“My Hamster Escaped and Here Are the 4 Methods I Used To Find Him”

It’s bad enough when your kid’s pet hamster goes missing, but it becomes a personal crisis when you’re responsible. Stanley, our Syrian hamster, was an adventurous soul. I always thought that if given the least opportunity, he would be waving goodbye to his cage and setting off on a mini adventure. Unfortunately, I gave him that opportunity by not securing the cage properly after I cleaned him out. The next day, the cage was empty, there was no sign of where he had gone, and the hamster hunt began.

The first thing I learned from this experience is that Syrian hamsters can be strong and agile when they want to be. Stanley had managed to push open the cage roof, climb down the side of the cage, drop another four feet to the floor, and disappear into thin air. Once I overcame the shock, I researched every method I could find to locate where he was hiding. I mean, how hard could it be to find a hamster?  It turns out that it can be very hard indeed. So, let me share with you what I tried and what eventually worked.

1. Using My Ears as Well as My Eyes

Hamsters like to hide away in quiet and dark little places. Therefore, I knew that I’d have to look everywhere. I mean inside shoes, behind furniture, inside boxes, down the back of the sofa, and under the washing machine. This is the usual advice, but no one tells you just how time-consuming it is. I eventually got fed up with peering into inaccessible parts of my house, my phone battery plummeting from over-using the torch.

My advice is to stop relying on your eyes and use your ears. Hamsters are much more active at night, so try to stay up late and sit in the dark listening! You may hear your little furry friend moving around looking for food. This may allow you to identify at least the area of the house where they are hiding. This worked for us. Each family member was designated a room with instructions to sit in the dark for 20 minutes and listen. It’s not the most exciting wait to spend an evening, but it needs must.

Success! We could hear a scratching sound from the wall between our kitchen and lounge. Also, my spaniel was becoming intrigued with this area – a level of obsession he usually reserves for squirrels, so the net was closing in so to speak. All information is useful when you are hunting for a hamster!

2. Setting up Food and Water Stations

My priority was to keep the fugitive alive until I could capture him. The general level of cleanliness in my house meant that he would not struggle to find food crumbs, but water was more of an issue. So, I provided little dishes with water in areas where he could access it. I started by putting the cage on the floor in case he decided he wanted to come home by himself. He didn’t.

So, I set up four or five feeding and water stations around the house – some upstairs and some downstairs. I knew he was perfectly capable of going up and downstairs by himself, but I wanted him to come across the food without traveling very far. It’s a good idea not to put too much food down so that you can easily tell if it’s been disturbed. If most of the food is missing, it’s likely that your hamster has taken it, and this will help you identify which part of the house he is hiding in. The other possibility is that you have a mouse or a rat in the house, but that’s less likely!

I read that you should tie a thread around the food so that you can see where it’s gone when the hamster carries it back to his hiding place. Having spent an hour trying to tie a piece of cotton around a sunflower seed, I question the usefulness of this approach.  

3. Humane Traps

I read that several hamster owners had had success using humane traps. If you can put something really appealing inside, your hamster may venture into them. I borrowed one from a friend and set it up near where we thought Stanley-type noises originated. He didn’t fall for it.

4. Hamster Surveillance

The problem with looking for hamsters is that they are most active when you are asleep at night. This means that you need a surveillance operation to catch them moving around. You can either go high-tech and use a night vision camera. Some people use motion-activated cameras to catch hamsters coming out of their hiding places. Alternatively, you can go old-school and dust areas with flour. Your hamster will leave little footprints that you may even be able to follow back to the hiding place!

Finding My Escaped Hamster

Using a combination of the above methods and much to Stanley’s disappointment, he was located behind a wooden panel in the kitchen. We reached him by taking half the kitchen apart. I hope your hamster hunt is not as expensive as mine was!

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Mary Swift/Shutterstock.com