[Pebbles82]

I am so sorry you have lost two hamsters. It sounds like you did all the right things and careful research. Sadly this kind of thing does happen with pet store hamsters as breeding practices of their suppliers is unknown. It does seem to happen quite a bit that people find a hamster dies for no real reason and it is very likely they have been born with some genetic abnormality - eg a weak heart. As Luna said, for this to happen twice is bad luck. But I would use a different pet store next time.

The other things you queried all sound fine. Cage is fine, bedding fine fall height ok. Hamsters do sometimes monkey bar across cafe roofs and can drop and injure themselves but doesn’t sound like hour cage set up was an issue. Generally a fall height of 30 Cm is maximum to avoid injury but you were within that. I tend to put any hard cage toys like bendy bridges under a shelf so they can’t be landed on. 3” of substrate would cushion a fall. Although ideally with that cage, 4 to 5” deep would be better as it is fairly tall.

For future use a different food would be better but that wouldn’t have caused a hamster to die. Oxbow isn’t good for hamsters really - a lot of roughage and not enough protein plus hay based which is more suitable for guinea pigs than hamsters.

It is possible they both died of coincidentally different causes- eg with the first on - infection from contaminated food but seems unlikely from what you describe.

Do hope you find another one. Put plenty of substrate in.