[Sky14]

Ok my friend has 1 dog,4 cats 3 adult 1 kitten,1 cockatoo,2 ratsys,5 mice and 3 hamsters 2 black bear and a dwarf (Rip dwarf)

She lets the ratsys out for their normal hour and a half "free time" and leaves the room to get the phone (she NEVER left the room during "free time before) and when she comes back the dwarf hamsters cage is open but the ratsys are on the bed 10 feet away and 3 feet off the ground exacly how she left them. She looks in the cage to see the hamster just laying there so she picks it up and.....it's dead! she inspects the ratsys and finds no blood on either ratsy so she looks back to her hamster and finds 4 puncture wounds....

WHAT might I ask do YOU think happend and why?

 

[OhBugger.]

woah, poor hamster.

err....
could it have been the cats?

oh and btw, how does she manage to keep a pet bear?

 

[DonnaK]

I don't know about the door being open, but from what I've heard of hamsters I would wonder if it was one of the other hamsters that did it...

 

[cupids_cuties]

at one point we had two hamsters in a cage together...
a few days later we had 1 and a half
:s

 

[Sky14]

Black bear hamster.

And the door to the room was shut. Cats and dog are'nt alowed in her room unless all the cages are locked with twisty ties.

 

[IceLore]

oh and btw, how does she manage to keep a pet bear?

Er... a 'black bear' is a kind of hamster.

don't know about the door being open, but from what I've heard of hamsters I would wonder if it was one of the other hamsters that did it...

Eep. I really would hope that the OP's friend would have enough basic info about hamsters to know not to keep standards with dwarfs. :/


Sky - Is she sure they were puncture wounds? If the ham had been bitten and died because of that, you would expect a good bit of blood, you know? Only if the ham was bitten postmortem would they be dry wounds.

 

[Sky14]

There was a little itty bitty bit of blood for each puncture wound and the hamster was still very warm and the dwarf had his own cage.

 

[Sky14]

I was surprised at the lack of blood myself.

(I had been on my way to visit and arived five min after the incident. Her dad answerd the door.)

 

[Forensic]

I'd still wonder if the hammie was dead prior, because if it wasn't, that's not much blood.

 

[IceLore]

Forensic - I think you're right.

 

[Sky14]

She said she had given him fresh water 15 min before and he was as healthy and lively as ever. Running on his wheel when she left the room even. it had avery distinct squeek.

 

[Kimmiekins]

I would think it would be odd for a rat to jump off the bed, go to the cage, open it (what kind of door was it?), get in, kill the hamster, get out, get back to the bed, back on the bed and be there when she got back. Which I assume wasn't too long.

I mean... I suppose it *could* happen. But I'd think the chances are, if the rat killed the hamster, it wouldn't have had the know-how to get back on the bed before she got back.

If it was the rat, then I'm amazed it killed the hamster and left it dead, and went back to the bed.

I don't know what happened, but I'm nearly sure it wasn't the rats.

 

[Forensic]

Well, if we apply Occam's razor... The cage was open, so someone opened it. The rats, being bearers of no opposable thumbs, seem unlikely targets. The hammie is the same, for the same reasons. The hammie seems to have been biten, but nothing was within range. The jump from the bed to the cage seems more daring than my boys would be, though some would maybe not...

What I'm trying to say is either the hamster died and she's blaming the rats or she let the hamster play with the rats and the inevitable happened and now she's covering it up. Those options are much simpler than the rats jumping/climbing across, opening the cage, attacking the hammie (or the already dead hammie), and then immediately crossing back to the bed to put on an innocent act.

 

[Kimmiekins]

What I'm trying to say is either the hamster died and she's blaming the rats or she let the hamster play with the rats and the inevitable happened and now she's covering it up.

Ding ding ding! I agree. I don't see how any of the animals could have done it. Especially since, as Forensic pointed out, rats (and the other animals) do not have opposable thumbs. I've never known an animal to open a door INTO a cage (though I have heard of the opposite, it's a bit different, generally).

 

[fallinstar]

o0o0o its just like cludo

 

[mnic001]

at one point we had two hamsters in a cage together...
a few days later we had 1 and a half
:s

...gross.


Does this friend have any reason to make up a story?

 

[ladylady]

at one point we had two hamsters in a cage together...
a few days later we had 1 and a half
:s

:lol: nicely put!

Forgive me for my morbid sense of humor Im sure it was horrible for you

 

[2manyrats]

Wow, reading this story gave me deja vu.

A good friend of mine also had a dwarf hamster and rats, and the dwarf hamster ended up mysteriously dead with the cage door open, and a small amount of blood. She didn't find any puncture wounds, but I think she was a little too upset to look very well.

Our theory was heart attack when bitten by scary rat.

 

[Sky14]

Aha! So it has happend to somone else! I was about to ask if anything simalair had happened to anyone else.

And no my friend has had ratsys for 18 years there is NO WAY she would "let" the ratsys "play" with the hamsters or mice or ANY of the other animals for that matter. Oh and incase your wondering she's 26 kay?

And about the cage door I inspected it and found that it could be open'd with the smallest of tugs...a determend ratsy tug for example. And my friend was out of the room for a good 3-6 min becuase she mad a detour to the kitchen to get some treats for the ratsys.

 

[twitch]

but why would the rats be back on the bed? even if they did get in and even if they killed the hamster quickly their curiosity alone would have kept them there to check out the new area of the cage they broke into. and having a dead animal to sniff and tug at even if the hamster was dead before they got to it would keep them there for a while, longer if they were on an emotion high from a kill. that they were back on the bed even if you assume the rest is true seems odd. 3-6 mintues doesn't seem long enough for the rats to break in, kill and explore and then be back on the bed.

i second minc, does your friend have a reason to make up a story? embarrassment over something simple or basic in rodent care that she forgot to do or forgot about perhaps? the story just doesn't seem to add up. did you forget a detail in the telling maybe? something seems missing at least.