A hamster has died: how to understand and what to do if the animal dies, funeral of a hamster in winter

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15.04.2018

Anyone who has ever kept animals at home knows how difficult it is to bear their death. If you decide to get a hamster, be prepared for the fact that the life of a small rodent is short. With ideal care, he will live 2-3 years. The life of a fluffy will be even shorter if you do not provide him with the necessary conditions and attention from people. Children especially suffer from such loss. Before giving in to your child's requests to buy an animal, explain the prospects for the purchase. The child will be more careful about the pet, care for it, and will be able to cope more easily with the death of the hamster. This article explains how to prolong the life of a pet and what to do in the event of death.

Causes of hamster death

Let's look at the most common causes of death in a hamster.

Age. Due to natural reasons, rare individuals live more than three years. Even if an animal is kept in ideal conditions and receives normal food, its organs are capable of functioning for no more than a period determined by nature.
Poor nutrition. Hamsters eat any food, but not all food is good for them. Spicy, sour and salty foods should not be given. Smoked meats and foods with spices are contraindicated. It is unacceptable to feed your pet stale or rotten foods, exotic fruits and sweets. All kinds of chips, crackers and other products containing food additives and stabilizers can be deadly for a small animal.
Colds. Hamsters are sensitive to hypothermia and drafts. The optimal air temperature for keeping an animal is 20–22 °C, away from direct sunlight and heating devices. You should not bathe your rodent often. He may catch a cold after taking water treatments if his fur coat is not thoroughly wiped and dried. At the first signs of illness (lethargy, apathy, refusal to eat), do not self-medicate, take the animal to a veterinarian. The life of a hamster is fleeting, and diseases occur at lightning speed. Don't miss the time when you can still save your baby.
Other diseases. Rodents are susceptible to tumor formation. An abundance of sweets causes diabetes. Infectious diseases can also cause premature death of a hamster.
Stress. Stressful situations have a negative impact on rodent health. Fright from a sharp sound, bright light, or the appearance of other pets, cats and dogs, can trigger a heart attack or stroke.
Poor care. Regular cleaning of the cage, removal of excrement, and replacement of bedding will make your pet’s life more comfortable and reduce the spread of infections. In addition, the hamster constantly stores food supplies. In a warm room they quickly deteriorate. Throwing away everything a homa has collected will cause stress in the animal. It is better to gradually replace spoiled foods with fresh ones.
Injuries. The hamster is a rather fragile creature. You can injure him by carelessly squeezing him in your hands. First of all, explain this to the children. Do not let your hamster “walk” on a table or other high object, from which it could fall and injure itself.
Childbirth. A hamster may die during childbirth if she is less than 4 months old or has too many babies.
Other reasons. A hamster can run away and suffocate somewhere under the floor in a cramped hole, or it can chew through an electrical wire and receive an electric shock. A heavy object may accidentally fall on it. All these troubles will not happen if you properly monitor and care for your small pet.

What can a hamster die from?

A variety of reasons can lead to the death of hamsters, ranging from accidents while walking or poor diet to severe cancer.

It will be useful for you to know what you need to successfully keep hamsters.

Poor nutrition

This reason is perhaps the most common of those that lead to the death of any animals kept in captivity.

In the wild, hamsters tend to choose for their own food only those foods that are likely to benefit their body, while at home they quite often allow themselves to feast on various foods that are not normally included in their natural diet.

Most often, this begins to happen after the owner of the small animal treats it with some inappropriate food.

Did you know? During the night, a hamster can cover a distance of 10 kilometers on its wheel.

To avoid health problems associated with an incorrect menu, you should first study the lists of permitted (and even necessary) and prohibited foods for a hamster.

You can also purchase ready-made food for rodents in pet stores, then your pet will be provided with the necessary complex of nutrients.

Violation of content rules

The size of the cage and the material from which it is made, the availability of food and clean water, the possibility of grinding teeth, regular sanitary and hygiene measures - all this is of great importance for the life and health of the hamster.

If you forget to fill the feeders and drinkers on time and clean the tray, you can significantly shorten the life of a small pet.

It is also possible that the owners are very attentive to the issue of caring for their pet, but do not know some important rule. For example, they do not understand that a hamster cannot be kept in an area that is too limited in size; it is undesirable to place two males in one cage, as well as a male and pregnant or recently given birth females.

It will be useful for you to know whether you can give your hamster cabbage.

