Does this need a TW? How long did your hamster live?

[Myhamsterwasspecial]

Oh my! I’m reading another thread in which hamsters over 18months are considered elderly. I had no idea hamsters had such short lifespans…

I had mine in the 80s for at least 5 or 6 years. I was cleaning the hamster cage into my teens.

Are they less robust now?

He wasn’t a fancy hamster - quite large with reddish brown fur with a white underbelly - and he just lived on and on.

My sister got a really very pretty little cream one some time after me and I shall confess to being quite jealous of hers as mine looked rather ordinary. But we were devastated when it died at 2. We thought must have been a bit weak and sickly dying so young because of it was considered “fancy”.

Mine was lively right to the end. He just didn’t wake up one morning in his little nest. Dear little thing he was.

Was mine unusual? How long did yours stay on their little hamster wheels?

Me and DH got a dwarf hamster when we first moved in together, he had to be put to sleep due to a kidney infection when I was expecting DS2 5 years later! The vet was amazed he’d lived so long.

To be fair we’ve had quite a few long living pets, my DBro found an abandoned rabbit in 1991 who lived until 2003, and our last Guinea pig was 7 1/2 when he died.

We bought 2 Syrian hamsters, one for each of our children, separate cages born March 2021.

The one died before it was 2 years. The other one is still going. His fur colouring has lightened slightly recently but he is still active and alert.

He is an active little thing. We had a near miss with him when we had the freezing cold weather over winter. He was shaking badly. I carefully warmed him up and ever since, we have put him some cut up cotton hand towels in with him, with the shavings to make sure that he is warm enough. He loves it. He manoeuvres it into a nest and pokes his head out when it is dinnertime. He has such a personality. We are all attached to him. He is very cute.

I had also considered mis-remembering. I need to check the family photos - I’m pretty sure I got him for a birthday so there might be one. But I don’t have a fixed idea as to when he died. I just know I was far “too old” to be mourning the death of a hamster and didn’t mention his funeral to my friends for fear of ridicule. Also that damn hamster cage needed cleaning for what felt like decades 😂

But I did love that little dude! He’s sleeping under a tree in my grandma’s old garden. <oh god! off to check streetview to see if the tree is still there 🤞>

Hamsters have never lived that long. I suspect those who supposedly did had some identical twin stuff going on. Two is a good age, I’ve had 50+ hamsters over the years and the oldest ones made it to their third birthday but not long past that. And most of those were not pet shop/pet mill hamsters, but were carefully bred.

Ours was only 18 months