Hamster managed to crack open his running ball yesterday and is nowhere to be found

[OpenWindo]

Any suggestions?

We have left his cage open, but he has not returned. We have also left a pile of bedding and food in the kitchen but it's not been touched.

He got out about 10pm last night but we didn't notice when it happened, just saw the ball a little later and the lid was off. Can see no trace of him at all. There are plenty of hiding places, including where he can get under the floor. Have we lost him for good?

Has anyone got any success stories for recapturing hamsters? How long is he likely to last on his own? Worried about access to water. Have not told DD yet, gulp.

We have a Houdini as well.
First time we found him in his new bed behind the bookcase. He'd taken his food in there and made a lovely bed for the carpet
Second time we found him in the jigsaw cupboard. He had attacked a panda and he won
Third time we found him playing in the CATS toy box .

He still lives to fight another day. God knows where we'll find him next as I'm in no doubt there will be a next time.

As a kid our escaped hamsters always turned up either inside a waste paper bin or had burrowed inside a soft toy and made a nest inside the stuffing. Could hear them in the bins but totally silent inside the teddies.

Use fresh cucumber in a bowl with steps up outside and that once in they can't climb out, we used a shallow toy tub, the smell of the cucumber is strong to them , make a trail up the 'steps' we used books then a few bigger bits in the bucket -good luck

Any news, OP?

Ours disappeared into the innards of the sofa. Had to rip off the bottom to get him out.

He had been missing a few days and we heard nothing in that time.

There's hope yet! Ours took food and bedding into the bottom of an armchair, so not visible when we pulled out the cushion. We found her about two weeks later when somebody sat down suddenly and she scrabbled away. Intelligent little things, hamsters!

How strange Iwasborn! Does Dexter mean 'escape artist' in hamster-speak do you think?

I would like to think Dexter is off on an adventure. It is just sad to think his life may have been so short if he's been got by a cat.

OP are you me?! This happened to us with our hamster who was also called Dexter! There was no sign of him at all either, he just disappeared with no trace! Unfortunately he never did come back ???? I like to think he was just having too good a time with his new found freedom! Fingers crossed your Dexter makes a return though!!

No advice, bit good luck finding him.

Still no Dexter. He's not taken any of the food or bedding we've laid around the house. We've seen no poo, and heard no scratching. No footprints in the flour that we've laid out a few times overnight (top tip - don't try to hoover large quantities of flour up, it'll trash your vacuum cleaner).

I think he has gone for good. He was quite a noisy, active hamster, so the complete silence is not good.

Assuming he has gone feral, how long do you think he'd last? DD wants to know

Agree with 70 , check within your chair and sofas. One of ours made a nest among the springs!

Thanks for the concern. Still no sign of Dexter. No scratching noises, no food or bedding taken from the 'traps' we have set out. He has just vanished .

How long do you think before we give up? (i.e. so I can leave the backdoor open again given the impending heat-wave

I have no hamster experience (though I did have mice that escaped upstairs into my bedroom for a weekend. I was visiting my sister. My mum and I managed to catch them, they'd survived on a digestive biscuit but were very thirsty, Bless them )

WRT hammy, look at all your sofas/armchairs, see if he's burrowed his way inside.

(The appeal of my lardy piggies grows)

Any sign?

Oh I've just remembered a friend who lost a pet snake in their house for 3 months.
We had many sleepovers, and I didn't even think about it and then one day, it just appeared, slithering over my sleeping bag.
The whole house was woken early that morning by my screams

No new suggestions to add other thanbe patient! My old hammy disappeared for almost 2 weeks. Found her in the spare towel draw in the hall with a MEGA nest of flannel, ribbon, down from a winter coat, a sock, a sanitary towel and wrapper, 5 pound note and a feather.

I can confirm that Dexter is most definitely a boy hamster. Maybe he's got lost and is refusing to ask for directions

It's pretty impossible to miss a male hamster! Their balls are HUGE !

I assume the hamsters themselves can figure it out much easier than we can.

I always thought it wasn't that easy to tell if hamsters are male or female... we thought ours was a she, but he was a he....

Thanks again. I suppose my worry is that we didn't see where he went, and since he disappeared, there's been no trace. Just don't know where to start looking really. We are open plan downstairs so can't secure any rooms either.

A female hamster? Really? How did you go about that then, and did you end up with a lot more hamster trouble a few weeks later?!

Leave a specific number of treats on a plate in each room before you go to bed (include cupboards) and close all the doors. In the morning, see which plate has treat missing and you can narrow down his location better. Then close the doors again and hunt him down, drawing him out with more treats.

When we were kids, the few times our hamster escaped, it went straight behind the stereo and chewed on the wires.

I'm liking these tales of returning hamsters. We will just have to have faith. He is such a lovely, perky chap - I hope he chooses to return (and hasn't been got by a cat ).

Get a female hamster to tempt him out? Don't laugh, this worked for us.