If you have a hamster, read on ....

[JadeGiant]

My daughter's hampster got away yesterday. Needless to say, we were pretty nervous as we have a Lab that would like use it like a killer whale plays with a seal. Our daughters love the thing and would be crushed if it died or was lost permenantly.

If this happens to you, here is what we did to find the little critter:

We loaded up the food dish in the cage and placed it on the floor with the door open. In the morning, it was sleeping in it's nest. Viola, crisis averted and the kids never found out (needless to say the dog never found it either).

[Meta Jon]

Our kids hamster got out too, we tried that but it was too stupid to find the food. We found it dead behind some funiture after a few days... :rolleyes2

[wktf]

Here's an awful, but true, story:

Two years ago we had a birthday party for my son, now 10. It was a great party, everyone had a good time, Sam (my son) was on top of the world. A few kids stayed late and so they went up to Sam's room to play with the hampster. Out from his room came a blood-curdling scream! The damn thing died on his birthday! Tears, snot, gasping, wheezing...it broke our hearts. The poor kid. What a terrible thing to happen on his birthday.

Haven't bought another since. He doesn't want one. Fortunately he keeps our two golden retrievers plenty busy.

[sellin71]

Ours got out when I was a kid, I was yelling at my Mom to help me catch it and she came running into the room to see what was going. She flung the door open, took two steps and stepped on it. Killed it grave yard dead, its innards were outtards. Horrible memory from my childhood.

[Sniper]

here's one for you, my cousin had 2 hamster a male and female, about 5 months later he had about 12 in a cage running around. His father was a miserable SOB and one day when he was drunk was so pipssed at my cousin he decided to play let's throw the hamster out a 9 story project window onto the street pavement. He started tossing those hamster like he was playing darts at a bar. I cousin went screaming to the street, only 2 survived the fall and hit the grass, the original male and female. I couldnt tell those damn things apart, but he could. He picked them up and went up stairs crying and his mom helped him sneak them in. I saw those damn things lying bloody. I never liked hamsters but that was wrong

[Synergy]

here's one for you, my cousin had 2 hamster a male and female, about 5 months later he had about 12 in a cage running around. His father was a miserable SOB and one day when he was drunk was so pipssed at my cousin he decided to play let's throw the hamster out a 9 story project window onto the street pavement. He started tossing those hamster like he was playing darts at a bar. I cousin went screaming to the street, only 2 survived the fall and hit the grass, the original male and female. I couldnt tell those damn things apart, but he could. He picked them up and went up stairs crying and his mom helped him sneak them in. I saw those damn things lying bloody. I never liked hamsters but that was wrong


Thats just seriously F#$#ed up man....

[Tattoo-S]

Ours got out when I was a kid, I was yelling at my Mom to help me catch it and she came running into the room to see what was going. She flung the door open, took two steps and stepped on it. Killed it grave yard dead, its innards were outtards. Horrible memory from my childhood.
What a terrible story....I am so sorry for your loss, childhood trauma's are the worst. The become adult fears and nighmares.........tragic. :bawling:

[MiamiLoco]

http://i1.tinypic.com/ml4cqe.gif

[rychehitman]

JG, glad the lil guy came back!

Ours have escapes several times, but luckily I always find them behind the washer and dryer!

I am the night owl of the house. One time, I had no idea one was on the loose, and around 4am, as I was drifting off on the floor watching tv, i saw this little furry thing crawling towrds me on the floor! Freaked me out but good! I grabbed him, and all was well. We have 2 kids, 2 dogs, and a cat and thankfully none of them have ever managed to hurt the little suckers!

[JadeGiant]

Ours got out when I was a kid, I was yelling at my Mom to help me catch it and she came running into the room to see what was going. She flung the door open, took two steps and stepped on it. Killed it grave yard dead, its innards were outtards. Horrible memory from my childhood.

That's weird - I have a smilar story. My little brother an I always had hampsters when we were young and we played a game where we would let them loose in a room with the lights off for about 30 seconds or so while we waited in the next room. We would then turn on the lights and scramble to find them. One time as I was running into the room, I saw my brother's hampster and went to kneel down to pick it up and it darted under my knee .... crunch. It wasn't instant death as I was able to avert all of my weight on the little guy. It had very labored breathing but wouldn't expire. We pleaded with my mom to do something so she took us to the vet who tried to bring it back but ended up having to put it down. I am sure she spent a pretty penny in what she knew was a lost cause ... Man, talk about feeling bad - I feel terrible about that to this day.

