Someone help please!

[Candysushi]

Originally Posted by NubiNuNu

I'm very sorry about the deaths of your hamsters. If you were hearing clicking noises when Sushi was breathing, then most likely she had a respiratory infection. What kind of toys were they? What type of bedding did Sushi have? Pine shavings, Cedar shavings, and scented bedding are known to cause respiratory infections. As for Candy, if she was cold she may have gone into hibernation or she may have gotten hypothermia. That's just what I'm guessing, since I have never had that happen to my hamsters.

Sushi did have clicking sounds from what I remember. They had toys from zooplus. Bendy bridges, all wooden toys, cork logs, pretty much most things that zooplus sells. The bedding they had was petlife safebed shredded paper from zooplus and chipsi super litter off zooplus which isn’t on there anymore for some reason? They passed just a couple weeks after buying and giving them the bedding.

[NubiNuNu]

Originally Posted by Candysushi

Sushi did have clicking sounds from what I remember. They had toys from zooplus. Bendy bridges, all wooden toys, cork logs, pretty much most things that zooplus sells. The bedding they had was petlife safebed shredded paper from zooplus and chipsi super litter off zooplus which isn’t on there anymore for some reason? They passed just a couple weeks after buying and giving them the bedding.

I looked up the Chipsi super litter and it does say it has pine... Maybe that was what gave Sushi a respiratory infection if she/he had one. Pine has oils in it and can irritate your hamster's nose. If you want to give hamsters something to pee in or even a bath (I'm assuming you used it as a bathroom for them) you can purchase playsand from home depot for about $5 or you can bake sand (like I do) in an oven. My hamster really enjoys sand and you can even add a hideout in their sand bath. As for the bedding, i searched it up and from what I can see, there isn't really a problem with it. The company does sell fluff bedding though, which can get wrapped around a hamsters foot and stop blood circulation. Did you get any of that? You also said that a lot of their toys were wooden, so maybe there was dust from the wood? I don't know, my brain doesn't really work today.

[Candysushi]

Originally Posted by NubiNuNu

I looked up the Chipsi super litter and it does say it has pine... Maybe that was what gave Sushi a respiratory infection if she/he had one. Pine has oils in it and can irritate your hamster's nose. If you want to give hamsters something to pee in or even a bath (I'm assuming you used it as a bathroom for them) you can purchase playsand from home depot for about $5 or you can bake sand (like I do) in an oven. My hamster really enjoys sand and you can even add a hideout in their sand bath. As for the bedding, i searched it up and from what I can see, there isn't really a problem with it. The company does sell fluff bedding though, which can get wrapped around a hamsters foot and stop blood circulation. Did you get any of that? You also said that a lot of their toys were wooden, so maybe there was dust from the wood? I don't know, my brain doesn't really work today.

I gave both of them the chipsi as a main substrate, I wanted them to have a natural theme, I looked at all the reviews before purchasing and people were saying they loved it for their hamsters. I don’t think I’ll ever figure out what happened but I’m certain that I gave Sushi whatever killed candy when I put candy’s used substrate in with sushi and toys without cleaning them.

[Lumi]

Originally Posted by Candysushi

Okay so I had two hamsters, Candy and Sushi. Candy was just under 2 years old, Sushi was just turned a year and a half. They are both passed now but their deaths are really odd and it’s left me so confused and guilty.
So basically they were both as healthy as ever no problems. But I came home one day to find Candy sleeping in a weird position in the middle of her cage. She never did this. So I instantly went to her and gently blew on her to wake her up and she if she was okay, she moved was struggling to move so I went to pick her up and she was stone cold to the touch, and she could not walk, she was just wobbling back and fourth if she tried. She was breathing heavy and fast, and just wanted to sleep. I heated up my pet heading pad and put her on it and wrapped her in a blanket to try warm her up. It didn’t really warm her up much and just about one/two hours later she just started like jumping and then just died, blood came from her mouth but my nan thinks she bit herself out of being in pain. I thought maybe she had a stroke and heart attack from old age. However sushi was fine, four days later after asking if candy’s toys would be safe, I put them in sushi’s cage (stupid stupid) and less than 12 hours later the exact same thing happened to sushi and I lost her within an hour two hours of finding her, only difference is I noticed sushi was making a clicking noise when breathing. Candy May have had the same but I didn’t notice it. I didn’t have any time to take them to the vets I couldn’t save them😞 so please can someone help me what happened to my fur babies??

Do not blame yourself for what happened, you did the best you could do. I'm not sure what was actually wrong with the hamsters, I have not heard of this before but just know that next time you reuse hamster toys to properly clean them and put the wooden toys into the oven for some time to properly sanitize everything. The good thing is the hamsters are not suffering anymore and it sounds like they lived a happy life with lots of love by their owner <3

[AmityvilleHams]

Blaming yourself definitely isn't a good idea. You can't say for sure why this happened, nobody really can.

In the future I wouldn't reuse wood toys. I know a lot of people will say otherwise but it just isn't a safe choice - no matter how expensive wood toys can get, you can't replace hamster lives. They can't be fully sanitized in a safe way unlike plastic, ceramic, etc - all of which can be thoroughly disinfected without holding on to any residual cleaners and such which could be harmful even if sold as "pet safe". It can also be really stressful as wooden toys are likely to contain the scents of other hamsters when reused which would obviously not be good for such territorial animals!

[Candysushi]

Originally Posted by Lumi

Do not blame yourself for what happened, you did the best you could do. I'm not sure what was actually wrong with the hamsters, I have not heard of this before but just know that next time you reuse hamster toys to properly clean them and put the wooden toys into the oven for some time to properly sanitize everything. The good thing is the hamsters are not suffering anymore and it sounds like they lived a happy life with lots of love by their owner <3

I threw everything instantly away when they passed. Thank you for your response ❤️☺️

[Candysushi]

Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams

Blaming yourself definitely isn't a good idea. You can't say for sure why this happened, nobody really can.

In the future I wouldn't reuse wood toys. I know a lot of people will say otherwise but it just isn't a safe choice - no matter how expensive wood toys can get, you can't replace hamster lives. They can't be fully sanitized in a safe way unlike plastic, ceramic, etc - all of which can be thoroughly disinfected without holding on to any residual cleaners and such which could be harmful even if sold as "pet safe". It can also be really stressful as wooden toys are likely to contain the scents of other hamsters when reused which would obviously not be good for such territorial animals!

I threw them all instantly away after they both died. I was told it would be okay that’s why I did it :/ It’s a shame, I wish I was a little more wise maybe I could’ve still had the one of them❤️

[NubiNuNu]

Originally Posted by Candysushi

I gave both of them the chipsi as a main substrate, I wanted them to have a natural theme, I looked at all the reviews before purchasing and people were saying they loved it for their hamsters. I don’t think I’ll ever figure out what happened but I’m certain that I gave Sushi whatever killed candy when I put candy’s used substrate in with sushi and toys without cleaning them.

Don't beat yourself up about it. It's not your fault. Now they're having a good time with chubby cheeks up in the clouds.