Hello from whortleberry and Savvy

[whortleberry]

Hello from whortleberry and Savvy

I'm whortleberry and roughly a fortnight ago I very unexpectedly become a guardian of a very sweet little Syrian hamster named Savvy.

It has been a very rapid (and remarkably expensive) learning curve!!

Savvy arrived in the sort of cage that just shouldn't be sold, but she's now in a Savic Plaza 120. She seems to be settling pretty well and I'm amazed by her curiosity and what seems to be a desire to interact / engage.

I had no idea how tricky it would be to get in-focus photos of a hamster. I must have taken hundreds - to get a few that aren't just a blur of fur and whiskers!

 

[Socks Mum]

Lovely pictures, she is a very beautiful hammy

 

[Hank]

Beautiful girl. Lovely colouring.
I know what your mean about the pictures, I have many blurry pictures or I used to get an empty Sandbath and she would not stay still long enough

 

[Maz]

Hello and welcome She's gorgeous! I see she's had a good go at that carrot cottage already. She's a lucky girl to have such a lovely cage. I'm looking forward to hearing more about Savvy. I bet she gets up to a few antics - female syrians are notoriously active, and maybe even maverick - but also very sweet - as she looks on the photos.

There is a section under Syrian hamsters where you can start a thread/diary for her if you want, to update on her progress and antics, and photos etc. And yes it sometimes takes quite a lot of photos to get one that isn't blurred!

 

[whortleberry]

Thank you for the lovely welcome messages!

My introduction to the world of hamsters has been a bit of a baptism of fire. Savvy arrived as one of a pair. Thankfully, they were in separate cages, but both were clearly distressed by their cramped conditions. Her companion escaped multiple times and ultimately simply totally disappeared before we could get her into a suitable habitat. She has been missing / not taking food for over a week

Savvy was just about calm enough and sufficiently less of an escape artist to manage to hang on for the few days it took to source a decent sized, secure home for her.

If the "friend" does rematerislise we will do the same for her, but I suspect that we won't see her again in the meantime we will do our best for Savvy. She is very sweet and has quickly learnt how to get food and bedding!

 

[Maz]

It's so good you took them to give them a good home. Have you seen the home page article about finding an escaped hamster? The bucket trap has always worked for me. Do you have an idea which room she might be in?

How to catch an escaped hamster

The best way to catch an escaped hamster is to use the bucket trap. Detailed instructions on how to set up a bucket trap and catch your hamster. An alternative method is to use the cage on the floor method or the tube method.

www.thehamsterforum.com

 

[Nikaaa]

Awhhh what a cutie!!

 

[whortleberry]

Thank you for the link to the lost hamster page, they are great thought processes. The cage on floor approach worked well to start with but then she escaped again with absolutely no sign of her presence in the room at all no sounds, no disappearing food, no fresh poo in unusual places etc. I guess it would be worth giving the bucket method a try, just in case though... Fingers crossed

 

[Maz]

I find the bucket trap is more reliable as they can leave the cage again but stay in the bucket. Except on one occasion where my large Syrian did actually escape the bucket! Which was probably a fluke. I used a wooden ruler on the end of the pile of books with cucumber on the end. When he stepped on the ruler to get the cucumber, he did indeed fall into the bucket. He then jumped up trying to get out and knocked the ruler into the bucket, which must have landed at a convenient angle so he basically walked up it to get to the top! I've never heard of that before though.

It worked for one of my previous Syrians who ended up in the kitchen and couldn't be found. We knew he was in the kitchen though, and set the bucket trap. Very soon after turning the lights out we heard a noise and there he was in the bucket.

It's a faff to set it up as you need so many books - and something like a piece of wood or wood ruler. If you have any strawberries, a bit of strawberry will probably be irresistable - on the end of the piece of wood If not, then cucumber. And you need treats going up the books as well.

 

[whortleberry]

Thank you for this. I have cobbled something together... No bucket but a good size box... It is in the room she was last seen in. Fingers crossed

 

[Maz]

If you mean something like a plastic storage box, that should work too I've seen people use a tall swing bin (without the lid) but that is really quite tall so a bigger drop which isn't great - and must need a huge book staircase!

I'll see if I can find a photo of my last bucket trap to give an idea. (Below). It's fiddly - the steps need to be not too high to climb and have tempting enough treats all the way up to keep them going up to the top. And some very smelly fresh treat at the top as the smell of that keeps them going up to the top as well. I think I had cheese, cucumber and a bit of strawberry and I actually had strawberry in the bottom of the bucket too. I caught the it on video (hamstercam) last time and Tino seemed to just jump in the bucket (maybe to get the strawberry) and bypassed the ruler.