Very often, owners, especially children, forget that hamsters should not be disturbed while sleeping.

Drafts and stuffiness

Hamsters react very gently to any change in weather and temperature conditions, which is why they should never be placed near windows and doorways. The comfortable temperature for the normal life of these animals is +15…+20 °C.

In addition, excess sunlight can not only lead to overheating and subsequent death of the animal, but also ruin its daily routine, which also negatively affects health.

Pregnancy and childbirth

Pregnancy itself is very rarely a process that leads to death, but during childbirth, hamsters die much more often. But during pregnancy they are very susceptible to a variety of infectious and viral diseases, influenza, and various concomitant gynecological diseases, which often cause the death of females.

Find out more about how hamsters give birth.

Childbirth can be complicated as a result of an inappropriate degree of development of the female’s reproductive system, the too large size of her cubs, various complications in the form of bleeding, ruptures, fractures of the pelvic bones, etc.

In order to avoid the possible death of pets as a result of pregnancy and childbirth, it is recommended to first select the healthiest and strongest potential parents for the breeding process. The age of all hamsters entering the reproductive period is quite low and is only 1–1.5 months for a female and 2–3 months for a male.

To increase the likelihood of successful completion of the breeding process, experienced hamster breeders recommend using only females over 4 months of age and males over 6 months of age for breeding.

Did you know? Hamsters can swim quite well using their cheek pouches. They fill them with air, which helps the animals stay on the surface better.

Stroke, heart attack

The frequency of development of these pathologies in hamsters directly depends on their diet, age and vital activity.

The likelihood of these dangerous conditions occurring is negatively affected by the pet’s advanced age, decreased vital activity, as well as a diet rich in a large variety of fats, incl. cholesterol. Controlling cholesterol levels is especially important, since it affects the degree of development of atherosclerosis in the vessels, which is the cause of such conditions.

Sometimes, as a result of a stroke, a hamster can be paralyzed and will live in a cage for a long time with immobilized front or hind limbs. As for heart attacks, the likelihood of successfully surviving them is extremely low, but sometimes this happens.

Caring for an animal that has suffered one of these conditions must be as thorough as possible; it must be given as much attention as possible and try to brighten up the remaining short period of its life.

Find out more about how much a hamster costs and its maintenance.

Diseases and injuries

This group includes a variety of bacterial infections, viral infections, parasitic infestations, metabolic diseases, dysfunction of the endocrine, nervous, digestive, respiratory and other systems, various oncological diseases, as well as fractures, paralysis, cuts, skeletal injuries, deaths due to falls and more many other reasons.

It is almost impossible to effectively resist such a variety of such varied causes, so the best option for preventing them is to carefully monitor the current state of your pet’s health, adequately respond to the slightest signs of the appearance of any pathology, and prevent the occurrence of various potentially traumatic situations for the animal.

Important! If you detect the slightest signs of any disease or injury, immediately contact your veterinarian, as only adequate and timely actions can guarantee a complete cure for your pet.

Old age

Old age is perhaps the most common cause of death. On average, the lifespan of these pets varies from 3 to 4 years, but a pet that has crossed the 2.5 year mark is already considered elderly.

Many of his body's systems are most likely thoroughly worn out and require serious medicinal support. The onset of old age can be determined by a decrease in the density of the animal's hair, the appearance of gray hairs in the coat, a significant decrease in activity and interest in games and entertainment with the owners.

We recommend reading about how long hamsters live.

Death from old age

If the pet has been living for about three years, be prepared for the inevitable death of the pet from old age. A small heart, which in a calm state beats at a frequency of 180-200 beats per minute, wears out very quickly. With frequent stress, the likelihood of rupture of the heart muscle, i.e., a heart attack, increases many times over. Tiny vessels cannot withstand such a frantic rhythm. Hence strokes and paralysis of limbs. The baby is still alive, but cannot move. It’s up to you whether to prolong his torment or contact a veterinary clinic with a request to euthanize the dying man.

Hamster diseases and their treatment. If your hamster is breathing heavily through his mouth

Due to excitement, it is difficult to figure out what to do if the hamster lies and does not move, but is breathing. After all, the presence of breathing means that the animal is still alive.

Before you run to the vet, you need to try to figure out why your pet is lying motionless

Pay attention to other signs: whether the eyes are closed, how often the rodent breathes. If the eyelids are closed and breathing is calm, the hamster may just

If a previously healthy animal suddenly falls into a coma, it is possible that it is hibernating. Breathing will be very rare, and the pet will be cold to the touch. In nature, dwarfs hibernate in winter, waiting out cold, hunger and short daylight hours.

