Phoebe went walkabout!!!

[Emma]

Phoebe was very naughty today!!



Me & Phoebs are staying at my boyfriend's house for a few days (the robs are at mine being looked after by housemates). There's a spare room here that has become known as "Phoebe's room"!! Anyway, I went down this morning to check on her and her cage door was open and she was gone! She must have opened it herself, because it's not the one I put her back through last night.



I looked all round the room, no sign of her. Went downstairs to tell my boyfriend what has happened, and his roomate said "Ah. That'll explain the scratching in my ceiling all last night!".



There are holes about 3cm in diameter in the floor of one housemate's room and the ceiling of the room below, to allow networking cables through. Phoebe had managed to squeeze through the top hole, and was stuck underneath the floor boards! When we called her name and offered treats, she'd stick her nose out the hole, but she couldn't squeeze back out. After about an hour of trying to tempt her and ripping up floorboards elsewhere in the room (only to find they weren't connected to where she was underneath), we made one of the hole a little bit bigger by chipping bits of wood off. Unfortunately all that noise scared Phoebs away and we couldn't see her, but now the hole was big enough for her to climb out.



By this time my boyfriend is 2 hours late for work, and I have things that need doing too, so we leave Phoebe with access to water and food and put the cage on the floor next to the hole so she can get in when she decides to come out.



When I came home this evening, she was tucked up in bed pretending to be a good girl!! She's a bit mucky, has a bit of a dusty tinge, but not too bad so I'll leave her to clean herself rather than stressing her any more by bathing her. She's going to have a bit of TLC for a few days, extra vitamins etc, but apart from that she's fine. Pity I can't say the same for the housemate's floor, now full of holes, or the room below, into which Phoebe has pushed about 1/3 of a shoebox worth of rubble from the ceiling space! I had a bit of tidying up to do!



I'm so glad she's safe, she had me so worried the little minx. Padlocks on the cage from now on

[matinee_92]

That must have been scary!

Ive had a few experiences with hamsters escaping from their balls. You would be sitting watching TV and suddenly you'd see a little fuzzball running past your feet! I always managed to catch them though, phew!

[Emma]

I often let Phoebe free range in fully hammy-proofed rooms, so she's quite confident out and about.....I just didn't intend for her to break out of her cage and find a tiny hole in the next room to squeeze through!



I was very upset and scared this morning, until we saw her, and I knew she'd eaten and drank. I was pretty confident she'd come back to her cage once she could get out of the floor and all the noise had stopped.