Hamster Escaped – Where To Find A Lost Hamster Indoors Fast [Statistics]

Oh no! Your hamster pulled a Houdini and has escaped. I know exactly how that feels.

Don’t fear. After so many hamster escape stories have been shared, we took our knack for data and found the most likely spots to look.

Places To Look For Escaped Hamsters Indoors

Sometimes when dealing with your prized furry companion escaping and becoming lost, it is easy to not think fully and clearly. Take a deep breath.

We put together the list below as a checklist of all the locations you should check as a starting point. This list came from all the locations where hamsters were found in many hamster lost and found stories.

Just take this list and go room by room. But, read further down to see which rooms to start with first.

1. Basement Locations

• Basement (General)
• Hot Water Heater (behind or under)
• Furnace (behind)

2. Bathroom (3 Locations)

• Bathroom cabinet (under sink)
• Bathtub
• Towels (stack or closet)

3. Bedroom

• Back of closet (especially corners)
• In dresser drawers
• Behind dresser
• Inside blankets
• Inside shoes/slippers
• Under-bed inside the box spring mattress
• Under bedroom dresser
• Under the bed

4. Dining Room Location

• Behind China cabinet (hutch)

5. Hard to get to locations

• Inside walls

6. General Locations

• Garage (walls, between boxes)

7. Kitchen Locations (Think Food And Warmth)

• Back of kitchen cabinet
• Back of Pantry
• Behind/under the refrigerator
• Behind/under the stove
• Oven warming drawer
• Trash can/bag
• Under the dishwasher

8. Laundry Room Secret Chambers

• Behind the clothes dryer
• Laundry basket or hamper

9. Living Room Hamster Hiding Spots

• Behind the kid’s toy box
• Inside couch/sofa
• Inside potted plants
• Under recliner
• Under sofa

10. Office Hamster Locations

• Behind Bookshelf
• Behind desk

Which Room Should I Look For My Lost Hamster First?

Lost hamsters are found in the bedroom 37% of the time and in the kitchen 30% of the time. Looking in both of these rooms greatly increases to potential of finding a lost hamster even days or weeks after they have gone missing.

You know we love data. So, when it comes to finding a lost hamster, we wanted to know how to speed up the odds of finding that hamster quickly.

So, we reviewed over 140 lost hamster stories across a number of hamster groups and analyzed the data about where they were found. Voila! You now have the data on where to look for your lost hamster, first.

Looking in the bedroom and kitchen yielded 67.61% of all found hamsters in our study.

Room Hamster Found	Lost Hamsters Found (Weighted)	Likelihood To Find A Lost Hamster
Bedroom	45.7	37.00%
Kitchen	37.8	30.61%
Living Room	10.7	8.66%
Laundry Room	8.6	6.96%
Basement	7.7	6.23%
Everywhere	7.6	6.15%
Bathroom	4.5	3.64%
Dining Room	0.5	0.40%
Garage	0.3	0.24%
Office	0.1	0.08%
Grand Total	123.5	100.00%

Lost Hamster Search Locations – Where Should I Look?

Not only did we analyze the rooms where hamsters were found, be we looked at the specific locations. This may help us understand even more specifically where we should look for a lost hamster.

By far, the back of a closest is the most likely place to find a lost hamster (17%), followed by behind or under the stove (8.83%), and behind/under the refrigerator (7.13%).

Location	Lost Hamsters Found (Weighted)	Likelihood To Find A Lost Hamster
Back corner of closet	21	17.00%
Behind/under the stove	10.9	8.83%
Behind/under the refrigerator	8.8	7.13%
Under the bed	7.7	6.23%
Inside wall	7.6	6.15%
Under sofa	6.5	5.26%
Laundry basket or hamper	6.4	5.18%
Under bedroom dresser	5.3	4.29%
Basement	5.2	4.21%
In dresser drawer	5.1	4.13%
Inside shoes/slippers	5	4.05%
Back of kitchen cabinet	4.9	3.97%
Under the dishwasher	4.8	3.89%
Back of Pantry	3.7	3.00%
Bathroom cabinet	3.6	2.91%
Hot water heater (Under or behind)	2.5	2.02%
Oven warming drawer	2.4	1.94%
Trash can/bag	2.3	1.86%
Behind the clothes dryer	2.2	1.78%
Inside couch/sofa	2.1	1.70%
Under bed inside the box spring mattress	1	0.81%
Under recliner	0.9	0.73%
Behind the kids toy box	0.8	0.65%
Inside towels	0.7	0.57%
Inside blankets	0.6	0.49%
China cabinet/hutch	0.5	0.40%
Inside potted plants	0.4	0.32%
Garage	0.3	0.24%
Bathtub	0.2	0.16%
Behind desk	0.1	0.08%
Behind Bookshelf	0	0.00%
Grand Total	123.5	100.00%

How Can I Track My Lost Hamster?

You can track a lost hamster when it comes to snack on treats you leave out by using baking flour poured around the treats to see hamster footprints in and out of the area.

Flour As a Tracking Agent

Most resources recommend placing a line of flour or cornstarch across the threshold of doors or around treat baits in a strip about 2 inches wide.

We also like the method of using a flour sifter to evenly create a layer of flour about 12″ around the treat. This method has the benefit of much more square feet of tracking footprints than a single line.

Baking flour will be easier to vacuum up than corn starch after you’ve found your hamster.

Tinfoil Flooring

Another popular option for tracking a lost hamster is to use tinfoil.

You do this by laying out tinfoil under and around treats you set out as bait. When your hamster comes to nibble on the treats, they will make a significant sound on the aluminum foil.

Just set the trap and then sit up and wait during the night for that distinctive sound.

Ways To Trap Your Lost Hamster

In some cases, you may want to try capturing your lost hamster in a humane, live trap. This can work remarkably well.

Here are two options. One is a commercial live mouse trap and the other is a DIY bucket trap.

When using traps, be sure to remove any food you have set out in other rooms trying to attract the hamster. You want them to be focused on the food that leads them into the trap. However, we do recommend leaving the food in the hamster cage as they may go back to where they escaped from.

Live mouse traps

Using a live mouse trap may conjure up some negative images, but remember this is not the typical mouse trap. These are LIVE mouse traps meaning that they are engineered in a way that traps the mouse or hamster in the cage but does so without harming them.

Check out any hamster Facebook group or hamster forums and you’ll likely run across the trap we recommended as well, the Dr. Catch Live Mouse Trap. Here’s an Amazon link if you’re curious.

Bucket traps

In the midst of a lost hamster emergency, you may not want to wait on ordering a live mouse trap. The good news is that while using just a few items you likely already have at home, you can build a DIY bucket trap.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 5 Gallon Bucket (tall enough your hamster won’t jump out)
• Wire coat hanger (or dowel or rod)
• Water Bottle (or soda can or plastic bottle)
• Soldiering Iron (or something to make two holes in the bottle)
• Hamster bedding or small towels
• Books 15-16 books (or other ramp to top of bucket for hamster)
• Hamster treats/food

https://youtu.be/dkB7nUtQoKM – Great video tutorial of a hamster bucket trap. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to include the video here so please follow the link.

If you think your pet is ill, call a vet immediately. All health-related questions should be referred to your veterinarian. They can examine your pet, understand its health history, and make well informed recommendations for your pet.

903pets.com Staff