Lost Cucumber Slice

[hamburrito]

Hi, New hamster owner here

I rescued a male dwarf four days ago and gave him 2 cucumber slices on day 2. I have found one of the slices, but after two days of looking both on the top of the bedding and in his multi-chamber hides, I have had no luck finding it. I am starting to worry as I don't want to overturn the whole enclosure since he is so new to it, but I also don't want to leave it in there.

He has a 120 cm x 60 cm enclosure with 12 inches of bedding.

So far, he is acclimating well, and I don't want to scare him from his new space. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Maz]

Hello He's probably eaten it But I suppose you're worried he might have nibbled some off it and stashed the rest somewhere. Which is possible. My experience is they usually eat fresh veg straight away or take what they want from it and leave the rest where it is. They seem quite good at not stashing things that rot (generally). But if you can't find it ............ Difficult. The only way to find it would be remove everything. But I would suggest a "wait and see" approach. Hopefully he's just eaten it bit by bit.

Ongoing, when giving them fresh veg, it's best to only put one tiny piece out - no bigger than their ear. They eat it straight away usually. And they don't need any more than that and it avoids the worry of wondering if something has been stashed somewhere.

To give an example (grim story) one of my Syrians pouched a slug! That he found on the floor. I tried hard to get him to depouch it and gave up - no way was he giving up that slug. It was late at night and eventually I gave up and just put him back in his cage. the slug was no doubt dead by then because he had been eating it before he pouched it. Checked in his house and hoards next day - no slug. Ended up having to remove everything from the cage. No slug - he'd eaten it. You wouldn't think a hamster could eat that much in one go, but if it's fresh and tasty .......... glutton hamster

Had to phone the vet to see if he needed anything for worms afterwards! But apparently he didn't need anything.

 

[hamburrito]

Thank you for the advice! I will remember to give him an ear's size in the future and assume he ate it for this time.

I can't believe he ate a whole slug! That puts my mind much more at ease

 

[Lovelyness]

the slug story is never not funny

 

[Magpie]

A slug?! New fear unlocked...!

 

[Maz]

A slug?! New fear unlocked...!

It was on the carpet in the lounge while he was free roaming late at night. Didn't show up due to the pattern on the carpet. I don't think this is likely to happen to most people! But we live in an old house and do get the odd slug appearing in the kitchen at night sometimes. This one made it all the way to the living room!

 

[Magpie]

It was on the carpet in the lounge while he was free roaming late at night. Didn't show up due to the pattern on the carpet. I don't think this is likely to happen to most people! But we live in an old house and do get the odd slug appearing in the kitchen at night sometimes. This one made it all the way to the living room!

Gads! We have a similar issue in our dining room which has patio/French doors. I have no idea how they get in but they certainly do. So grim.

 

[Maz]

Well it's very unlikely a hamster would find one and eat one! It was particularly late at night when it happened with me and slugs only seem to appear after you've gone to bed for some reason! Maybe after lights out! And if a hamster did eat one, it seems it did no harm!