How do hamsters die?

How can you tell if your hamster is dying? The death of a rodent can be predictable or unexpected. If the coat has become sparse and has lost its healthy shine, the eyes have become dull, and movements are slow and sluggish, these are signs of imminent death from old age or an incurable disease. Weight loss and refusal to eat are also symptoms of impending death. Behavior before death changes. The hamster stops making supplies, as if he has a presentiment that he will no longer need them.

The symptoms of sudden death depend on what the baby is dying from. If the poor guy fell from a height and broke his spine, his body would go limp, he would be immobilized and die within a few hours or even minutes. If the disease is accompanied by severe pain, the unfortunate animal will cry in a plaintive voice. Then the crying will turn into a death rattle. Symptoms of death from indigestion are bloating and diarrhea.

What to do if your hamster is breathing heavily?

Hamsters rarely get sick, but sometimes it happens due to inappropriate living conditions, improper feeding or other factors. Any owner may encounter a similar problem. One of the telltale signs of poor health in animals is breathing. What to do if your hamster is breathing heavily?

The animal's condition can worsen due to various reasons:

Pneumonia is the development of inflammatory processes in the lungs. Characterized by wheezing, gurgling and wheezing sounds when breathing. An indicator of the disease is also discharge from the nasal cavity observed over several days. In this case, the hamster becomes inactive, inactive, does not approach the feeder, and drinks little. It becomes difficult for him to breathe, which hinders his movements. The animal simply lies and tries to move less.
Tumors or metastases in the lungs. Tumors can be benign or malignant (cancerous). Catalysts for their formation can be viruses, a previous infectious disease, decreased immunity, disturbances in the hormonal system, injuries and other reasons. If the tumor begins to spread throughout the body, metastases appear. Their localization may also be in the lungs.
Poisoning. Intoxication factors: spoiled food or low quality water; eating poisonous plants or grains; ingress of toxic substances into food or water. Signs of poisoning include difficulty breathing, thirst, lethargy, refusal to eat, vomiting, and diarrhea.
State of agony. If the hamster is breathing heavily and does not move, then this may be an indicator of the pre-mortem stage. Occurs as a result of a serious illness.

Heatstroke

I would like to highlight heat stroke in hamsters as a separate point. They are very susceptible to high temperatures and open sun. This is due to the lack of protection against overheating. Signs of heat (sun)stroke:

the hamster breathes heavily through his mouth;
the animal looks weakened;
convulsive syndrome may appear;
movements become uncoordinated.

With severe overheating, heart failure develops, which leads to death. It can occur either instantly or after a few days, when all organs gradually fail. Heat stroke occurs in the following situations:

transporting a pet by road during the hot season;
placing the cage near a window or on a balcony, as well as near radiators or heating devices;
non-compliance with the optimal microclimate (high temperature and humidity in the room).

In some cases, it is difficult for the owner to understand why his pet is breathing heavily and hardly moving. For example, if he noticed this when the sun was no longer there, or it stopped falling on the cell.

Is it possible to save a pet?

How to help a hamster if it is dying? If your pet dies of old age or an incurable disease, there is nothing you can do to help. You can only ease the poor fellow's torment. But if trouble happens to a young healthy animal, don’t waste your time, contact a veterinarian. Describe your symptoms to help your doctor make a diagnosis, and follow his instructions. You may still be able to save your pet. The sooner you seek qualified help, the greater the chances of extending the life of the rodent.

Reasons for premature departure

Death during childbirth

Sometimes the cubs are stillborn. Sometimes during childbirth the following may happen:

the giving birth female dies;
newborn puppies die;
Both mother and newborns die.

The main reason for the death of a female in childbirth is too early pregnancy. In this case, labor is weak, the fetuses that died inside the womb decompose and the animal dies.

The process is fleeting. Sometimes the female manages to give birth to several completely alive and strong hamsters, and then dies. In this case, the owner is faced with the question of what to do with the offspring. If there is no experience and opportunity to feed the offspring every 2 hours with a special milk formula and warm them, then it is wiser to euthanize the newborns. Otherwise, any error in care will cause illness and death of pets.

The birth of stillborn cubs or their death in the first minutes of life and the subsequent death of the female indicate not only a pathological birth, but also a previous illness.

