Escapees?

[Tracey]

My hamster got out of his cage once and was missing for an hour. When i found him my cat was eating him, i was so upset as he was one of my best long haired silver hamsters and was so tame.

[Sam]

Yes. Sadly.

My Beautiful Champagne Hooded Rat,Jaffa escaped recently, with nine cats and two dogs we weren't expecting to get her back! We were moving house the next day and I never did get Jaffa back!

But I still have Sally and a new cage!

[kittygurl823]

Sam - I am sorry about Jaffa
I have had 3 other hamsters before Oreo, and never once had a problem with the escaping out of their cage. We put Oreo in another cage I had a few months ago. I wake up to Brad yelling "Um Honey! WE have a slight problem!" (I know that can't be good! ) "The hamster is, um, not here" I said "what!?!?" We are looking everywhere, having no idea where she could be. We have 3 cats, but they are in their own room at night, so I know they couldn't have gotten to her. Finally, we look in our guest room, there she is, sitting between the bookshelf and the wall, staring out, scared, but looking so cute! We put her back, and Brad figured he didn't have the cage on tight on one side, and she must've wedged herself out is all. He fixed it, problem solved, right? WRONG. The next morning was a repeat of the morning before, except this time, it was on tight, so I couldn't figure out how she got out. But I looked between the bookshelf again, and the little guy was right in the same place, how funny is that! I think she wedged herself out between the bars, they were kinda far apart, but my other hamster was in it, with no problems so who would've thought?! SO.... needless to say, out that night we went to buy a new cage. We got a CritterTrail 2. She loved it! Everything was going good, until one night, after we cleaned the cage, I hear this unbelievable noise, like screeching. I see my dog Kahlua run by, OH NO, the hamster is out again!! My dog was scaring her so much by chasing it, but he wasn't trying to hurt her. We put her away and said we have the escape artist of hamsters! The only thing we could think was that some how, some way, she popped the top off of the Crittertrail (if you know what I am talking about, u know there is a latch you have to push your thumb down to open, have to push the latch kind of hard, too) So I couldn't believe she got out. We now tape the sides down and have been ok. LOL. One other night though, we forgot to tape it down after cleaning. It's 3 am, sitting at the kitchen table, I see something in the laundry room and Kahlua was watching over something, it was.. Oreo...yet again! I couldn't believe it! I check and check if this hamster is in her cage all the time, and make sure I have plenty of tape holding down the top! I don't even know what other cage to buy this Houdini!

[BCsncritters]

my gerbils have disapeared for weeks at a time, how I get them back depend on the gerbil. stubby and sniffles have never escaped but they almost did when happy knoked the cage over, but I grabed them before they knew they were loose(well your bound to devolped fast reflexes when there is a jack russle 2 feet away!) doodles has never escaped, scribbles has he got under the floor boards for a few days, lol I shone a flash light under the safe(old thing built into the floor) and he came out to see what the light was lol when cinnamon escaped she was gone for weeks, we had no idea where she was, turned out she had made her way upstairs from the basment and was living in the kitchen! when my old gerbil tippy escaped and got under the floor boards I remberd that in the wild when ther is danger the leader will thump and all the gerbils will come out to see whats going on, so I thumps my hand on the floor really fast she she came up to see what was going on meanwhile I nabbed her! lol tippy howver was from my lines, and I kept wild instinct in my lines, most gerbils nowadays wont have that instinct anymore. kari escaped just last night lol I just picked her up and put her back in her pen. the piggies have never escaped though.

[maizie]

I had a hamster that escaped. I was devasted. I kept thinking what if the front door was open and she got out, she would never survive. I put her cage on the floor with the door wide open. I also put her bed on the carpet with some treats by the side of it. I also put treats around the floor leading to her cage. At about 3am in the morning my rabbit thumped so loud it woke me up. When I came into the lounge there she was by the rabbits cage. He helped me find her!

[elfomatic]

i used to have an escaping hamster ... ironically his name was houdini.