If you're not sure which room she's in you could have the bucket trap in one room and her cage on the floor in the other room. But if she's been on the loose for a while her cage might not be tempting any more (less scent of her etc). Although the wheel might be a temptation! Even though Tino actually escaped the bucket trap, he went back to his cage on the floor and went to sleep in it. So I was able to shut the door in the morning and he was back.

What cage was it that she kept escaping from?

 

[whortleberry]

Yes, a storage box I used for contained exercise time whilst she was in the far too small cage.

The cage she came in is like the one in the other photo. The front door turned out to be useless... We tied it shut with string but that got chewed through and tried putting a weighted box in front of it.

She seemed keen on little bits of apple and carrot, so that's what I used on the steps and ruler.

Nothing so far. Fingers still crossed though.

My fear is that she may have burrowed into a cobb wall - I found a new, big pile of dusty material with a few pieces of hamster feed in it next to an exposed wall.

 

[Maz]

Really hope it works. If she burrowed in, she can get out again hopefully.

 

[Socks Mum]

Poor hammy, I think she would be glad to be back in her nice, safe, comfortable nest. I hope she is caught soon. A pet cam might be useful

 

[whortleberry]

Thank you ever so much for the kind suggestions and thoughts and wishes.

I'm very sad to report that unfortunately there is no sign of her.

I had also thought that if she could burrow in she should be able to get out. All I can think is that maybe the burrowing caused some instability in the wall material. The problem with cobb is that it's not like a modern plasterboard partition wall - it's not accessible or dismantlable.

We absolutely wanted to be able to give her the sort of set up that Savvy now has, with a safe space to burrow, plenty of room to move about, lots of things to explore and the capacity to do normal hamster things. Now that Savvy is safe and settling down she is a real joy to watch and get to know.

Please know that, given a choice, I would absolutely not choose to take on a pet without thoroughly researching their needs, etc, first and having at least the basic appropriate things in place for their arrival. Unfortunately, circumstances haven't allowed that here.

 

[Maz]

Ah that is sad. And none of the food was taken at all? It took me two nights to catch Tino with the bucket trap. He stayed hiding the first night but had taken a little bit of food from the bottom of the "steps". It could be worth leaving it there for a second night. And I take it you don't hear any scratching sounds anywhere?

Did you rescue these two hamsters in unsuitable cages or were you just told the wrong things by a pet shop. You weren't to know she could escape from the cage. It looks like it has another door higher up as well.

We all start somewhere and make mistakes - I did with our first hamster - had a shared one a long time before that did fine in an unsuitable cage, but the cage was open all the time and he used to free roam all night and go back to his cage! But they vary in personality. It took me a couple of weeks after getting ours to get it right.

Yes unfortunately they will chew through string. I used to use cable ties to keep a top door secure (which was a pain) but a determined hamster could probably chew through those as well.

Maybe she will turn up one day but I think you feel it's a bit late for that. So sorry. Did you search everything? One of ours was behind the fridge.

It's lovely your other hamster has a lovely big, secure cage now

 

[whortleberry]

My niece (18) turned up one evening with two hamsters her boss "didn't want" any more and said "help". I didn't feel I could say no to the poor things. I wasn't entirely sure whether we would ultimately keep them, but I did know that they clearly needed help and I said I would do all I could.

You are right, there are 3 doors to the cages. The most insecure one was the one on the front. The others seemed okay if double checked.

On at least two occasions she returned to the cage placed on the floor with open door and tasty things next to it - I found her in her nest in the morning finally looking more relaxed and less desperate. I suspect that where I went wrong - thinking that that meant I had enough time (a few days) to source the right things,and rearrange the room etc as it seemed she would return to her cage if she did escape.

What I hadn't understood was that she would be driven to burrow absolutely anywhere.

No, no food has gone. I've looked behind / under / in everywhere I can think of looking. At one point we found some food hoarded underneath one of the bookcases but no other evidence of where she might be beyond tha large pile of dusty material from the cobb wall. I have listened out for scratching on more than one night but not heard anything. I feel awful for her.

I'm ever so sorry for such a wretched introduction.

 

[Maz]

Don't apologise. You saved one of the hamsters and are giving her a good life. We would all do things differently in hindsight. It is possible she is living somewhere in the house. But without water, they can only survive two or three days.

 

[whortleberry]

I would have liked to be able to do the same for Merlot (the other hamster). I have read about people losing hamsters only for them to reappear some months later. I will watch out for gnawed through water pipes... And do my best for Savvy in the meantime.