to not want to dig up a dead hamster

[julesrose]

DD 6 buried her hamster about a month ago (as it had died ...)
Anyway she'd like to dig it up to look at it's bones 'because it would be interesting.' She saw a skeleton in a museum today and used this to bat back my 'we just don't dig up people or pets we've buried' argument.
I'm hoping she'll have forgotton about it in the morning but somehow I doubt that will be the case.

YANBU! If you do dig it up I would leave it a bit longer in this weather - dont fancy a half decomposed hamster

In this weather I reckon it'll be the same as when it went in.

Tell her it's not a skeleton yet because it's been frozen like food in the freezer and to wait till summer. Then indulge her bones fetish another way and hopefully by the time summer comes she'll have moved onto something else.

Loving her curiosity though!

i always wanted to do this to my rabbit but was never allowed. probably best in the long run in hindsight

He has most likely been kept frozen for a while over winter! And it will depend on what he was buried in, you will not be digging up a perfectly clean white skeleton you know, eek!

It won't be just a skeleton yet. Explain that the hamster will still be decomposing for the next 5 years.

(I have no idea how long they actually take to decompose.)

Why don't you show her chicken skeleton after a roast or do a whole fish for dinner one night and let her look at that?

I agree she shouldn't ...but it would be interesting no? I went to med school and disected a human so probably a bit de-sensitised to it.
Why would it be so wrong?

BHLS - how do you indulge a bone fettish? Chicken carcus? I think it's the fact the bones would be so tiny that's pricking her curiosity.

My daughter loves time team and always asks about skeletons etc or as she says "bones sticking out". We did see some animal bones and dinosaurs in a museum which she was really interested in, someof them were mice and little thing like that. Maybe she would enjoy that if you live near a museum.

I am not sure about the decomposing hamster thing but I am very tempted to make our own little dig now for next week. Although we have buried a few gerbils in our time I am very tempted to fake the odd ammonite

What about this

cgi.ebay.co.uk/SMALL-ANIMAL-BONES-skeleton-REAL-dead-skull-TAXIDERMY_W0QQitemZ110506488792QQcmdZView ItemQQptZLHDefaultDomain0?hash=item19bab333d8

or a mouse

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Skeleton-taxidermy-Mus-Musculus-Java-e133_W0QQitemZ220575368612QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_ DefaultDomain_0?hash=item335b5105a4

Or some time lapse stuff - bit grim though

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrSHku6-LFo&feature=related

Just one more reason not to get a hamster.

i think also you could disturb the animals peace and would be forever haunted by a ghostly hamster

We found a hedgehog skull on the sand dunes while walking the dogs. My dd's loved it, tho think it had been eaten by some other animal then just died.

DD1 who is 11, asked me tonight what will we do with the hamster when he dies. I hope she is not thinking of burrying him then digging him up to look at his bones, tho it wouldn't suprise me if she did.

But no I wouldn't let her dig up a dead animal, you don't know what state it would be in eww.

Lol @ letsblow - sorry no more interesting input but just for the record I seem to remember wanting to do the same with my pet cat (deceased!) when I was her age and my mum thankfully put me off for a year or so and by then I'd completely lost all interest!

ummm, hate to say this but are you sure it was really dead in the first place?
It's just a friend told me a story of how they found Hammy totally cold & stiff so buried him. Got advised about exactly what happens during hibernation - they look like they got rigormortis (sp?) and are cold. Friend dug up Hammy, popped him in the oven to warm and heypresto one live hamster.
May be worth a sneaky dig just to make sure.

Ho hum! Sorry!!!!

Was definitely dead. But no more mention of exhumations this morning. RIP Pebbles....

Borrow a jack russel - he'll dig it up for you !

When I was little I wanted to dig up my guineau pig when we moved My Mum said no

hee hee. I actually did this with my best friend when we were about 7 (dig up a dead gerbil to see what the bones looked like) We even put him in a wire cage when we buried him (with full ceremony I should add ) so we'd be able to find him again!!!

But... we dug it up about six months later, and... not a sausage! Completely empty cage. Presumably bones were too small and rotted away with rest of the poor creature.

libelulle - I realy read that as you dug up your best friend!

oops! not the best phrased of sentences, I must admit