How to Catch a Hamster

Hamsters love to scurry about, especially after being cooped up, so it's no wonder that they try to escape from the friendly confines of their cage every once in a while. Firstly, don't fret. The great hamster escape happens to the best of us, sometimes quite often. Here are a couple effective steps you can take to make sure you catch your hamster.

EditSteps

EditWhat to Do First

Quickly close all doors and plug up any holes or exits leading outside the house. Your first order of business should be making sure the hamster doesn't find a way out of the house. If that happens, finding your hamster will be very hard, if not impossible.
- Plug up any holes around the house with duct tape and/or large towels to ensure that the hamster doesn't find its way out through a crack.
- Exits through which the hamster could find its way out of the house include:
  - Air vents
  - Open tubing
  - Cracks in the floorboard

Quarantine any pets that might harm your hamster. If you've got a cat, for example, that may be keen on harming your hamster, it's a good idea to keep the cat in a single room that you're sure the hamster isn't hiding in.

Get the house as quiet as possible and listen for a couple minutes. Turn off all music, electronics that create noise, and silence all other distractions (children). Then quietly and unobtrusively go through the house, stopping in each room and listening. Listen for the quiet scurrying of the hamster, as well as any chewing. If you think you've located the room that the hamster is in, close the door and place a towel underneath the threshold to make sure that the hamster doesn't get out.

If you can't immediately locate your hamster, start the search near the cage. The hamster will be well-acquainted with its cage, and the environment is a familiar one. There's a good chance that the hamster is close to, or relatively close to, the cage area.
- Remember to keep the cage open so that the hamster can get back in if needed. If your cage is on a raised pedestal or table, place it temporarily on the ground so that the hamster can access it better. Don't make your hamster work to get back home!

EditTracking the Hamster

Hamsters are nocturnal animals, so a lot of the following techniques for tracking your hamster will be most effective at nighttime.^[1] Be sure to lay these tracking tricks before nighttime, go to sleep, and investigate in the morning.

Set up a few sunflower seeds and surround them by a ring of flour. Count out 10 or so sunflower seeds and place them in selective locations throughout the house. Surround each pile of sunflower seeds with a light ring of flour. The hamster will need to travel through the flour, giving you a direction to investigate and possibly even leaving tiny white tracks.

Set up barriers of flour or cornstarch at select areas of your house to track the hamster's movement. Okay, so it's not the most pleasant home decorating technique, but placing flour around the house is effective at telling you where your hamster is going, and possibly where he's hiding. Lay thin strips of flour along doorways, especially.

Lay tasty treats like peanut butter, lettuce, or fresh corn over newspaper and wait. Set down a couple pieces of newspaper onto the floor in various rooms and place a nice juicy treat on top of them. Try placing the newspapers in select hideouts, doorways, and around the cage. Next, sit in silence during the nighttime. The rustling of the newspaper should alert you where your hamster is feeding.
- A juicy treat like lettuce, carrot, or corn is best, as your hamster probably doesn't have a water source to drink from.
- You can also use tinfoil or crinkly cellophane underneath the food instead of newspaper, as these materials are also good at producing noise.

Try tying very long strips of colored string to a few peanut shells. The idea here is that the hamsters will cheek the peanuts, bring them back to their hideout, and lead you back to it with the breadcrumbs (colored string).

EditCatching the Hamster

Create your own humane DIY trap with a staircase and a bucket. Take a bucket that's big enough to safely hold a hamster but not so big that a fall into the bucket will hurt the hamster. Next, line the bucket with a towel (to soften the fall) and place a plate with peanut butter, cheese, or apple (any hamster food that has an odor) into the bottom of the bucket. Make a ramp for the hamster to get up to the top of the bucket — some wire mesh, a wooden plank, or even staggered books will do. Then wait.
- To increase your chances of success, set numerous of these bucket traps all across the house and wait for the hamster to finally fall into one of them after being enticed by the smell.

Get a humane mouse trap for your hamster. Humane mouse traps are equally workable for hamsters, and they shouldn't hurt your furry little pet one bit. Bait several of these with a bit of peanut butter and set them across the house.
- If you want to make your own trap, there are lots of methods for you to try.