Our hamster has vanished into thin air

[girasole]

Our new hamster was in his cage on Sunday night when we went to bed but by Monday morning he had disappeared. We didn't miss him until Monday evening as we assumed he was asleep in his little house (he usually sleeps all day).

The door of his cage was not open so we can only assume that he squeezed out between the bars. My DH thinks this is impossible but he doesn't have any other ideas about how the little guy might have escaped.

We have looked everywhere we can think of, and have left out food in all the downstairs rooms for the last couple of nights, but to no avail. There is no sign of him at all. He hasn't touched the food we left out and we haven't heard any scratching sounds.

It's not looking good and the kids are naturally upset. We've only had him a couple of weeks but he was very tame and they loved him. Any suggestions to help find him?

Silly idea but look behind the fride & freezer. They like warm places and it's v toasty behind there

you could try buying some of those humane mouse traps to try to catch him?
Dont want to sound horrid but do you have any other pets that could have...erm....fancied a snack?
Our hamster was always escaping when his rotastack tubes came apart but he was usually found sleeping behind a kitchen cupboard. Try listening late at night when they're more active maybe you'll hear him.

ours died under the bath. we only found him because of the flies .

..hesitate to suggest spontaneous combustion.

your DC haven;t opened the cage withoutyou knowing have they?

Was going to say check the casserole but thought that would be rude

look in the chest of drawers especially the sock drawers etc. they can climb better than you think!!

seems strange that he could have squeezed out. Are you sure little fingers didn't opne the cage for a peep, then forget, then hamster escaped. The littel fingers wentback and shut the cgae, without even realising hamster might have legged it?

Message withdrawn

Sorry that was most inappropriate. It is odd that he escaped though with no sign of a forced exit!

We had one that dug a hole in the concrete floor under the loo. One thing is you will probably have much more chance of finding him at night...he will come out for food. Leave a few little mounds of hammy food around the house. See which gets disturbed and sit near it the next night.

That is how we found Nicholas Ridley (our hamster)

Hi, sorry about taking so long to get back to this. I was out all day yesterday and was too tired to go on Mumsnet when I got home Thanks for all your replies, Mumofmonsters

There is no good news I'm afraid. Still absolutely no sign of our lovely hamster. We have searched and searched, under the fridge, under the dishwasher, under the kitchen cupboards. I even turned the sofas upside down to check that he hadn't burrowed into the upholstery from underneath.

We have left out little mounds of hamster food in all the downstairs rooms every night and they haven't been touched. There is no evidence of him being still in the house, no little telltale bits of hamster poo anywhere.

I think he must have managed to find some way of getting out of our house entirely although I can't imagine how. My dh is driving himself potty trying to figure out how he got out of his cage. It seems quite impossible that he could have squeezed through the bars and I would usually think that 3 year old ds is the culprit but he didn't have the opportunity, and he is not able to shut the cage door properly so it can't have been him.

I'm sorry to have to ask this but is it likely that we would be able to smell him by now if he is dead in the house somewhere?

We couldn't smell him, just knew after at least a week because flies appeared. im not totally sure how he got in there in the first place, there were no obvious gaps. (under a boxed in bath)

you would be surprised at how quietly they can hide and for how long.

When I was at school (boarding school) there was a bit of a trend of kids keeping hamsters in most inappropriate places unbeknowns to the teachers/hostel staff. I bought one of these hamsters and left it in the classroom while I went back to the hostel for dinner. When I got back for study time he had gone. We looked everywhere for him but to no avail. Then about a week later one of my classmates went to find a book in his desk and there was the hamster sitting there - calm as you like. There was no evidence that he'd been there, no chewed books, no droppings, nothing.

is there any chance he's gone back into his cage? if not I would check the whole house - not just downstairs. if there's no evidence of him downstairs then I would check upstairs, put food up there and wait.

He's definitely not back in his cage, it's raised about two foot off the floor so he would have quite a job getting back up there anyway.

Do you really think he could be upstairs wannaBe? To be honest we hadn't considered that as a possibility, it just seems so unlikely. I will leave food out for him upstairs tonight just in case. Anything is worth a try at this stage. Your story about the hamster in school has given me hope, maybe it is too soon for me to give up on the little guy just yet!

Scorpio1, about your hamster.

Dont just leave hamster seeds out, but try fresh food as well or something that will smell irresistible to the little fella.

If it's one of those bar cages, check each bar to make sure none are broken as he could have squeezed out if one is loose. If they are deffo not loose, then i'm afraid i would deffo point the finger at the cage being accidentally left open. I've had plenty of bar cages (plastic tray, bars over the top) and there's no way even a small hamster can squeeze through the gaps - their skulls aren't THAT small!!

Good luck finding him. How worrying!

A friends hamster went awol and about a week later she was in the kitchen late one night and heard scratching. She looked up to see the hamster tunnelling his way back into the kitchen by making a hole in the cornice!!!

He could be anywhere. I think they're a bit like mice in that regard. If he is not somewhere cosy now the weather has turned bitter there's not much hope for him as their wee bodies shut down. If you do find him and it looks as if rigor mortis has set in, heat him up by putting him somewhere warm and he may revive. I did once know a hamster called Lazarus for this reason.

Could you put his cage on the floor with the door open? He might regret his rash bid for freedom and may be longing for his nice warm cage again.

Mine disappeard for about 2 weeks in my younger days. The little b**tard turned up 'hibernating' in my new boots, after he'd chewed a hole right through them which he was using as bedding.

When I was akid we used to breed hamsters and sell to petshops for pocket money. Escapees were always found behind the tumble drier where it's lovely and warm.

Also, have you tried a humane mouse trap?

good luck

We lost our rat once in the kitchen for 3 days DP went nuts about the wires it could be chewing etc etc.

3 days later we noticed that it had chewed its way into the cupboard under the sink so I left tubes and a drinking bottle in there and the next day it went for a drink and a mad dash from me meant I could catch it.

I will mention that the rat got out of a hamster (bar size wise, not actual cage size wise IYKWIM) cage BETWEEN THE BARS!! They are escape artists so it's not completely out of the ordinary for the hamster to have just squeezed out.

What sort of hamster is it? If its a drawf hamster they can get through the bars of a normal rodent cage.

my hamster used to go missing for days and then turn up. They can get under floorboards, go anywhere. don't lose hope yet!

Get some plastic tub/buckets and leave traps for it. We used fish tanks and piled books with food next to them so he would fall inside and not be able to get out again.

Also, if you live in a terrace tell your neighbours and ask them to do the same, we discovered this trick after our neighbour 4 doors down asked us to help catch his hamster who ended up in our kitchen!

Oh yes, agree about terraced houses! We found a snake on our stairs that belonged to the bloke down the road!! Thankfully i dont mind snakes and this was only a little baby.

I used to breed hamsters years ago,was told that apparantly their skulls can collapse down to get through narrow places, i had 13 babies escape once ......found them everywhere!