[Cazandra]

Yes, my rabbit (the one on the pic) have don it twice But we found him, the same day. I weren´t at home when it happend, so I don´t know how.
But the first time he got a stick in his eys, so the vet told us that he could be blind, but he got well

[nellie]

I haven't had a hamster in many years so please don't hold this against me! Every hamster I have ever had has escaped!
I got my first hamster, Sneaky Pete, when I was 5. He got out of his cage (I think I left the door open) and was gone for about a week. My mom found him while I was at Kindergarten. He was in the washing machine. Luckly she looked in before she dumped the clothes in! We think he must have jumped in there looking for water! Since he was a mean little dude and she was afraid of him, she scooped him up with a canning jar and dumped him back in his cage, which was still waiting for him to come home a full week later!
When I was in Junior High we got Mario and Luigi (Mario Brothers was really popular then!). My little sister left the door open and they both escaped. We found Mario the next day. It's been about 13 years and we still have never recovered Luigi. My parents were remodeling the house and we think he may have gotten in the walls.
Months after their escape, I was cleaning Mario's cage and he was in a shoe box. I forgot all about him and went to the store with my mom. When we got back, the lid was pushed off the box. Mario ended up in the cold air return. We found him too late.
Poor little guys! I don't think I'll ever let my daughter have one while she lives at home. I have too many bad memories of escaping hamsters.
~Nellie

[blackflyer80]

I used to own a gerbil (he was the meanest thing EVER!!!) and he stayed in a plastic cage, like those commercial ones with all the tubes. Well, there was a wheel attached to the outside of his cage, and he decided to chew a hole through that and run away!! I was chasing him around my room for about an hour until my parents came in and helped. Unfortunatly, the only way to catch him without having him bite your finger off was to let my dog in and scare him to a corner so my dad could pick him up! I was ssooo mad when they let my dog in there, but he came out unscathed! Oh well. He died pretty soon after that, unfortunatly. RIP Gerb the gerbil.

[Core]

I had a hamster when I was about 10 and it got out. Sadly, when we got home all that was left was the fur!!! Our pet cat found him before we did. Was a total mess!! Pretty sad stuff when you are 10.

[linzy]

ok firstly we had a ferret that we "rescued" from an animal shelter thing, he was called tyson, and he escaped twice. the first time he ran into a school's hall, (we live really close to a school) and we found him, the next time he ran away we didnt find him. i alos had a guinea-pig that i lost, i didnt tell my mom , i just couldnt, it was during a heat wave aswell. 3 days later my sister found him under neath this table in our garden, i took him and tryed to do EVERYTHING, he looked so bad and dehydrated... and then the next day he died i felt so bad...

[Brittney]

The gerbil I used to own got out because a mirror fell off the wall and knocked a tube off the cage.

[Sasami]

Ginger, my golden checkered hamster, whom I had a while ago used to know how to open her cage. I had only had her for two weeks or so when she escaped, jumped off the shelf, and ran around the room. Then, as I was getting dressed, she came up to me and licked and nudged my feet 'till I picked her up. So we put twist ties to hold the door shut and the crazy little thing chewed through them XD. But she came back again. Finally we contained her with alot of twist ties that had to be changed constantly.

[Chinchilla_Girl]

I've had 2 chins escape before...Ty figured out how to open his cage...now has a new locking mechanizm on it...and Mercedes escaped once because Zach decided he wanted to pet her. Luckily both were in the chin room and they didn't escape at the same time or anything. When Mercedes jumped out of her cage, Brandon woke be up to tell me. She was happily pulling hay out of the hay bin holes! The kids were smart enough to close the door while in the chin room, because we instilled into them that if it's not kept closed at all times, the dogs could hurt or even kill them if they got out of their cages. The kids got in a lot of trouble for even being in the chin room without me and it now has a lock on the door that the kids can't reach. Even if they do escape again, they have 2 places to hide, under Phil's cage, or under Mercedes cage. Either way, they aren't going far and are safely locked away from the kids and dogs now.

[BCsncritters]

oh my gawd you would not believe the escape problem I had on friday lol kari and smudge escaped there pen I noticed when I wanlking into my room with 2 gerbils in a carrier, and had a JRT with me and pannicked, stuck perky outside my room and closed the door, I thenm realized that kari and smudge were NOT in my room and I just let a JRT loose with 2 critters, I panicked and set down the gerbils carrier, ran out of my room grabbed perky put her in the bathroom upstairs. ok on with my search, looking all over the basment calling karias soon as I open the door to the piggy room kari appears at my feet, so I picked her up put her in her pen, when I realized that stubby was not in the carrier, compared to smudge she was VERY easy to catch. so I returned the gerbils to their cage, and went back to smudge hunting, I finally found him under the bed in the piggie room at the VERY back. while I am trying to get him out I feel blair near my legs(he is hairy and never stops moving its easy to tell when its him lol) I think to myself "Sh*t! what is Blair doing in here?" misty was with me, misty is in standing season, blair is an intact male. obviously I stop what I am doing and grab blair before he gets misty lol get him in his crate and run downstairs and attempt and catching smudge again lol it took me about half an hour to get him out, and got be completly coverd in hay and bedding. lets just say I took a long relaxing bath after that lol

PS. kari and smudge, the ones that started this whole trouble are the sweet looking pair in my siggie lol