My 5 Year Old Hamster!

[MBOU]

Well... he is gone now can't believe how easy it is to get attatched to something as small as a hamster but I loved the little dude! I mean... i've had him forever!!

Turns out he didn't have a tumour, was a big build up of fluid which might have gone away... but might also have been early stages of heart failure and tbh he was so old and couldnt fit in his house and he would have got so cold over the winter with no fur...

He is buried in the garden in his cardboard box with his nest and treats right alongside Hamlet, Freddie Starr Possum Features, Sonny, My Squishy, Skwee, Blaine, Serefina and Kirjava and Shrumpy and Moo and i'm sure a few more I missed!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Sorry for your loss, but he has had a great innings of over 5.5 years, producing a new generation several times over along the way. Just reading this thread has reminded me of Ruby being put to sleep about a year ago, she reached a little over two years old (shortest lived hamster we have had since 2005), but she really lived life in the fast lane and got into lots of mischief during evenings out of her Rotastak "mansion" of ~5 sizeable modular units.

 

[LucyB]

Wow, I'm so sorry you had to have him put to sleep. But it was the right decision, and he was a lucky boy, he lived till' the ripe ol' age of 5!

And I know how you feel, I was holding my hamster, George, Whilst he died. I was absolutely hysterical... I loved that hamster so much

But now I have Milo...

 

[snazy]

I had hamsters for over 7 years, started with a male and a female and had 30-40 hamsters sometimes at a time. When they are babies they are so lovely as well and they do have different personalities. I've seen a lot die and it is so sad. They are great indicator for earthquakes though At the time we had a few and these guys went nuts a day before an earthquake.

 

[MBOU]

Yeah, I used to breed hamsters on a fairly large scale (syrians, campbells, winter whites, roborovskii and mouse likes) but despite having loads of hamsters and babies on the go etc, I always had one special hamster who lived in the house or my room.

We had a massive heated shed all kitted out for the rodents which meant no noise or smell indoors and it was insanely stinky come cleaning day with all the hamsters, rats and mice etc. Took me two days a week to clean everything

Smojo had many adventures I got him from the rescue section of my local P@H at the time (how ironic is that now lol) when he was about 4 - 5 months old, though he was really tiny... he has always been a small male really... but held his true black colour without ever really browning out and he carried interesting genetics for Chocolates as we found out

In his lifetime, he chewed out of 5 hamster cages (the plastic tank type with the wire lids like the Rody Savics, an IMAC Fantasy and numerous others).

He fathered 9 babies, though as far as I am aware, he outlived them all... though one of them definately went to a breeding home (Long haired silver grey male) and so I know Smojo's line is likely still going!

He lived in his cage on the floor next to my fish tank or on top of the tank (that was used like a table lol) for years and then when I had to move out a while, he went to live with my friend who also owned his Chocolate baby so he got to live next to one of his sons for most of a year before I moved back in with my parents and brought him home (nearly got me kicked out!! It was only on the basis that he was old and not likely to live long that I got him!! and nearly 2 years down the line from that fight... )

For the last year, once a week (and upping to every 2-3 days) Smojo ate porride made with a mix of Complan (vanilla flavoured meal replacement stuff), Critical Care Formula (all the essential vitamins and minerals he needed), porridge oats and warm water. Then on top he got either sultanas, a raspberry, a few sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds ora blackberry as a treat. Would also use a few drops of vegetable oil as well to help with his fur (and skin when he had no fur).

He also had numerous treat sticks and seed bells (the big budgie ones!) and bonios and dentarasks and his absolute favourite was live waxworms and locusts! He just loved chasing the locusts round his cage!

Talk about the life of riley, he had to be my most spoilt hamster! Well... now i think about it... probably the second most spoilt... my first hamster (that lived more than a week anyway!) when i was 15 slept in a box on my bed or on my desk or in my pocket and occasionally 'accidentally' came to school in my backpack and had a birthday cake with a candle and everything that was a little ott but she was my best and only friend lol

 

[snazy]

Smojo does look a bit like my first male. I can't remember how long he lived because I lost track but his fur did fall off a bit too I remember.

I started with him and a white albino female and I ended up with short/long haired, all colours and tricolours. We couldn't afford special food so they ate any veg, froot and nuts available and there are specific types of plants that they love and were available outside on the loan where I lived. Their favourite was fresh walnuts from the tree before they get dry inside. The walnut needs to be peeled because at that stage it's still bitter and I spent a lot of time doing it but it was worth it. Their heads used to become like a baloon hiding it and they would kill each other for it. Did you mention water? I've never given water to my hamsters. As far as I am aware they draw water from their food(veg, fruit, etc..)
They used to respond to certain words that they caught up I was using when showing them love and certainly recognised people.
One of them, once I walked into the room, used to start beating up the others until they screech to draw attention so she is picked up and petted, and I always did , telling her she's a sweetie. It got to the point that if I was staying there watching them and they do their own thing not paying attention to me, I would just say: "Hey, sweetie" and she would stand up on her two back feet straight away and start looking around for me. She was so cute.... If I didn't pick her up, she'd race the glass like a lunatic(I kept them in fish tanks )

Talking about them, I would love to get another one, but can't....a cat and a dog here.

 

[MBOU]

I assume if you were keeping them all together, they were one of the dwarf species? Winter Whites or Campbells or more likely a hybrid of the two... Syrians would just kill each other left in groups...

And as for water, yes, they do need fresh water.... in fact... in the UK its a legal obligation to make sure water is availeable for them under the animal welfare act!

The only species you shouldnt offer water to is desert dwelling species such as jerboas, they literally need no water at all, they get their liquid from their food and if given water, their kidneys pack up and die (my housemate let a friend look after her jerboa for a week... all she had to do was feed it but she gave it a bowl of water...knowing what it would do...!).

Hamsters arent desert dwelling at all, they do come from rough terrain, lots of earth and rocks and plants and therefore little pools and puddles of water too. Seeing as a large part of their diet in the wild is seeds and grasses and insects, they would definately need access to water as well.

 

[snazy]

I assume if you were keeping them all together, they were one of the dwarf species?

No, they weren't dwarf species and I just can't believe after reading this that they never killed each other, they slept together in their hole they had dug up. I always kept them in several groups together. I can't tell you what breed they were. I wasn't selling them, I was giving them away for free and no one asked then, neither I thought of it but probably mixed species.

And honestly, although I can't say any lived for 5 years, they definately lived average around 3 years without water, so they certainly are adapted to no water conditions. That was about 16 years ago and is probably how much I knew then, but we were told not to give them water As for the law at the time, I have no idea whether it was illegal.