Blitzon is a hamster who regularly escapes due to a hole in the top of his cage which gets covered by too few books. His child doesn't understand that he is not a toy and the parents don't care enough. I always thought that poor hamster would come to a sticky end.
A while ago Blitzons child managed to lose him in my Mums holey old garden shed (his temporary home against my advice) by leaving his cage door open all night. I'm told he wasn't particularly upset ( it's just a hamster I can get another one - luckily his Mum said he's not having another hamster) and that his Mum took a quick glance around the garden and then concluded that a cat must have got him. The next day when i found out I went over and went through the packed full shed in vain to look for him on the off chance he had returned there. I looked round the garden to check if he might be nesting somewhere obvious like a plant pot but there was no sign of him.
A month later they've all gone home and my Mum mentions to me that she's got a mouse in her house and is going to call pest control the next day. Somehow he'd managed to find his way inside the house. My Mum said yes actually it did look like a hamster, come to think of it. She is scared of rodents so uncomfortable at the thought of her new guest, but a kind lady and happy to know he's suvived the local cats. So I started on a mission to recapture Blitzon - deciding that if I succeed then his Toy Story days are over as I'm not giving him back.
That was three days ago. My Mum said she saw the small furry creature running under the cooker around 6pm on day one. I closed off the kitchen doors and looked for him but again no sign. So, hoping he's under the kitchen cabinets, the only place left and a place where I can't see into, I set up a bucket trap on the floor. I checked the bucket multiple times that evening and stayed late. I tried coaxing him out with what I though was a gentle, kind voice, I sat in the kitchen in the dark listening for him but nothing.
The next morning I rang my Mum and she said no he wasn't in the bucket. On the evening of day two I went to my Mums and saw that he had eaten nearly all the food off the books / steps and also been inside the bucket because the paper towel I laid across the top was now inside it. I then went to talk to my Mum (hoping now it was indeed Blitzon and not a wild rat - I'd tested the bucket on my Syrian and he certainly couldn't get out) in another room for just 5 minutes and then went back to set up the bucket with fresh food and the cheeky monkey had gone and polished off the remaining food while I was in the other room. So again I sat in the dark listening for him but nothing. A bit later my daughter saw him run between the fridge and the freezer, she came to look for me, telling me she only saw the furry creature very briefly but he was the same size and color as Blitzon. I blocked off the exit to under the cooker and pulled both the fridge and freezer out. I looked underneath but he wasn't there. I sat in the dark again for an hour with his squeaky wheel on the floor and still nothing. That night I greased the sides of the bucket with margarine and put just one small piece of cucumber on the top step and the rest inside the bucket. This morning I saw he'd eaten the piece of cucumber off the top step but not gone inside the bucket.
So now I'm wondering what now. I think he must remember a harrowing experience trying to escape the bucket and won't go in there again. I've tried leaving his cage open on the floor too but he's not falling for that. The flour things no good as I just can't get to where he is. I can't take my Mums kitchen cabinets apart without breaking them as they seem to be glued in. In the meantime my Mums still uncomfortable with her new guest. I'm thinking if the bucket thing doesn't work tonight then tomorrow I'll need to sit in the kitchen all night in the dark and wait for him. I don't think he'll come out in the light. I've been putting off doing this as I suffer with chronic pain and fatigue so know it will be agony sitting up for so long in a kitchen and exhausting - especially when I have a child to look after the next day - but I'm scared in case he can get back outside from where he is and time is of the essence.
Does anyone else have experience of using the bucket trap? I'm sure I've set it up correctly and not put too much food on the steps etc. Does it take several nights sometimes with eventual success still possible? Does anyone have any other ideas?
Re: Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
I had a wee beastie chew out on the way home and it took 4 days before I finally opened the back hatch and looked in to see a cheeky little Mink Monkey staring back at me with a look of anger at having fell for the Bin trap. I had a brand new Bin with no cut windows or even holes cut in it which I took a piece of meshing and made a ramp for him to climb up and into the bin. Once in the bin he couldn't climb, leap or jump out of and he had everything in the bin to enjoy except a water bottle as of course he would have been able to climb out if it was in the bin. I placed a bit of cucumber in for him to have a water source.
Another way to recapture a male Syrian is to use a Female who is in heat. You would place her in a carrier cage which is still too low for him to use to get out of the bin but safe that he can't mate her. On another forum this worked very well to recapture a Male who had been escaped for almost a week with no luck at catching him even though the owner know exactly where he was hiding.
Re: Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
Try a different bucket? Put a tube on top (glued down) leading to the bucket? Hamsters can't resist a tunnel. Get a humane rat trap? That's a thing that triggers the door to close when they go inside for the treat.
Good luck poor hammie.
I'll keep thinking about it. xx
Re: Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
Have you seen this?
You would not be able to safely leave hammie in it all night-- no air, no water, and not really very secure, so it's still a stay up job but it might keep him confined long enough to grab him and put him in a more secure cage.
Re: Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
I tried pretty much everything I could think of with the bucket trap at once, so I'm not sure what worked. But, I spread a thin layer of peanut butter on the treats inside the bucket, as well as a little bit on the rim of the far side of the bucket, to encourage him to go inside. I also put female bedding into the bottom. My boyfriend came up with this idea, and even went to the pet shop to get it for me! They were happy to oblige.
Re: Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
Thank you all for your replies - lots of good suggestions to try. Love the female bedding idea Jen I will go to a pet shop and get some tomorrow.
@ Nancy's Hamsters it's good to know that the trap can work after several nights of not succeeding!
@ Piebald - thanks for the video I'll make one of those - a great money saving idea and all the humane traps I've seen are online so much quicker too. Don't worry about the bucket trap being left overnight as the cucumber acts as a water source and the bucket has no lid on it (I greased the sides with butter now so he won't be able get out) so he won't suffocate. I also put enough tissue paper and a towel in the bottom and some hamster mix so he won't get cold or hungry. I've been up until 3am most nights and my Mum gets up early and checks the bucket so it won't be all night anyhow.
Re: Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
When I saw bucket trap diagrams for catching mice they had a kind of booby trap platform at the top. So you would have a pile of books up to the top then on top of the last book was a 'plank' - like a stiff piece of cardboard, so about 2/3 of it was on the book and the other 2/3 over the end of the book with the treat/food on the far end. Hammy/mouse walks along cardboard to get the food at the end, cardboard flips down under his weight and he falls in the bucket (so it needs soft towels at the bottom) and a good deep bin. He might not have been inside it before, he maybe just pushed the paper inside it or it fell in. Something like a tall swing bin without the lid or a bin cage bin that Nancy mentioned would be deep enough.
If you use the humane mouse traps, I would only do it for an hour or so when you are there to check as mice can die of fright trapped in those, so a hammy might too.
This page (further down) shows the flip bit at the end - they have used a cardboard tube rather than a piece of cardboard, but I think a piece of cardboard might be better than a tube for a hammy, as they can cling on to the side of a tube inside and retreat quickly at the slightest movement, whereas a flat piece will just tip in the bucket when trodden on near the end. I didn't read the posts on this page, just looked at the diagram, so sorry if there is anything awful in the posts.
Re: Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
Good luck with that! I think a cardboard tube is more likely to tip over into the aquarium without causing any injury. A plastic one might fall on him and hurt him if it fell in with him? Or might not fall in and it might stay firm and hammy just turn round and walk out of it again. Something light will fall in easier and not hurt him. Or just a flat piece of cardboard that will fall in when he's half way across it. I guess you'll need something soft for him to land on too - towels or substrate maybe. Good luck!
Cheeky little Hammy and the failed bucket trap
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