Are hamsters escape artists?

[NarcissistsEyebrows]

Posting on behalf of a friend following a discussion in the pub last night

Do your hamsters ever / regularly escape, or is this not something which would be expected to happen on an eg monthly or quarterly basis?

TIA

Oh yes they are!!! Had floor boards up multiple times. We now have a goldfish!

Yes when I had hamsters years ago they would regularly escape

Yikes, I had no idea!

How do you keep them safe if eg you have another pet like a cat?

You do not let children look after them, ours always escaped because a dc did not close the cage properly or they got out of their exercise ball. We always found them in the end but a hamster would be in trouble if you had a cat!

Ours learnt how to open his cage. He often walked past me on a night when I was emptying the washing machine! Good job he was a good hamster
One morning I came down. His cage was open and the dog was running around and I seen blood on the floor. I screamed the house down- fortunately the dog came on her period and the hamster was under the sofa asleep an had no care or idea the dog was terrified, he just strolled out when we tapped the floor for him haha

Yes-we’ve had two
One never broke out
The other-at least once a day,I was glad when he died to be honest

My dad had to wrap wire round the flap and he still got out

Mine used to if any tiny opportunity was offered.
We resorted to two key rings ( the ones you thread on) holding any entrance formly closed.
For such delicate creatures whom you have to protect from draughts etc, mine lived very happily under the floorboards for nearly a week on two separate occasions.

We had two hamsters - one after the other both living to over 2.5 years and we also had a cat. I think one hamster escaped once, but we were just religious about shutting the door of the room they were in whenever we came and went. It became automatic after a while. The children just got used to it - no problems.

My hamster has never escaped.

My hamsters used to escape on a regular basis when I had them as a kid. I still remember being a bit miffed that one had eaten my crayons during her nocturnal wanderings. Which wasn’t as bad as waking up one morning to find a hamster curled up asleep in my hair!

My hamster escaped once in her life.
We did literally padlock her cage shut though and put heavy books on top too! and never trusted those tubes at all. She lived in an absolutely gigantic cage though with masses of substrate for digging, which distracted her a bit from constantly trying to escape.

Yes mine did she chewed holes in the plastic part of her cage I had to end up buying her a cage with a glass bottom and bars at the top!! Both times she escaped she was missing for 3/4 days and we thought that was her gone but nope she came toddling back when she was hungry and smelt us cooking dinner lol

I found my neighbour’s hamster in our hall a few weeks ago. Lucky for her we shut the cat in the kitchen overnight.

Yes. Frequently.

We borrowed the school hamster for the weekend, lost it on Friday, it turned up on Sunday in the laundry basket as my mum was about to put a wash on.

Got one of our own, used to keep it on the kitchen side, found it in a (fortunately almost empty) Pyrex jug with about half an inch of water in.

Fortunately they don't live long no bloody wonder so didn't have to panic for too many years

Yes, I put crocodile clips as extra re-enforcement on the doors of our hamster cage. It stopped a second weekend of fun hamster searching ever happening.