I am so touched by all of you that gave me advice on how to find our missing hamster. It's been almost 48 hours and still no sign of A.J. (Jonathan named him by reversing his own initials). Right now, I have the inside of his hamster cage smeared with peanut butter and placed within my my eyeshot. With any luck, A.J. will return.
If not, Jonathan has decided that he is already on an adventure in the vein of Stuart Little. Ahh...to be 6 again!
(although I have a horrible feeling that I am going to find A.J. by smell in about a week...<sigh>)
Kayren
I didn't see that you had a missing hamster until now and don't know what others suggested. You could scatter some food in the floor of each room and shut the doors. You should be able to tell which room the hamster is in by where the food is missing. If you could do it at night when everyone is sleeping it gives the hamster a little more time. Obviously the large areas of your home will be harder to pinpoint if that's where he is, but it's worth a try. We once found out that my hamster was still in the garage and didn't get out by doing this so we knew to still look for him.
Liz
You will find AJ - just takes time. We had a hamster missing years ago and it showed up one morning as I was making coffee. Scared the daylights out of me. If you are ever missing a corn snake I have excellent advice for you or anyone else. Thankfully we are down to one pet - Emma the dog. Good luck. I know how hard it is when one goes missing. LB
EK
Over the years, I've owned many escapist hamsters! My best trick for capturing is to set a trap. A bathroom-sized trash can works well, something that the li'l guy cannot climb out of. Put his fave treat/food in the bucket/wastebasket and build a ladder of sorts, something he can climb up like tissue boxes, washcloths, whatever you can find to make a mountain leading to the bucket rim (on the outside, of course). He'll climb up the mountain, drop into the bucket (don't worry, no harm done) and then he won't be able to climb back out. Next morning there will be AJ, waiting for your rescue! Best of luck. 🙂
Cherity
What about one of those Live traps used to remove mice from your house? If you bait it with his food, you might be able to catch him at night when he's prowling around. My brothers had little chameleons when they were younger...those are MUCH harder to find when they escape. I do believe every set of them they owned escaped at least once...one set we never did find!
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heather
I lost hamsters all the time as a kid and never found them dead.... youll hear it is in middle of the night and freak!
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debp
Whenever mine got out they would always crawl up my leg in the middle of the night. I would suggest looking behind dressers. For some reason mine always ended up there. Good luck.
debp