It's been a while since my last update on this blog, well... One incident that happened to me lately evoke my desire to share my experience on how to search for your lost hamster. I bought my first hamster last year in September, he's a very adorable and cute pearl winter white hamster, it's not very hard for me to tame him at first even he's my first hamster ever, I can hold him on the first day I bought him without the help of any glove.
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| Isn't he looks so cute? |
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| His favourite treat of all time -- mealworm |
When I travelled back to my hometown, I felt so sorry for him to stay in his carrier cage because of its limited space, so I searched for a card box for him to stay for like over 10 days hoping that he might feel better rather than staying in his carrier cage, he was behaving quite well at the first 5 days staying in the box. However, on the 6th day, when I woke up in the morning, he vanished from his card box, I always know that my hamster is the master of the great escape, he used to escape every single night at my rented room, but I know very well his hiding spots inside my rented room in Penang, but not in my hometown.
I felt super awful when I looked at the empty card box, I was trying to calm myself down and searched the area that he might possible to hide in, but still had no sign of him at all. The possible places for the hamster hideout are behind the bookshelves, cupboard, drawer, refrigerator, washer machine, and shoe box. Try to search the place that he first escaped, then just started to expand the circle. Immediately, I googled the ways to catch a runaway hamster. I set up a few traps that were suggested in the articles, here are the few traps that I tried. The first and foremost, always prepare the food and water, I prepared for like 5 pieces of his foods in all the rooms because it was easy to count and remember the amount.
Then, I tied a groundnut onto a string, this trick was used to track the hiding place of your hamster. When the hamster came out to search for foods, he might carry the treat back to his hiding spot. It's best to tie up his favourite treat for him rather than just his daily food.
Next, peanut butter is very tempting to the hamsters, so I put the peanut butter on a bottle cap, and scattered the flour around the bottle cap, hope that the peanut butter could lure my hamster out from his hiding spot and the footprints of him could tell me where he was hiding. I put this trap nearby the refrigerator area because it is said that the refrigerator is the most possible place for a hamster to hide behind it.
The last trick followed by the humane trap, which is the bucket trap. First, prepare a bucket, make sure that the bucket is high enough so that your hamster cannot climb out from it, put some clothes inside the bucket so that your hamster won't be injured when he fell into the bucket. Then, cut a water bottle and put a straw in order to hang the bottle like the picture below, the bottle was covered with a heavy peanut butter, then built up a staircase by using books or dictionaries, put his favourite foods along the staircase to lure the hamster up to the bucket. I set up this bucket trap inside the room where he first vanished.
I set up so many traps because I didn't know he escaped to which room, the door was wide open at the night he escaped because the weather was too hot to sleep with a closed door. I put the food in all rooms so that I could track down he was hiding in which room, this could help me to narrow down the circle. Last but not least, don't forget to shut all the doors and seal all the spaces that he might be able to squeeze in and out so that the hamster won't keep changing his hiding place from one room to another room while you search for him.
On the first day of his disappearance, the foods and water were untouched, there was no scratching sound or any voice made by him, I was worried that somehow he might escape into the yard or outside of the house. On the next day, there was still no any sign of him in the morning, the bucket trap doesn't work as well because it was set in the wrong room.
It was devastated for me when the day got darker and still no sign of him at all, so I tried to follow the other suggestion from another pet owner who had the same experience as me, this work the best at night because hamsters are a nocturnal animal. I closed all the light and waiting quietly in the dark, I was waiting for hours inside the room that he first disappeared, but I heard no noise at all, I tried to search all over the cupboard and bookshelves again but I didn't find him so I was quite sure that he wasn't in that room, I moved on to the next room -- my dad's room.
Why this room? Because it was the room that he first wandered into when he was playing his exercise ball. The day was dark when I was waiting in that room, while I was reading all the posts and comments from the google and youtube (trying to give myself more hopes), I heard a loud noise coming from the food bowl. I quickly opened the flashlight and I saw that fellow was sitting still and looking like 'oopppssss... she found me now, game over...' He sat there all the time when the flashlight was flashing at him.
I slowly moved towards him, I didn't wanna scare him or make him run away again, he was quite a good boy when I hold him in my arms, he didn't try to attack me at all, some hamsters might feel stressful and bite the owner due to the bad experience outside the cage, I was feeling so glad and happy that he's back to me again!! Now, he's playing his wheel inside the card box, I'm going to put him in the carrier cage now every night until I returned to my rented room in Penang.
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| There he is trying to look innocent for all his wrongdoings |
To all owners who may be losing their pet right now, do not lose hope, some hamsters might be lost for about days or weeks but still fine if they have the supply of water and foods, hamsters are very good at surviving and they are a smart creature as well. It's normal for the hamsters not coming out on the first day of their disappearance because usually, they will store foods in the cheeks before the great escape, so they have the supply of foods but not after a few days or weeks, try to search in the kitchen as well, there is a big possibility that he might hide in the kitchen for food and water supply.
----- The End -----
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