During or after a fight

Hamsters fight very brutally. In the wild, hamsters live alone, so at home they will protect their home from their fellows. In this case, rodent fights end in death.

It is almost impossible to save an animal from lacerated bite wounds; if the fight happened at night, then most likely a dead animal will be found in the cage in the morning.

After or during anesthesia

If a sick or injured hamster is treated under anesthesia, the animal may fall asleep so deeply that it gradually stops breathing and cardiac activity.

Sudden death

A pet hamster can die due to general health. The causes of sudden death are heart attacks or strokes. Such disorders are associated with the functioning of blood vessels and the heart; they are quite typical for these rodents. Sudden cardiac arrest may be the result of severe fright, such as that caused by a sudden attack by a cat.

Death from boredom

By nature, hamsters are loners. During the breeding season, they do not form social groups, and the female spends only a few hours with the male. If after mating the partner does not leave in time, then he may become a victim of the female, who in these animals can be larger and stronger. Therefore, you should not attribute human feelings and emotions to a rodent; they are not capable of dying of melancholy if the cage is cleaned and there is food and water.

Preventing premature death

To ensure that there is no other cause of death other than old age, provide the hamster with proper living conditions. Following a few simple rules will extend the life of your pet.

Healthy eating. Study the nutritional guidelines for rodents. Avoid spicy, sour, salty, smoked and sweet foods. Feed only fresh foods. There should always be fresh water in the cage.
Provide your hamster with exercise equipment and toys.
Clean the cage on time, this will help avoid the development of infections. Keep food and water utensils clean.
Place the cage in a quiet place where the hamster will not be afraid of running electrical appliances and will not be disturbed by other pets.
Bathe your hamster only in exceptional cases. At the same time, dry thoroughly so that he does not catch a cold.
Do not allow the female to have cubs prematurely. It could kill her. The appropriate age for motherhood is after 4 months.
Talk and play with your baby. Be extremely careful when doing this.

But the inevitable happened and the hamster died. Clean and disinfect the cage thoroughly before introducing a new animal. Perhaps there is an infection left in the cage from which the previous occupant died.

What to do if the hamster does not move and is breathing heavily

Despite the fact that any hamster owner knows about the short life expectancy of a pet, the situation when a furry animal is on the verge of death comes as a shock.

In a stressed state, it is difficult to quickly respond to a situation when the hamster does not move, but breathes.

Therefore, if the owner is prepared in advance for such a situation and understands what is happening, the chances of saving the animal will increase.

Overheating a hamster is much more dangerous than cooling it

Low room temperature

Turning off the heating or leaving a window open for a long time on a frosty day can cause the hamster to fall into torpor.

In this case, the body will be very cold, and the heartbeat will slow down significantly - to one beat every fifteen seconds.

A sleeping hamster barely breathes and due to its small size it is quite difficult to determine how intense the breathing is and whether it exists at all. But if the body is soft to the touch, this means that the rodent is alive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYY8hHlUyok

To awaken it, you need to move the cage to a room with a temperature above +20 degrees. The hamster will wake up in 2-3 days and care should be taken that the feeder and water bowl are full when he wakes up.

This is especially important, since during hibernation a rodent wastes a very large amount of energy and its health will depend on how quickly it replenishes it with food. A hamster left hungry after hibernation may develop serious liver problems.

A hamster left hungry after hibernation may develop serious liver problems.

This method of awakening is optimal, since it is close to how a hamster wakes up from hibernation in its natural environment, but the process can be accelerated:

Wrap the hamster in a warm cloth or down mitten, place it in a cage and move it to a room with a high temperature.
Fill several bottles with hot water, place them in a row and place the cage on them. Heat will be transferred through the bottom, warming the hamster

Important! Try not to let your hamster hibernate again. To do this, you need to maintain the temperature in the room where the cage is above +20 degrees, make sure that a sufficient amount of sunlight penetrates into the hamster’s house, and that the rodent always has the necessary amount of food and drink

In what cases can a pet die?

It is almost impossible to help a pet when the temperature has become so critical that protein coagulation has occurred in the blood and organs. This can happen at temperatures from +44 degrees.

If the animal has been exposed to high temperature for a long enough time, then the chances of a favorable outcome are almost zero.

Important! Death may not occur instantly, but after a couple of days due to the gradual decline of all body functions. Severe paralysis of a pet can also be a consequence of “advanced age”

The average lifespan of hamsters is 18-24 months. Few hamsters live to be three years old.

