Lost hamster :(

[SophiaF0]

So we’ve had such an unfortunate situation, after ordering a new ball for our hamster and leaving her to roll around as she does, my sister came to find the ball on the floor with the lid open and our hamster no where to be seen sad.
We’ve laid food and treats all around and left her cage open on the floor still no sign.
This was on Thursday night it’s now been 4 days she’s been missing and are all out of ideas on how to find her! We’re all starting to lose hope and are getting quite upset now. Any suggestions or help sad

We found ours by sitting quietly in the room closest to where he was last seen and just listened for noise and then slowly moved closer to the noise till we found him.

We found, he had shredded bits of the carpet and had made himself a next behind the spare bed.

Ours had made a nest in the bottom of a wardrobe in a pile of socks.
Looks as though ‘nest’ is the theme so maybe start in the room last seen and look for cosy corners

Oh wow really. How long had yours been missing for? And did he escape from his cage ?
We’ve been sitting listening and still no hope. X

Have you tried the bucket trick? Google it for full info. But essentially you get a mop type bucket, place something soft inside like towels, put some treats on top of towels and build a ramp up to the bucket. The idea is the hamster should drop inside but can't climb back out.

Ours was "nesting" in the loft!! We put cucumber just inside the hatch to encourage him to come to us. You need to know what food is irresistible!

The other tip I learned was to put some flour around the food you leave in each room so you can see if hamster has been near it. Keep doors shut especially at night.

Or food in a small bucket that hamster can't climb out of with a ladder/ramp up to it (and bedding to give a soft landing!)

Ours went awol from one room and turned up in a drawer the other side of the house

Yeah it’s so hard trying to find possible places she could be.
Maybe we need to just move everything around and see if she’s made a nest, just hope she hasn’t gotten under the floor boards!!

We’ve placed the hamster chocolate button treats all around the house as she is a sucker for chocolate (just like her mumma)lol.
I haven’t heard of this bucket trick? I will google it now and give it a try!
Thankyou everyone, giving us a little hope

Mine went under the floor boards. I found the hole where she went down.

I was in despair thinking I would have to take the floor boards up. I dangled a tea towel down and she climbed up. I couldn't believe it.

When mine escaped, we found him in my brother's pile of teddy bears

How long had it been before anyone had found their hamster?
Ours has been 4 days now :(
Yes we’ve checked for hole in the floor boards no luck but I’m still checking every day

YY to flour in each room, to try to narrow down which room she's in. Then set up the bucket in that room - may take a couple of days.

You could leave out some torn up tissue next to food in each room too - she'll grab it for her nest.

Hope she turns up soon. We had a near miss with one of ours in a plastic ball too, but luckily spotted her under the kitchen cupboards and managed to entice her out.

We lost one for 2 weeks (was the school hamster so we replaced it like for like)...it appeared in a nest upstairs in my parents divan bed base 2 weeks later, we acquired a pet hamster

I had another one who would open its own cage and had a stock pile of food stored behind the bookshelf ( a big Ikea billy bookshelf thing) - it would return to its cage most mornings and act like nothing had happened.

My dsis hamster was missing for 4months.they could hear it and knew it was about. Some how it had managed to climb on top of their fridge freezer and had built a nest. When they moved the it they saw scratch marks all over the wall where it had been climbing up and down!

Ours was lost for about a week before we heard him scrabbling about under the floor boards.

We've had lots of lost hamster dramas, they've always reappeared. One of ours did get under the floor, via a hole in the kitchen floor for water mains. She came back after a few days, a bit dusty but none the worse for her adventure.

We lost ours for a few days. We eventually found her behind the toilet in the en-suite. She had squeezed in a gap where the pipes had been boxed in.

Good luck!

They often sleep in the day so you need to be listening out for it once it's dark when it will be more active.

Has any of the food you've left out been eaten?
Hamster will sleep all day and be active at night.
Can you put a bit of food in each room but shut all the doors? If one room has had some food eaten then you at least what room hamster is in to narrow down your search.
Good luck.

Oh gosh! If she is in the floor board how would we know? Just listening out for her?
I think I’m under estimating how far she could be from where she last was seen. We’ve locked the cats downstairs so they can’t come upstairs in case the hamster comes out when we’re asleep but I’m worrying if she could be downstairs.
Yeah I’ve been looking a lot during the day maybe I’ll wait till it’s a little later.

We’ve put food and treats in every room, the Hall way, bathroom and downstairs too. Also put her cage on the floor with her food bowl next to it but none of the treats or food has been eaten yet :(

If she's got somewhere cold, she could be hibernating - hamsters do that - so don't give up just yet. Try whacking your heating up full blast.

Just seen you have cats?

Oh dear.

You could try not feeding them tonight than watching where they go - they will probably know where she is (or was )

I’ve just put the heating on.
I’ve taken the cats food away maybe in an hour or so I’ll take them upstairs and sit with them and see if they can sniff her out

We left cage on the floor open and hamster came back after 10 days , found it sleeping in its bed so hang on in there .