by Dina Sullivan

Created on: June 17, 2009   Last Updated: June 18, 2009

When a hamster escapes his cage at night or any time of the day, can be devastating to younger children. One of the first things they think of is that the hamster ran outside and died. Well, at least that's what my son thought just yesterday when he took his hamster out to play with him and "forgot" about him and started playing on the Playstation. I then told him he can only take the hamster "Herkermer" out of his cage to play with him when I'm home and watching out for him.

My son loves his new pet and would never think of hurting him. So when we preceded to look for Herkermer, I told him to be very quiet and not to make too much noise while we moved things around to look for him. Since it was only a matter of minutes since we discovered him missing, I figured he couldn't have gotten to far. It was in the bedroom where he got lost and decided to look under the bed and dressers first, in the back corners. Well, no sign of Herkermer, so I looked under and in shoes thinking he crawled in there to hide. Nope, not there either.

When hamsters get scared, they run to a secluded spot so they can hide. What was left was the corners of the room. And there I found him curled up in a little ball in the corner behind a travel bag. I didn't make any sudden movements so I wouldn't startle him and scare him. I said his name really softly so he knew I was there, and simply just reached down slowly and picked him up. That was easy. But it probably won't be the last time I will have to go hamster hunting and probably won't be that easy.

If your pet hamster does decide to run, don't go stomping around chasing him everywhere, just give it some time for him to calm down. You can have some food ready in a spot where you can easily pick him up. Or you could put some food near him leading out to a good spot.

If you have other animals like cats or dogs, put them in a separate room so the hamster can come out without being scared. And it would be a good idea to shut the doors leading to the outside or to different rooms in the house, to try to keep him more confined in one area. By making sure that he doesn't have a chance to run all over the house and worse outside, it will be easier to catch him and to know where he is at in case you miss him or if he bites you and you let go of him.

Hopefully your hamster doesn't get out of his cage but if he does, you will know some ways of catching him before he gets hurt or runs away.

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