Severe paralysis of a pet can also be a consequence of “advanced age.” The average lifespan of hamsters is 18-24 months. Few hamsters live to be three years old.

The rodent may be suffering from pneumonia

Other diseases

The breathing pattern of a hamster can tell you what kind of illness has overtaken the rodent. So, if a hamster is breathing rapidly without being frightened or exhausted by physical activity, this may indicate that it is suffering from respiratory or heart failure.

We establish the fact of death

The death of a hamster can sometimes be confused with paralysis or sound sleep. If your hamster suddenly died, you need to make sure that it is really death and not paralysis. But how to do that?

The most important signs of a dead animal are the absence of a pulse and breathing. You need to bring the mirror close to the nose: if it fogs up slightly, then the animal is still alive. To determine the heartbeat, the body must be picked up. By the way, you can determine its temperature in the same way: no heat comes from dead hamsters. The fact of death may also be indicated by the numbness of the hamster.

The scary truth about hamsters: 5 facts that are not usually talked about

Hamsters are the most popular pets.
They are cheap, eat little, take up little space, you don’t need to walk with them, they don’t bark, and they don’t scatter fur everywhere. And of course, they are incredibly cute fluffies, right? Only after purchasing a pet (which, according to the sellers, eats everything and does not get sick until death) do people face the terrible truth about these animals. The article will not say a word about the smell from the cage - this is a matter of proper organization of cleaning. The costs of maintaining the animal will not be calculated.

Just a few facts about the natural characteristics of hamsters. Biology cannot be ignored.

1. Hamsters are solitary animals

For us humans, the lack of communication is unbearable. And it seems to us that our pets should be bored alone. Out of good intentions, they try to keep hamsters in pairs or even in packs.

The truth is that in nature, hamsters live incredibly far from each other, and fiercely defend their vast territory from their relatives. Hamsters can live together in a cage for a long time. Bites and scratches will not be visible under thick fur. But if one of them begins to gain the upper hand, one morning you will find a bloody mess in the cage, the gnawed corpse of one of the “friends”.

This is not cruelty in the literal sense. It's just instinct that forces you to defend your territory to the death.

2. Hamsters are nocturnal

Why do you think hamsters have such bulging shiny eyes? Not so that we can be touched, but so that we can see in the dark. Hamsters are nocturnal animals. It is impossible to retrain an animal. If you don't let him sleep during the day, then stress and poor health are all you will achieve.

Hamsters are known as lazy sleepyheads precisely because during the day the animal sleeps sweetly in its house, only crawling out at night to eat.

In fact: in nature, a hamster runs 6-12 km in one night! And the domestic hamster wakes up at night and starts running - in a wheel, where else you can run in a cage.

The wheel creaks and knocks. If you remove it, the hamster will scratch, dig at the bedding, and gnaw at the metal bars of the cage with a terrifying grinding sound. Not everyone can fall asleep to such noise.

The result: a pet that you can't see all day and keeps you up at night.

3. Difficult to tame

Rodents seem harmless to us - they are not predators. And they look so cute. Don't flatter yourself. It is very difficult to accustom a hamster to your hands, and even more difficult to tame it. That is, you should not expect emotional return from your pet.

In nature, rodents are food for predators. It is logical that a hamster, which does not communicate with its relatives, perceives any biological object as a threat. Hamsters react especially painfully to a hand that grabs it from above, like a bird of prey.

Hamsters bite painfully, try to escape and quickly run wild if you do not train your pet for 2-3 days.

4. Hamsters are prone to cannibalism

To put it simply, they devour their relatives. Although hamsters are traditionally considered vegetarians (they eat grains, after all), they need animal protein. In nature, they may catch an insect, a lizard, or a smaller rodent.

The female gnaws and eats her cubs (what good is lost) if:

kept in the same cage with a male;
the offspring is too numerous;
the female’s nutrition is not complete;
she experiences stress, feels danger;
if the hamsters were touched by a person;
the female is too young;
hamsters are weak or defective.

My grandmother had a pair of hamsters. One day the female gave birth to offspring. And when the grandmother found a male in a bloody cage with his head chewed off, and a female busily devouring her cubs, she screamed and threw them all into the trash along with the cage.

It is always man who is to blame for such a tragedy. It is unacceptable to keep hamsters together in the same cage, especially if there are children at home. For them, such a sight can be traumatic.