[JadeGiant]

JG, glad the lil guy came back!

Ours have escapes several times, but luckily I always find them behind the washer and dryer!

I am the night owl of the house. One time, I had no idea one was on the loose, and around 4am, as I was drifting off on the floor watching tv, i saw this little furry thing crawling towrds me on the floor! Freaked me out but good! I grabbed him, and all was well. We have 2 kids, 2 dogs, and a cat and thankfully none of them have ever managed to hurt the little suckers!

Me too Ryche - the little critter got out a few months ago when I had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV. I awoke to the sound of rocks making some noise. I woke up and noticed the cage door was open and found it under the aquarium by some extra rocks.

Our count - 1 dog, 1 hampster, fish, and a couple of geckos. My youngest wants a hampster of her own - told her she has to wait until she is 5.

[JadeGiant]

here's one for you, my cousin had 2 hamster a male and female, about 5 months later he had about 12 in a cage running around. His father was a miserable SOB and one day when he was drunk was so pipssed at my cousin he decided to play let's throw the hamster out a 9 story project window onto the street pavement. He started tossing those hamster like he was playing darts at a bar. I cousin went screaming to the street, only 2 survived the fall and hit the grass, the original male and female. I couldnt tell those damn things apart, but he could. He picked them up and went up stairs crying and his mom helped him sneak them in. I saw those damn things lying bloody. I never liked hamsters but that was wrong

:banghead: That's just demented :banghead:

[JadeGiant]

Here's an awful, but true, story:

Two years ago we had a birthday party for my son, now 10. It was a great party, everyone had a good time, Sam (my son) was on top of the world. A few kids stayed late and so they went up to Sam's room to play with the hampster. Out from his room came a blood-curdling scream! The damn thing died on his birthday! Tears, snot, gasping, wheezing...it broke our hearts. The poor kid. What a terrible thing to happen on his birthday.

Haven't bought another since. He doesn't want one. Fortunately he keeps our two golden retrievers plenty busy.

Yikes, that is a bummer - my wife and I decided not to tell the girls that she had gotten out as they probably would have been freaked out that the dog would eat it.

[Crocostimpy]

My kids' hampster died while we were living in a hotel waiting for our house to be finished. (did I ever mention here never to build a new house?) We kept it in the freezer (we were staying in a suite) for a few days hoping we would close on the house and then could bury it in the yard. When the cleaning lady remarked about it though, we knew we couldn't keep it there any longer. They hadn't graded the yard yet, so I was afraid to bury it there. The last thing I wanted was for us to show up at the house and see the little shoe box half uncovered with his little body hanging out. In the end we buried it as close to the back of the house as we could, thinking that they wouldn't disturb the ground as much there. We had to go buy a shovel just to do it because all of our stuff was in storage.


"Avoid the clap." - Jimmy Dugan

[Gruson]

What is really sad is we had two hampsters. male/female

They both got out of their cage and we found them days later (we put peanut butter on a plate for them). It worked and we saw them crawl out to it.

Well, they must have eaten some "rat" poison because both of them looked VERY sick and could barely move.

The male died in about a week but the female had some baby hampsters!!

There were three of them. Very little creatures.


Later on , we noticed there was blood all over it's cage. The female had EATEN all of the babies and there were little body parts everywhere. She was very sick looking and ended up dying a couple of days later.

Very sad....I can still picture it all. I think they are both still buried in our backyard too.

[Zurbaran1]

....

The male died in about a week but the female had some baby hampsters!!

There were three of them. Very little creatures.


Later on , we noticed there was blood all over it's cage. The female had EATEN all of the babies and there were little body parts everywhere. She was very sick looking and ended up dying a couple of days later.

Very sad....I can still picture it all. I think they are both still buried in our backyard too.

A mother hamster eating her young is not all that unusual. It is sometimes a defense mechanism (protecting the young) and mostly I think it is because they cannot nurse the entire litter successfully, I remember as a youngest my hamster had 10 babies. She ate 5 of them. The other 5 she was able to wean successfully. I was up to my eyeballs in hamsters as a kid. My daughter has one now.

