How long do they live?

[Gamina]

Originally Posted by RCalabraro

see that's what I'm afraid of... that I will just find him dead. Since I am a new hamster owner, if that should happen, I would of course blame myself and wonder what I did wrong, and blame my inexperience, whether it is warranted or not.

I'm sorry about your little fella. Sometimes He has different plans

Firstly as long as you are a sensible owner its never going to be your fault that they have passed. Sometimes it is just their time.

As for finding a pet dead, and there may well be people that disagree with me but I have often found longer dragged out illness and death harder.
When you find your animal dead you will always question what was wrong especially if they were in the perfect health only the night before. This is what happened with our gerbil Optimus. However with Eddard I found him after a stroke and he died in my hands on the way to the vets, Apollo our rat was much harder after a prolonged illness.
I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes I think it is easier to just find them curled up as if they are sleeping and have just passed than struggling through an illness with them watching them get worse and weaker day after day well thats what I feel from my experience with rodents.

[Holly's Mum]

Remembering back to the hammies I had a long time ago, three of them were male syrians and I think they all lived around 2 years. The last one was a female syrian and she died suddenly aged around one year.

It was kind of traumatic at the time, I had no idea she was ill, and went to wake her up and take her out to play. She was awake as normal, and started to come out of her nest. I turned away for a second to get her food, heard a thump from the cage and turned back and she was lying dead on the floor of the cage.

Looking back I think it must have been pyometria, as I remember she had what looked like a blob of pus on her stomach near her vagina. Poor Candy.

[StarlightSerenity]

Originally Posted by Gamina

Firstly as long as you are a sensible owner its never going to be your fault that they have passed. Sometimes it is just their time.

As for finding a pet dead, and there may well be people that disagree with me but I have often found longer dragged out illness and death harder.
When you find your animal dead you will always question what was wrong especially if they were in the perfect health only the night before. This is what happened with our gerbil Optimus. However with Eddard I found him after a stroke and he died in my hands on the way to the vets, Apollo our rat was much harder after a prolonged illness.
I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes I think it is easier to just find them curled up as if they are sleeping and have just passed than struggling through an illness with them watching them get worse and weaker day after day well thats what I feel from my experience with rodents.

I pray that when its Luna's time she just goes in her sleep. I'd rather that than an illness for sure.

I used to pray that my old dog Cass would go in her sleep but sadly she didnt, she became ill and had to be put to sleep. In one respect I was glad I was with her when she died but seeing her so poorly was horrible

[Jayden]

I can't remember how long they lived exactly so i'll have to put roughly.

Name: Phoebe
Sex: Female
Type: Syrian
Bought: From Pets At Home
Lived for: She was my first hamster so it's very hard to remember but she died from old age so imagin she lived a good long life.

Name: Kiari
Sex: Female
Type: Russian Dwarf
Bought: From Pets At Home
Lived for: 3 years ( i think ) she started loosing fur so my mum took her up the vets while i was in school. Apprently he thought it was due to old age which might have been the case but i still worry something else might have been going on. :/

Name: Bou
Sex: Female
Type: Syrian
Bought: From Pets At Home
Live for: couple of days She ended up getting wet tail suddenly and agressivly. We first tried her on medication but she wasen't drinking therefore wasen't taking it. I then asked my mum if we could have her put down because i didn't want to see her suffer.

Name: Pip
Sex: Male
Type: Syrian
Bought: From Pets At Home
Lived for: 4/5 months. I noticed something was wrong with him because he stopped coming out as much, wasen't eating much and was hardly drinking. Unfortunutly on the day we were going to take him to the vets he had already passed away. I noticed some discharge around his bottom area so i believe he died from some sort of sudden rear infection.

[Gillzy]

Originally Posted by Holly's Mum

It was kind of traumatic at the time, I had no idea she was ill, and went to wake her up and take her out to play. She was awake as normal, and started to come out of her nest. I turned away for a second to get her food, heard a thump from the cage and turned back and she was lying dead on the floor of the cage.

Looking back I think it must have been pyometria, as I remember she had what looked like a blob of pus on her stomach near her vagina. Poor Candy.

Oh gosh! That's awful. It's my biggest fear. I wake Sen up most days early afternoon just to check she's okay. But it doesn't bare thinking about that I could think she's fine and she'd be dead the next time I look at her.

[littlemonster]

Can't completely remember the length of time they were alive for so I'll guess.

Name: Sammy
Sex: Male
Type: Syrian
Bought: Cadbury Garden Centre
Lived for: 3 days, he had wet tail and died after a few days poor mite.

Name: Aimee
Sex: Female
Type: Syrian
Bought: Mar Pets
Lived for: 1 year and 4-8 months? Probably from old age I'm guessing.

Name: Bounty
Sex: Male
Type: Syrian
Bought: Mar Pets
Lived for: Same length of time as Aimee I think, again...old age could of been the factor.

Name: Nibbles
Sex: Female
Type: Syrian
Bought: Mar Pets
Lived for: Nearly 2 years, old age.

Name: Lola
Sex: Female
Type: Syrian
Bought: Pets Plus
Lived for: 2 years and 2 months, old age and possible signs of Cushings disease

[Millie]

Princess - female- syrian - 3years+ - possible wet tail but unsure..?

[xx-snowball-xx]

Jessie, female, about 6 months. I came back from holiday and my friend told me she hadn't wanted to spoil my holiday, but Jessie had died while I was gone

Elmo. He was about a year when I got him and died at about 18 months.

[princessbarbie1988]

I'll try and remember as best I can:

Sootie (Male Syrian - from P@H) lived until about 3 years old and just passed in his sleep of old age. (the sweet thing about this story is that my cat used to love watching him in his ball or his cage, not in a bad way, and then when he was getting older and in the last few hours she wouldn't leave his cage. She lay by it until I found him the next day)

Sweep (Male Syrian - P@H) lived only for a few months. Not sure, was fine one day and then had passed the next

Squishy (Female Syrian - from a friends unwanted litter) just under two years but seemed like old age as she acted the same as Sootie had before he passed.

It's so hard when it happens and quite scary when you see them and then think if you could have prevented it

[Lougarry]

Name: Sebastian
Sex: Male
Type: Syrian
Bought: Independent pet shop
Lived for: I got Seb in October 1987, when I went to uni, and he died in early Summer 1990, not long before I left, so he was about 2 1/2. He was fine one day and died in his sleep. I assume it was old age, although he'd shown no real signs of slowing down. He was buried in the garden of the house I'd lived in my second year, where he'd spent many happy times playing in the garden.