My hamster escaped ;_;

[cookietiger]

So this morning I came downstairs and went to the cage to feed my hamster... when I noticed the tunnel was not attached to the cage...
I lifted every single house and he was gone!
I frantically closed all the doors in the house and started crawling through every room (for some reason I didn't think he'd be in the room he began in). However after several rooms I started searching the room he lives in. I am a super messy person. So all Crumpet's bedding, substrate, ball, toys are just in a big pile in the corner some slightly more spread out. I was moving all of them and found a MASSIVE puddle of pee (I really thought if anything it would be quite a small patch but it was a great sign).
As I continued to move things with the help of my mum I started to hear him and eventually he popped his head out of the bag of bedding which was just left open on the floor. I am honestly so relieved!
Inside the bag was bits of leaf. He had wandered into the kitchen where there is a pile of beetroots on the floor and tried taking a whole leaf, given up and taken parts of it to eat or use as bedding. Is it ok for hamsters to eat beetroot leaves?
I cannot believe the tunnel popped off. I've adjusted it and it hasn't popped off yet but I'm keeping an eye and if it does I will wrap it in all the duct tape and use all the super glue. And I've decided to always leave the bag of bedding open on the floor just in case. I keep face palming. I can't believe it.

[AmityvilleHams]

I would just make a bin cage rather than use the current cage.Modular cages aren't good to begin with,plus a bin cage would be much safer and more secure.Duct tape is not safe to be used around hamsters at all,even on the outside of tubes,and superglue shouldn't be used either

[Ruth Edwards]

I love this story, it reminds me of when Ivy escaped and she made a nest in my pile of dirty laundry, and she nibbled holes in one of my blouses.
But you had a lucky escape, 20 years agoooooo, my sons hamster escaped when a tube came off the cage and it was eaten by a cat.
I would strongly recommend getting a different cage asap as they get lost lost for good, dehydrated, poisoned,squashed and those tubes will always be a problem. I tried 3 different tubes cages and they have all been mothballed or chucked away
Crumpet had a great adventure though, didn't he. Just doing natural hamster stuff. Brilliant.

[cypher]

Don't use superglue on your cage, that stuff is quite toxic, duct tape on the outside would be fine as a temporary measure but it does sound as though you would do better to get another cage.
Don't worry about the beetroot leaf, that won't hurt.

[Thin Lizzy]

Thank goodness you found him, I can bet you got quite a fright.
How is he?

[Pebbles82]

So glad he is ok. What an adventure - he has been lucky though. I believe beetroot leaves are fine. What cage do you have? Cages like the Hamster Heaven have caps to remove and cap off the tubes as it is common to find external tubes become escape routes or just get blocked up and unhygienic. It's better to have tubes and tunnels as internal cage toys, short ones, rather than as long, or external tubes. Also some hamsters have been known to get stuck in them, especially with full pouches when they can be wider than the tubes.