# Hamster has Suddenly Died only had her 3 months.



## teddybear154 (Sep 28, 2009)

Can any one give me some advice. Back in July my husband brought our 10 year old daughter a hamster from pets at home. I’ve had hamsters in the past from pets at home before and they always died quick. I swore I would never buy another hamster from pets at home. I wanted to get my daughter a hamster from a breeder or a rescue. I was rather angry with my husband for buying one at pets at home.

my daughter loved her though. It was a girl syberian hamster black and white. My daughter chose her, she was the most active of the hamsters and ran straight to glass in pet shop.

when they got the hamster home we put it in cage and left her to settle for a week, just feeding her and changing her water not touching her. After a week we slowly tried to give her treats and get her used to us but she was very aggressive, lundging and biting you. I struggled just to put food in her bowl. I felt some thing was not quiet right. Apart from the agression. She was continually climbing the bars of her cage and trying to chew the bars. 

I thought maybe the cage was too small and she was having cage aggression so bought a bigger cage. bigger cage did not really help and she continued to spend her time just climbing the bars and chewing them and did not seem happy.

after a few weeks I was worried she was going to hurt her self so bought another even larger wood hamster cage/ enclosure which had no bars. She loved this cages and settled in really quick. And the aggression stopped. We could stroke her and pick her up. And she would take treats from our hand.
She had been in new cage for 2 months now. About a week ago she started to show signs of aggression again biting again. And learned to climb on the lid of the cage which was chicken wire hanging upside down. Each time you would remove her she would climb straight back up. 

we had to remove top shelf to stop her being able to reach roof of cages as she was starting to cut her paws on it, not badly.

I had a vet check her and he said to just clean paws regularly and should heal fine, he said it was very minor. Which I was doing. She was fine running around fine and eating and drinking all week and last night.
And she was fine this morning. But this afternoon we found her lying on bottom of cage not moving. She was cold to the touch.

I picked her up and she moved her legs abit and kind of gasped and made squeaking sounds.
i thought maybe she was in hibernation so tried to warm her up slowly. But after a while of warming her up, she stopped moving, went ridged. I just knew she was dead.

What happened why did she die, we did every thing we could, looked after her well, gave her fresh food and water every day. The food we gave her was like little nuggets as had read the musli is bad for hamsters. The bedding we used was carefresh. We cleaned her cage out every other day.

Did we do some thing wrong.
my daughter is so upset she has been crying and screaming all evening and is blaming her self. 
We have 4 children and none of them went near her or touched her without us there. They new they were not aloud so know she was not dropped, before any one asks.

Is it worth contacting pets at home to complain. I won’t be going back there ever again.

any advice much appreciated 

thanks in advance


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## teddybear154 (Sep 28, 2009)

Sorry just realised title say him and can’t change silly Auto correct. It was a her a girl hamster


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

teddybear154 said:


> Sorry just realised title say him and can't change silly Auto correct. It was a her a girl hamster


title edited.


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## Smolmaus (Oct 3, 2019)

Without more information nobody can know why she passed. She might have fallen and broken something, she might have had hereditary heart issues, had a stroke, a fit, been allergic to bedding, developed pyometra. Anything. 

You have given such detailed information and bless you for caring so so much, so I'm sorry to tell you this but, you're right. Nothing in her care points to a cause, in my mind. From what you've said.

Except the pet shop thing and possibly a vet that doesn't know hamsters. Genetics does a lot. They can have any kind of problems and most vets just aren't equipped to even find out.

Anyway, I definitely think it's worth complaining about. Through official channels and also on FB and Twitter. Tell your story. It's not rare. It might make them reconsider the breeders they're using if they get some blowback.


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## Tiggers (May 27, 2014)

[email protected] have a dreadful reputation for animals in their care, so from what information you have given, do not blame yourself. Your hamster may have been older than what you think when you purchased her.


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