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Fearghal- U/D 28th March 0030 hrs Post 94......

He's escaped and has been missing for over 24 hours. I have gutted the house and I cant find him :cry:

I am useless, this cage was bought with the best of intentions. The bar spacing was meant to be suitable for Dwarf Hamsters. Why did I believe it, I read that tanks did not provide adequate air circulation and could lead to RTIs. I am utterly devastated. I have hurt my back again in all my pulling out of kitchen cabinets etc and pulling skirting board away from walls. I can barely move. Now caring for my Rabbits is going to be so hard. It is all my fault

I will NEVER forgive myself for this

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
 
Oh no :( Robos are so tiny, it's not your fault he was able to escape.

I had a mouse escape once and was able to catch him when he came out for food.

I'm sure you'll find him. Could you make a bucket trap to catch him?

He might even go back to his cage all by himself, especially since he seemed to love it and it's a source of comfort, food, water for him.
 
He's escaped and has been missing for over 24 hours. I have gutted the house and I cant find him :cry:

I am useless, this cage was bought with the best of intentions. The bar spacing was meant to be suitable for Dwarf Hamsters. Why did I believe it, I read that tanks did not provide adequate air circulation and could lead to RTIs. I am utterly devastated. I have hurt my back again in all my pulling out of kitchen cabinets etc and pulling skirting board away from walls. I can barely move. Now caring for my Rabbits is going to be so hard. It is all my fault

I will NEVER forgive myself for this

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

oh no! I am so sorry to read this :(. Hoping you get him back. xxx
 
Jane, Do not blame yourself. Hamsters are mini Houdinis when it comes to escape. She will come out when she is ready.
When I was a child one of my hamsters was missing for three days and we thought it was gone for good. One night mum came to say goodnight to us in our attic bedroom when we heard scratching in the cubby hole used for storage and out ran Pinky. She was not easy to catch as she ran the maze around the overcrowded room of beds ,belongings and children.
Seding vibes she will return soon. Hugs.
 
How awful. But you weren't to know. Like William says, put the cage where he can access it as he will get hungry. I do hope he turns up. I would be feeling the same if it happened to me. :cry:
 
I've had various tiny furry escapees over the years. They do reappear. I resort to live traps overnight these days, but leaving his familiar cage open may tempt him back, or things like cereal boxes along skirting boards or wherever he may be. Larger sheets of card (eg from delivery boxes) are useful to partition a room. Food has to be used as bait, so use sparingly to get him to come out or he will hoard it. If he is most active at night, try dotting the odd tiny bit around the room to see where he is hiding out, and work from there. Morse may also point you in his direction. Watch out for anything he may see as food or bedding, as his instinct will be to go for those.

I've had chipmunks and zebra mice out for a week in a house full of cats and still got them back safely. Don't give up - just give it time and be vigilant. You need to work out where he is and how you are going to capture him when he appears as he may be skittish.
 
Hugs, you’ll find him. Our hamsters were always escaping when I child. Showing I’m a child of the 70’s here my sister’s hamster went missing for a week. We eventually captured him when we discovered he’d made a nest next to the gas bottle in the calor gas heater in the lounge. I hope you find him soon and that your pain eases too x
 
I have caught an escaped mouse and a spiny mouse before. If all else fails, you can try a humane mouse trap. It really isn't worth destroying your house over, as they will just run away when they hear the noise. Let him come to a trap of some kind when he wants food.
 
I have caught an escaped mouse and a spiny mouse before. If all else fails, you can try a humane mouse trap. It really isn't worth destroying your house over, as they will just run away when they hear the noise. Let him come to a trap of some kind when he wants food.

This is a good idea. I think you can probably buy one online if you don’t have one. Perhaps try amazon ?
 
Oh no, I'm sure food will tempt him back, don't blame yourself Jane, easy for me to say though xx
 
Small escapees' instinct is normally just go into hiding first - somewhere they feel safe - usually a small access point behind something bigger (eg washing machine), depending on what they first see. They don't usually go far as they don't know their way around. They may dart between 2 or 3 'safe' places. Then when they feel more confident (a day or two later), they come out to investigate, look for food and anything that they can use as bedding. That's when you need to just watch and wait for signs of where they are, and devise a trap - something they will go into and you can close / lift before they dart out (so a reliable door mechanism or something quite deep that they won't immediately jump out of (tubes, boxes, etc). If you have a bird net (long, fine mesh and padded edges) or something firm enough to act as a temporary lid (eg pieces of card again, or tupperware lids), they good to keep where you can easily get to them to block in said small furry. It may take a few attempts, but once you know where they are hiding out, it helps and you can narrow the area down physically (duct tape and large boxes, in my case).

I have an emergency kit to catch small rodents. A net and tub / bucket of food tends to work if I can get them in the first few minutes / half hour when they are working out what to do, otherwise it is the large sheets of cardboard boxes, custom fit to my kitchen to block off access behind the white goods and units. Remove cats. Close doors. Set up traps. Remove all other food sources. Wait. Check traps regularly. Mine tend to be caught as it gets light on a morning.

In over 40 years of having multiple smaller furries here, and a couple of spectacular cage failures, I've only actually properly lost one as it got outside and I couldn't catch it. I've lost the odd one to cats who were quicker than me, but you don't have that issue. I've also used a cat to help me find where they were hiding and then removed the cat.
 
When I caught the spiny mouse (which was incredibly difficult - they are the fastest critters I have ever had), he went inside the open cage on the floor and I edged towards it, and slammed the door shut while he was in his wheel. I still nearly didn't manage it in time.

I remember when the other mouse was on the loose, we put bits of paper under and behind all the furniture. It made a rustling sound, so we were able to hear when she was scuttling around.
 
I have been up all night trying to find him, even taking the fridge and freezer down (they are table top size) to look in the back of them. Nothing. I left his cage accessible and food too but there is just no sign of him at all. The reason I pulled off the skirting boards was because I wondered if he could have squeezed behind them. But nope. My home now resembles a building site.

Morse has not shown any behaviour to indicate something 'strange', and I know he would. As would the Bunnies, they'd thump and get skittish if Fearghal was scurrying about in any of their enclosures. I think he's gone for good :cry:
 
Don't give up hope. Don't forget they like to climb so check high things as well. Fingers crossed he turns up. xx
 
I have been up all night trying to find him, even taking the fridge and freezer down (they are table top size) to look in the back of them. Nothing. I left his cage accessible and food too but there is just no sign of him at all. The reason I pulled off the skirting boards was because I wondered if he could have squeezed behind them. But nope. My home now resembles a building site.

Morse has not shown any behaviour to indicate something 'strange', and I know he would. As would the Bunnies, they'd thump and get skittish if Fearghal was scurrying about in any of their enclosures. I think he's gone for good :cry:
Jane,
These animals can hide well. I once had multiple families of rodents nesting in my basement where I did laundry and kept canned goods. I used a Have a Heart live trap baited with peanut butter and caught and released lots of tiny adult mice.
 
Definitely don't give up hope Jane. Continue leaving his cage open and food accessible. I hadn't realised they could climb until I read tb's post.
I appreciate that an incident like this takes over your life, as I know that would be the case with me and I , too, would have been up all night. X
 
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