The girls escaped! -Update 2 added-

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Happi Wolf

Happi Wolf

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Messages
204
Location
CA
(Sorry if this is in the wrong spot!)

It's 7:10 AM here and I am awake because one of the baby girls ESCAPED! :cry4: Actually they both did. What happened was I was asleep (peacefully I might add) and heard my hamster making a lot of noise which isn't like him. Something just felt wrong, I got up and opened the closet door, which is the pet 'night room' so I can actually sleep! (I have bad insomnia)

So my hamsters bin cage is on the ground, behind that (on two large nightstands that are beside eachother) Is the tempoary rattie cage. I did make a lid. One side had hardwire cloth, the other wire from the cage I got with them. Guess it wasn't enough.

Anyway, I see my hamster (Cozy) just going nuts in his cage. I looked over at the rat cage and one of the girls is sitting ONTOP of the cage. She notices I noticed her and tries to bolt off, but isn't that confident, so dives back into the cage. Phew, I thought to myself. I look in the cage for the other girl only to find one!

:gaah:

So it's around 6 AM, Cozy is spazzing, I'm spazzing looking all over the closet. I start to sweat and pray to god to just let me find her okay. I search the closet (where I find poo's here and there) then my room with no luck.

I think (hope) she is still in the closet and will just jump back into the cage with her sister. I really don't think she would squeeze under the door and leave her sister.

Advice or anything I would greatly appreciate. I'm freaking out!
 
Oh boy, I bet your girl will now be in and out of her own cage now, she will definitely go back for food and water. But... can the rats get to the hamster? I would move him out of the closet to keep him safe.
 
Put the hamster somewhere the rats can't get to.
Rats will kill hamsters and other small animals, I wouldn't keep them in the same room.

Have you fixed your temp. cage so no more escapes are posssible?
Are there any dangers around, such as other animals?

As for the escapie, she is probably having fun exploring :doh:
You can put the rat cage onto the floor as she may get lonely for her sister, put a house, small cage, etc. next to the temp. cage with bedding in it that smells like her and her sister so she may cuddle up in it and go to sleep, put out food that can not be carried away such as baby cereal, and put out water. If you put flour on the floor, you will see what direction she headed off into as she will leave footprints if she comes for food and then takes off again. If you can get a have-a-heart humane trap you could bait it with food and try to catch her that way.

Having escapies is terrifying but hang in there.
good luck
 
I definetly need to make a more escape proof lid. I already moved my hamster out of the closet. He's settled down now. They couldn't get to him anyway. Though they might have been running on his cage when it was in the closet which would explain him spazzing looking up at his lid.
 
Rats have grabbed small animals through the bars of their cages and killed them.
Click to expand...
:wow: Thankfully they didn't! I will keep him out of the closet until the baby girl is back in her cage and can't escape again.

Cozy doesn't really have a wire cage. This is his cage.

bin72308001-1.jpg
 
Happi Wolf said:
I definetly need to make a more escape proof lid. I already moved my hamster out of the closet. He's settled down now. They couldn't get to him anyway. Though they might have been running on his cage when it was in the closet which would explain him spazzing looking up at his lid.
Click to expand...

No wonder he was "spazzing". He would know the rats are predators and as a prey animal was probably terrified.
 
At the time I was honestly more worried about him being aggressive since hamsters are omnivorous too and so territorial. =/ He was found a stray by a gal. He is a tuff guy. But I do understand the concern.
 
Oh, I think everything will be okay! My girl ratties have 'escaped' numerous time in a variety of ways (some very clever). Once, they even escaped into my garage, and I found her standing on her hind legs on top of the wheel of the van (even scarier... the garage door was open!). Also, they have also escaped during the night and scared me half to death by walking on me while I have slept. I believe the reason why they have 'escaped' so many time is because my fiance was an engineering student at the time and ad great pride attempting to build the best cage ever. Anyways, I found that if I sat on the floor of the room peacefully, they also eventually come back and start crawling on me. Just don't try to startle her more by moving everything around and freaking out. She probably misses you!
 
Thanks tarajoy, but I don't think she misses me. ;) I've only had them for a few days. They are terribly unsocialized, skittish and possibly half wild.

-UPDATE-
I found the missing girl! Thank god. She IS in the closet still. I heard chewing and found her in one of the drawers. She just stood there, her eyes fixed on me, her ears twitching. I spoke softly and slowly wen't to reach her. She bolted around and I lost sight out her.

I stuffed a blanket under the closet door. I'm not to sure how I'm going to get her in her cage. She is fast and so small!
 
Yep, it's a decent sized walk in closet with a ton of stuff to explore and hide in. I'm just so happy I know where she is. I was so scared for her.
 
Just when you probably thought that you had the upper hand with your rat girls....

TA DA!!!!! ESCAPE ARTISTRY LIVES!!!!!! :bunnydance: :bunnydance: :bunnydance: :bunnydance:

Enter Albert (on 7/30/2008). Here I was, patting myself on the back for being (what I thought was) brilliant in trying to keep my boys inside their play area. :roll:

REALITY CHECK!!! DUH mom... there is a gap in the middle of this coroplast wall!!!! Small gap? Yes.... but if Albert can get his head through it.... the rest will flatten out!

So here is your's truly.... pursuing her black hooded rat man around the living room!!! I didn't actually need another cardio workout since I had just finished my hour long cardio dvd but Albert doesn't care about that...

What helps? Park yourself on the floor.... with a small dish of vanilla soy yogurt next to you... that generally works wonders for getting my boys to come running. :wink:

Make sure you don't leave the dish and go off!!!!! You need to SIT THERE! When your time has elapsed... take the dish and give some yogurt to the rat girl in the cage but do NOT leave any yummy yogurt out for the rampant freedom fighter in your closet. :laugh4:

She will smell the yogurt and will want some too. No chance unless she comes to you for it. Be strong!!! The little con artist will eventually come around... and you will be that much the wiser. :)

I love my rats. They keep my brain function on its toes and keep my ego in check. :wink:
 
jennifervb- Wow what a story! Sadly, my girls wan't nothing to do with unfamilar foods. Which is basically everything beside the cruddy seed mix their previous person was feeding them and their lab blocks.

-UPDATE 2-

Good news! I managed to rule out her being on the floor in the closet, so I focused on the shelving that goes all around. My mom helped and we found her hiding in a suitcase pocket that was unzipped. Of course the more skittish girl was the one who escaped. I was forced to grab her by the tail, believe me I tried every way to not grab her tail. She was just to fast and scared. :( I made it quick. She is fine, thank god.

Oh and they did the cutest thing when I put them back together! They started grooming eachother. :heart:

They are now in an escape proof cage.
 

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