Pets Overload

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MY HAMSTER RAN AWAY!

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Hey Pet Parents & Pet Lovers,

As you may know I have never been the pet parent of a “small mammal,” so a lot of things with Twitch are new for me. Because Twitch was an unexpected surrender I had to do a lot of on the spot learning.

When we first got Twitch we noticed she would aggressively chew on her on the bars on her cage. Now, from what little I know from my training at the pet store I knew that hamsters needed to chew to grind their teeth (as hamsters teeth never stop growing) and even though we bought her a bunch of chew toys she wasn’t using them! We’ve bought her an assortment of wooden toys, chew sticks, lava chews and have fed her fresh carrots. Still we couldn’t get our little one to stop chewing on her cage!

So, we did more research and found out that it might be smarter to put Twitch into a tank instead of a cage and find other ways of encouraging her to chew on safe toys. (By this time we discovered some tricks to get her to chew her toys, but they still weren’t enough. So we got her a fish tank! Twitch wasn’t exactly happy about this switch and we could tell that she would try to escape the tank. So we placed a few text books on the top of the tank, leaving a small gap for air. We thought this would be a sufficient enough lid, but it wasn’t!

Somehow Twitch managed to tug one of the textbooks off the tank (as one of her toys was being held up by the weight of the book), and she managed to climb out of the tank. At this time Kenny and I were asleep, so we didn’t even know about her escape. Luckily we keep Twitch in our office which is a room that is closed off to Beau. (EVERYONE LET OUT A HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF.) When Kenny got up for work (only a few hours after I had gone to bed) he immediately noticed that one of the text books had fallen and thought that our little one had been crushed. To his relief, she was no where to be seen… but again… she was nowhere to be seen! Kenny quickly woke me up and I found Twitch within 10-minutes of being awake and as soon as she got back into her cage she drank a whole lot of water! Poor little one must have been so thirsty!

So why am I sharing this with you? I guess to let you all know that I made a mistake and that it is a very dumb idea to make a lid out of text books. That’s the thing about being a pet owner. You’re not going to know if things don’t work without people sharing their experiences. We’ve been looking into getting the add on cage to the top of the tank, thing is… that wouldn’t completely help Twitch’s situation. She will probably still chew on the bars and we’ll be back to square one. However… at least she will have more space.

So Pet Parents & Pet Lovers, here’s where I ask you… have you ever had a scare like this before? What did you do? How do you get over the feeling that you are the worst pet parent for letting your little one escape?

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Comments

  1. I had a white rat that was an expert about getting out of her cage and I had two cats. Luckily they were all friends and my rat, Phoenix’s only problem was that he couldn’t get back in to his food and water. I would come home from work and he would be sitting on top of the cage waiting for me. I then just started to twist a paper lip to keep the cage closed. He was such a sweet boy. Always licking me and hanging around my shoulder.

    I would take our dog for a walk and my two cats followed and Phoenix would stay on my shoulder. Lovely pets – all of them!

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    • That’s amazing! And super, duper cool! I definitely hope that one day I can have a bunch of pets that can chill together.

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  2. You can get a metal mesh lid for her tank. I get them at Petco/Petsmart, and the ones for a 10 gallon tank are about $6, iirc. You can get clips to hold them down or you can put something heavy on top – a small paint can or a bookend – to hold it down.

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    • We’re actually about to build her a new home from a bin! Thanks for the ideas. Will keep you updated to let you know what comes of it.

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  3. We’ve had 7 hamsters over the years. One took an “unauthorized” tour of the living room and one of the cats alerted us to where he was. Luckily, hammy wasn’t harmed during his excursion and was returned to the safety of his palace. We had one bar chewer. Chewing is natural and necessary to keep their teeth short. Their teeth can be damaged from chewing on the bars, but I never had that happen,. Lots of chew sticks and other chewable toys might help, but some are just attracted to the bars.

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    • We’ve got a number of chewing toys and chewing sticks. She only likes them when we hold them. We’ve tried gluing them down (with hamster safe glue) and we’ve tried the toy bars. So far… none. So every night we take her out and give her a good long chew (if she’s in the mood). But still… the bars are her favourite place to go!

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  4. Golly, have zero hamster experience to give. However, please consider the positive aspect of Twitch’s escape being a learning experience and that she was not injured. In your shoes, I’d march to the public library and find as many hamster books that I could find, to glean info from. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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    • Absolutely ! We’ve been doing as much research on the little one since we got her! Been hitting all those books 😉

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  6. We’re so glad that it all worked out fine with Twitch and we think that we all have to make mistakes to learn in life as nobody is purrfect. Granny also had hamsters and she had to learn a few hard lessons too. When she wanted to clean the cage of her first Hamster, she lift the cage with the grip on top and walked down the stairs and the lower part fell down of the stairs, with her beloved hamster. She never forgets. He survived the fall, but one of his little feet extinguished and he lived for almost four years, but she never carries anything anymore on the grip, not even my carrier. She doesn’t trust it ever since and she blamed herself for a very long time that she didn’t checked on the lock before the accident. This was 45 years ago, but she remembers as it was yesterday. Extra Pawkisses for the happy end 🙂 <3

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    • Thank you for sharing that Little Binky. This really makes me feel a whole lot better! We’re glad Twitch is all well too! It’s nerve wracking learning to take care of a new animal, but we’re so proud of being a home for strays <3

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  8. When I was younger I had a hamster and had him in a aquarium for the same reason but I had a metal top for it with small holes in it. I had to tape the top on with strapping tape or he would lift up the lid by standing on his wheel.

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    • Oh no! I’m feeling better now knowing that it happens to other people. We’re definitely looking into other methods. Did you ever get your little one to chew on their toys?

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  9. twitch…ewe knead ta behave az yur dadz stil new at thiz….

    he iz tryin his best two help ewe out

    but yur knot tryin yur best two help him out !!! 🙂

    beau; tell yur dad knot to bee sew upset with him self; he did knot noe… a TON
    oh pet parents run with trial and error and just bee coz sum thin werkz for one doez knot meen it will werk for another…

    is ther sum thin dad can spray ON de bars ta keep her frum chewin…..sum thin that stinx… but wont harm her…. ?? ♥

    Reply

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