spent huge chunks of time out of their cages free ranging. They had huge cages too so didn't get frustrated about being confined - they would quite often come out, run around for a bit, find a favourite corner and go to back to sleep anyway! One would take himself back to his cage.

rosy71 · 14/07/2019 15:15

We've had several hamsters that we let roam around the living room all evening. One used to climb up the curtains and sit on the curtain rail. We had another one that used to hold onto the bars of the cage door and shake them until we let her out! I wouldn't let them out if I wasn't there though. They sleep all day anyway so presumably it doesnt realky matter that they're in a cage then.

CalamBalam · 14/07/2019 15:19

Peanut is so cute! A veritable supermodel of the rodent world! She has a face like a teeny weeny teddy bear.

AlmostAJillSandwich · 14/07/2019 15:21

Looks similar to one of my little darlings :D
Lwttin them out in the room when you're there is fine, but i've had one manage to get up on top of a 6ft wardrobe abd if i hadn't been there to get her down, could have really hurt herself.

To let my hamster be a house hamster?
AlmostAJillSandwich · 14/07/2019 15:29

I currently have 5 syrians and a roborovski, they basicaly took over my bedroom and i sleep downstairs now so they can be awake all night being noisy :P

IntegratedTheory · 14/07/2019 15:55

I loved our hamster. He used to snuggle in my dressing gown pocket 🐹

EdWinchester · 14/07/2019 16:23

IntegratedTheory I loved our hamster. He used to snuggle in my dressing gown pocket

Snap!

To let my hamster be a house hamster?
flyingspaghettimonster · 14/07/2019 16:55

We did this when we were in college... hamster had 5 cages by the end as I kept adding another feeling bad about keeping him locked in. Finally we gabe up putting him back and he just lived behind the wardrobe. He would always come out when called, but it wasn't a good idea as it was hard to clean behind there and there was always the worry of treading on him. He always would go snuffling about to find food to take home to hide. One time he found a box of mr. Kiplings apple pies on the bedside table and was dragging a whole pie across the bed trying to take it home!

We were dumb kids, but now I realise it wasn't a good idea. Just long free roam times is best. Hansters can get lost and trapped easily. One of our kids hamsters escaped once and went missing for 3 days before we finally found him in the toilet roll storage pot where he had fallen while trying to find a place to sleep. It wasn't in a bathroom we used much so it was pure luck I heard him scrabbling about and found him before he died. There are so many things that could kill them including if other nearby or previous residents have put mouse poison down that he finds.

MrMeSeeks · 14/07/2019 17:00

By all means let them out when you’re IN the room, but don’t leave them and go out, as you may think you’ve blocked the room off, but those furry little gits can get everywhere! You may not get it back!.

KOKOtiltomorrow · 14/07/2019 17:02

No real advice OP but I think I love you for your devotion to your gorgeous wee hamster 😁

Soubriquet · 14/07/2019 17:09

Yeah definitely don’t do it..

A friends hamster escaped once. They looked everywhere and couldn’t find the bugger.

They went to go and do some food and switched on the oven. Slowly a smell started to go around the house

Poor hamster had gotten into the oven without anyone noticing

She never did get another one

BeautifulBlaze · 14/07/2019 17:14

GrinGrinGrin Bless you OP ... you've made me laugh! ... I'm an animal lover, but yes, as the majority have said, he/she is a rodent and will chew through electrical wires and anything else, plus you can't toilet train it!! .... You can get great cages these days with many levels if you're short for space.

OvO · 14/07/2019 17:22

She's so cute!

If you want free range you need something with a much bigger arse! I have boy guinea pigs and they are huge so cant fit through small spaces and their fat bums mean they cant climb. Grin

They also do Sadface at me. So now they dont have a cage but have about 26sq ft of living room. 😆 They just had an extension put on their piggy palace and I’ve no doubt I'll rejig the furniture to give them even more space! Its impossible not to love those wee furry faces. 🐹

DropZoneOne · 14/07/2019 19:48

This is my current fluffball. She kept getting overlooked in the pet shop and had been there 3 months but DD thought she was cute so she came home with us. She was darker, she's getting lighter from the bum up! For some reason, today she has decided that the pod and tunnel are better for sleeping in than her house.

To let my hamster be a house hamster?
LillianGish · 15/07/2019 07:19

However, she had a lot of wild running but always came back at night to feed and go back to bed. I’ve never known a hamster to be up in the day and go to bed at night - ours was the ideal pet for my teenage dd who is pretty nocturnal herself (up late studying). He spent the days curled up in a ball of fluff in his bedroom - for this reason I don’t think they make great pets for small children.

MrsBagans · 15/07/2019 07:30

So cute.
Just stick with the routine you had already, I don’t think she can run wild all the time, she’ll be gone and lost.
You seem like a lovely pet owner, but sometimes being a pet owner means doing what’s best for the animal, even if it makes you feel a bit sad.
She’s a lucky hamster, just stick with how you originally took care of her needs xx

Notworthy · 15/07/2019 07:52

Have you considered a hamster ball, can roam free-ish without getting into too much trouble. My hamster used to pelt round in his.

Original poster
DifficultSituation19 · 15/07/2019 09:03

Naughty Peanut didn’t come home all night again last night, but I have now worked out where she goes - she’s made herself a little nest behind the book shelves out of bits of paper that she’s salvaged. She was on her way back to her cage about 15 mins ago but then my bf came into the room, and he doesn’t have an indoor voice so she scarpered back behind the bookshelves.

OP posts:
sueelleker · 15/07/2019 09:13

They can squeeze into tiny spaces-we had a hamster when I was young; she escaped one day and managed to squash herself behind the Parkray fire in the living room. It took 3 days and a trail of sunflower seeds to get her out!

vodkaredbullgirl · 15/07/2019 09:20

Are you crazy lol God the amount of hamster my daughter has had and they have escaped.

1 got into next door neighbours electrical box and fused the whole house. The poor hamster was still alive when they got her out, she had to be put to sleep as her back legs were not working. Had another who would end up in the attic and i had to rescue him.

FenellaVelour · 15/07/2019 09:23

@AlmostAJillSandwich Looks similar to one of my little darlings :D

Yours is a melanistic yellow (“yellow black”) - one of my favourite colours. Both yours and Peanut (who’s a tortie) will have the yellow gene which is widely regarded to impart, shall we say, character 😂

cricketmum84 · 15/07/2019 09:39

No advice sorry but that is one bloody cute hamster!!!

AlmostAJillSandwich · 15/07/2019 16:04

Fenella that explains why she regularly screams at me :P
If i dare give her a toy thats too big to pick up to carry to her bed, a treat she can't immediately pouch etc, scream scream scream.

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 15/07/2019 16:20

I'm so glad DD aint downstairs with me. I think she'd explode from all the cuteness.

I'd say get a rodent pen but my girl hamster took all of about 30 secs before she realised she could just climb over.

My boy hamster managed to escape his cage and it took all day to find him. Little git was so aggrieved when he was caught.

I miss those furry buggers.

Thefemalekeithrichards · 15/07/2019 19:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.