[Collection King 13]

A mother hamster eating her young is not all that unusual. It is sometimes a defense mechanism (protecting the young) and mostly I think it is because they cannot nurse the entire litter successfully, I remember as a youngest my hamster had 10 babies. She ate 5 of them. The other 5 she was able to wean successfully. I was up to my eyeballs in hamsters as a kid. My daughter has one now.
I see you saved them and used them for your toupee! :eplus2:

[Zurbaran1]

I see you saved them and used them for your toupee! :eplus2:


You really should do stand up for a living. You'd starve, die and be out of our hair in fairly short order. :laugh:

[armitage]

Hamsters are stupid.
When I was 8 I had a hamster,he was nice. Then I decided to get him a friend. A week later I found my first hamsters head outside of the cage. The new one had apparently chewed his head off during the night.

[JadeGiant]

A mother hamster eating her young is not all that unusual. It is sometimes a defense mechanism (protecting the young) and mostly I think it is because they cannot nurse the entire litter successfully, I remember as a youngest my hamster had 10 babies. She ate 5 of them. The other 5 she was able to wean successfully. I was up to my eyeballs in hamsters as a kid. My daughter has one now.

Yep, as a kid our had babies and munched them all :confused2

[rychehitman]

I see you saved them and used them for your toupee! :eplus2:


:laugh: Actually, that was a good one!

[JadeGiant]

Hamsters are stupid.
When I was 8 I had a hamster,he was nice. Then I decided to get him a friend. A week later I found my first hamsters head outside of the cage. The new one had apparently chewed his head off during the night.

ummm, someone at the pet store forgot to tell you that you can't mix them :banghead:

[Virsago]

ummm, someone at the pet store forgot to tell you that you can't mix them :banghead:
You can't? Boy-girl you mean or normal and dwarf size?
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7323/monsterjam03216yo.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6949/monsterjam02739yh.jpg

[JadeGiant]

I was told that you cannot introduce a new hampster into a cage where another is already established. Once a hampster is grown, they are territorial. In the wild, they are solitary. Did you get yours togehter? I was told this is the way to go if you want to try and keep several together. No rule is absolute but this is what I was told.

[Virsago]

I was told that you cannot introduce a new hampster into a cage where another is already established. Once a hampster is grown, they are territorial. In the wild, they are solitary. Did you get yours togehter? I was told this is the way to go if you want to try and keep several together. No rule is absolute but this is what I was told.
The two normal size I got together, but I've had others that I introduced after they were alone for a while and they got along good. The dwarfs I have right now are the white one and a grey one that are living with the grey ones three sons.
I found that when they are fed while putting new ones in the cage makes them not fight. They sleep on separate sides of the cage at first but after a few days they start sleeping in dog pile like the pic there.
I know from experience all the bad stuff that can happen, I've had hamsters for over seven years now. Mainly generations, I got to 7 generations until I stopped 2 years ago when the last male was to old to have children.

[JadeGiant]

The two normal size I got together, but I've had others that I introduced after they were alone for a while and they got along good. The dwarfs I have right now are the white one and a grey one that are living with the grey ones three sons.
I found that when they are fed while putting new ones in the cage makes them not fight. They sleep on separate sides of the cage at first but after a few days they start sleeping in dog pile like the pic there.
I know from experience all the bad stuff that can happen, I've had hamsters for over seven years now. Mainly generations, I got to 7 generations until I stopped 2 years ago when the last male was to old to have children.

I will defer to you on this as you obviously have a great deal of experience. We talked about adding another but were warned not to at the store - didn't want to risk a massacre with the kids pets.

[Deadpool]

Hey JG, guinea pigs make great pets as well. I have three, 2 females and one male, I keep them seperate, I love the little guys like my kids. Fred he is 5 years old, Laia she is 4, and finally sophie she is 3 1/2....

[JadeGiant]

Hey JG, guinea pigs make great pets as well. I have three, 2 females and one male, I keep them seperate, I love the little guys like my kids. Fred he is 5 years old, Laia she is 4, and finally sophie she is 3 1/2....

we looked at them but the kids liked hampster better ... thanks for the tip

[Tony Coca]

Hey what happened to my comment. :eplus2: :eplus2: