Wierdest hamster experience

[Vierville]

I thought I'd share a truly bizarre experience that I had with my russian dwarf Monty a while back.

It was around 9pm one evening and we had set up the hamster play pen in the spare room and Monty was running around from corner to corner and through the tunnels we'd set up. Playpen time is not her favourite as she tends to lose interest in it quickly and goes into a corner or one of the houses in her playpen.

In the lounge which is perhaps six or eight metres from the spare room, I had left the TV on. As sometimes happens, the volume of the adverts is much louder than the programme that's showing and an advert for a nature programme came on, including the sound of an eagle or some bird of prey calling.

I was in the room supervising Monty and she immediately froze and to be honest I thought she had suffered a stroke or fit because she went completely immobile and unresponsive. I picked her up and for about three minutes she just lay there, eyes open but not moving.

She then came round and seemed to be back to normal. We put her back in her cage and monitored her but she seemed totally fine. It has been a few months and we've not put her back in the playpen.

She could only have been responding to the bird of prey calling as nothing else was going on and it coincided perfectly. I felt so bad for her!

Has anyone else had anything similar happen?

[LunaTheHamster1]

Yes, my Luna froze when she heard the birds on a summer night or an Owl calling.

[sushi_78]

Not a hamster, but something quite similar happened to one of my gerbils several years ago. She was out on my lap when a pigeon flew past the window, and its wings clipped against the glass. She went into a sort of trance where she went completely still with her ears back. It may even have been a mild seizure since gerbils are prone to those. She was fine again after a couple of minutes.

[Ithuviel]

Omg poor hamster. He must have thought: this is it....i'm doomed. Similar experience was when i decided to take my robo to the vet for a rutine check. She was in a carrier and when i got outside she heard a crow and was in absolute alert for a few seconds.

[peculiarplanets]

I remember with my previous Russian dwarf Chica that I opened a bottle of coke and the "ssst" of the bottle made her freeze and then run away. I figured it may have sounded like a snake.

[Pebbles82]

They do respond to sound! I sometimes wonder what they think of Alvin and the Chipmunks! On another note they respond to music as well. I found soft music has quite an effect and they will sit and listen (ie stop trying to jump off the sofa).