Tips on How to Find a Lost Hamster

Hamsters are very good at getting through the smallest of gaps which is why it's so important to invest in the right sort of cage for them to live in. If the bars on their cages are too far apart, your pet will soon escape and get themselves into all sorts of trouble not to mention how worried you'd be until you find them again.

If your pet hamster does escape all is not lost because the chances are you will be able to find them. Below are a few tips on the best way to go about doing this. However, it's also important to make sure their cage is secure before putting them back in it.

Leave Favourite Treats on the Ground

If you are not sure which room your hamster may have holed up in, the best way to find out is to leave their favourite treats on the ground in each room. You have to make a note of the amount of treats you leave on the ground in the evening so you can check them first thing in the morning. If you find all or some of the treats have been eaten in a certain room, the chances are your hamster is hiding somewhere in that particular one.

Make Sure The Door is Closed

Once you've established which room your hamster is hiding in, you have to make sure the door remains shut and ideally you should place a rolled up towel along the bottom of it to prevent your pet from squeezing through the gap between the floor and the door!

Place Their Cage in the Room

Next, you have to place their cage with the door open on the floor in the room as close to where you think your pet hamster may be hiding. Place their favourite food and lots of treats in the cage. This will tempt them into the cage when they wake up in the evening and come out of their hiding place.

Place Some Flour on the Floor

If in the next morning your hamster is still not back in their cage, the next thing you can try doing is heaping a pile of hamster mix on the floor and then circle the pile using some flour. In the evening when your pet wakes up, they won't be able to resist the food you've left down for them and will have to walk through the circle of floor to get to it.

As a result of your pet walking through the floor, you will have lots of tiny footsteps to follow the next morning and with any luck these will lead you straight to where they are hiding so you can either carefully scoop them up if it's during daylight hours or you may want to wait until the evening to catch them gently when they wake up.

Last Resort Tactics

If you have no luck tempting them back into their cages with their favourite food and treats another thing you can do is turn everything off in the evening which includes television, radio or any other appliance that makes a noise and then listen very carefully because your hamster will make a noise when they start moving about in the evening.

The chances are they will start gnawing on something which would give you a clear idea of where they are hiding or where they have chosen to make themselves a cosy little nest! Then it's a question of playing the waiting game and using lots of their favourite treats to tempt them out of their hide-hole so you can gently scoop them up and put them back in the cage!

Making Sure Their Cage is Secure

It's really important to make sure your pet's cage is secure so they can't escape again which they will do if they are given the chance. You need to make sure there are no loose or broken bars which your hamster would be able to squeeze through. If you do find any, you would need to invest in a new hamster cage and ideally this should a robust design and the largest you can afford.

Conclusion

Hamsters are great escape artists and are more than capable of squeezing through the smallest of gaps. If the bars on their cage are damaged or loose, your pet will soon find them and escape before finding somewhere else to hole up and hide. The problem is these little creatures are nocturnal which makes it harder to find them during the day. It is far better and easier to wait for night to fall when hamsters wake up and get busy. Once you have established which room they are hiding in, the next step is to tempt them out into the open or ideally back into their cage by doing all of the above!