Both hamsters died

[Cloyd1980]

Hello,

My kids each have a hamster that they got about a month ago. One is a Syrian long hair and the other is a “fancy” teddy bear. They are kept in separate cages in different rooms. Neither hamster has appeared sick, they have been active, and have not had runny stools. My wife and kids cleaned their cages on Wednesday evening (about 36 hours ago) and replaced their bedding and water. The cages were cleaned with soap and water and were rinsed thoroughly. Each cage was cleaned separately so the hamsters were never together. This morning we woke up and both hamsters were dead. Any idea what could have caused both hamsters to die on the same night?

[SKB_Hamsters]

I am so very sorry to hear that both of your children's hamster passed away on the same night so very suddenly. It can be very difficult to know for definite the cause of both of their deaths.
Did you get both the hamsters from the same pet shop? As the cause of death could range from anything from them both having a illness which they could have got when in the pet shop - as hamster are very good at hiding illness due to being prey animals. Or even due to poor genetic - most hamsters from pet shops are not ethical bred so could have underlying genetic illness which could have caused them both to have such sudden deaths. But it almost impossible to know the exact cause.

I am truly very sorry for your children - it must be very heart breaking for them both.

[Coco61]

I am so sorry to read this and very distressing for your children.
SKB may well be right as it is so unusual to lose both like this.
I don't know where you live but here in the U.K it has been very cold this week. If the temperature dropped too low in their room, that could have sent them into torpor. I only mention this because I saw that everything had just been scrubbed clean and all their bedding removed and changed. This would have caused each hamster some stress and might have meant each did not feel so cosy and so not tucked up in their nests.
I do not mean to add to your unhappiness. I lost my own baby boy only 2 weeks ago and completely understand the sadness. If you intend replacing them, it is as well to explore possibilities.

[Cloyd1980]

Thank you both for your responses and kind words. I live in Arizona in the US and we are pretty warm right now. Our house doesn’t get any colder than 72 Fahrenheit (about 22 C). I know it’s very hard to tell I just feel so bad that we may have done something to cause this since it happened in the same night.

[Pebbles82]

It does sound very strange and very sad. After the cages were cleaned, did you put new bedding in? I am thinking:

1) As said before - both with same illness or genetic defect
2) Possibly bedding from a new pack that had mould or something (unlikely although some older packs of Carefresh had baking soda in which apparently killed a few hamsters).
3) Do you have a central heating boiler nearby? Nancy on here only found out her boiler was giving out carbon monoxide fumes when her hamsters died. A canary effect.
4) Stress can affect them a lot - especially after a big clean out, if you clean everything at the same time, but it seems unlikely that would cause death unless combined with number 1) Genetic weak heart possibly?
5) Water bottles - were they working?

A tip for another time - full clean outs aren't necessary weekly - Syrian hamsters will use a litter tray and you just empty that, spot clean a bit occasionally and only need to change all the substrate every 2 to 3 months. Also best not to clean everything else at the same time, but do toys another week and wheel another week - that way something always smells familiar.

I think it's unlikely to be related to the cage clean as it was a couple of days before although if there was something in the bedding it could have taken a while to take effect. Do you have any cats? Have you ever had mice or rats in the house? How wide are the bars on the cages? If the bars are 1cm or above a mouse could get in and kill them.

Sadly it is quite common for some pet shops to sell hamsters who have some kind of illness already but unusual they both died on exactly the same night.

One last thought - did they have anything different to eat the night before? Some things are poisonous to hamsters - eg chocolate.