I just read all of this thread. I am happy to hear that he found the food and ate. I had a Syrian hamster who was a little escape artist. The last time he escaped though he was gone for 2 weeks with no signs of life from him at all. I was leaving food all around for him. After 2 weeks on my birthday. I had given up and took his whole cage apart. He had a ton of tubes and little attached houses. I was down is the basement to store the cage stuff and heard squealing. He was squealing and charging at me. He layed in front of my feet. He was dirty and weak but sat in a bowl of food eating while I put his cage back together. He was fine and lived several years after that but never escaped again.