5. Hamsters often get sick and die

According to nature's intention, a hamster should not live to old age. The species survives through amazing fecundity, and older hamsters must become food for predators. Therefore, if a hamster gets sick, it is difficult to cure it, sometimes impossible. There are no mechanisms to combat the disease.

What could they be sick with, you ask? Offhand:

Fractures (paw gets stuck in cage bars or running wheel);
Pneumonia (they catch a cold in a draft);
Heat stroke (cage in the sun);
Parasites (cling from hay, street grass, sawdust);
Viral and bacterial infections (a couple of days of diarrhea and death);
Malignant tumors;
Inflammation of the cheek pouches (abscesses);
Conjunctivitis;
Diabetes, urolithiasis and other metabolic disorders.

The most common one is indigestion. We fed the hamster cabbage and he died - the usual story (intestinal bloating). Rodents cannot vomit due to their anatomical features, so if he eats spoiled or dangerous food, he will die.

Dogs are owned by those who want to be loved, cats - by those who are ready to love themselves. The hamster has a task in the spirit of Jesus - to show children death.

There are few veterinarians specializing in the treatment of rodents, and often even they are powerless to help. Therefore, not every hamster lives to reach the required 2-3 years of life, but only those who are strong from birth and kept in ideal conditions.

About other rodents:

The Zootopia channel wishes you and your little pets health! Subscribe, there is a lot of interesting things about pets ahead.

What to do to save a dying pet

When can you save

Timely treatment will help save your pet's life. The hamster is helped by:

for minor wounds and injuries;
for curable diseases;
for mild poisoning.

To do this, you first need to contact a rodent specialist.

In the case when traumatic injuries are diagnosed, the pet is provided with rest, its mobility is limited and the doctor’s orders are followed.

Wound surfaces are carefully but carefully treated with aseptic means.

In the early stages of the disease, a timely diagnosis and compliance with the doctor’s prescription will help save the rodent.

If the substance or poison that caused the poisoning is known, then you need to independently or with the help of a specialist select and give an antidote or a reverse drug. Drinking plenty of water will also help, water, chamomile decoction can be given using a syringe until the signs of poisoning disappear.

Careful care, proper feeding, keeping a dry and moderately warm room will speed up the healing process and prolong the life of the pet.

In what cases can you not help?

If the pet is old, then it is impossible to save it from natural death. The mechanisms of suppression of all vital functions associated with age will inevitably cause the death of the pet.

You also cannot help a relatively young animal:

in case of severe poisoning, especially rat poison;
for oncological diseases;
with injuries incompatible with life;
under extreme stress.

What to do when you can’t help a dying rodent

If the hamster shows no signs of life other than breathing, then you can leave it alone in its usual cage until it dies out completely.

How do hamsters behave before imminent death? When an animal groans or wheezes, it is most likely experiencing severe physical pain. In this case, you need to make a decision to euthanize your pet.

Euthanasia of a sick animal doomed to death is a choice between a painless and quick death and a slow, painful death.

Euthanasia services are provided by veterinary clinics. The procedure takes place in two main stages. First, the animal is put into deep sleep under anesthesia, after which the specialist administers a medicine that stops the heart.

At the owner's request, the rodent's body will be disposed of.

How to cope with loss

Children often grieve over a loss. In order for grief to stop tormenting them, it would be advisable to go to a pet store on the next weekend and buy a new pet there. Although in this regard the decision is made individually.

The death of a living creature is inevitable, so when taking responsibility for caring for and maintaining a hamster, remember that you will have to deal with the death of your pet. But if you kept the rodent with dignity and were an attentive owner, then these thoughts will comfort you at the moment of your pet’s death.

What is numbness?

What is this numbness like?

This is a physiological condition that is common in some small mammals. During torpor, metabolism drops to a minimum, and the body goes into economy mode. Because of this, the animals become inactive and remain in a state of bodily rigor. They have virtually no reaction to external stimuli.

Help: sleepy torpor does not occur at a certain time of the year, as during hibernation, but at a certain time of the day when the animal is not active.

The condition can be determined by the following symptoms:

the heart beats less often, it can be difficult to hear and feel its beats;
the body cools down;
the muscles become stiff.

In other words, it appears that the hamster has died.

The rodent can remain in this state from several hours to several days. The duration of torpor depends on external factors and the comfort of the hamster's standard of living.

This is interesting: in the wild, a hamster can fall into a state of torpor just because it came out of its burrow on a winter night. If at home he is cold throughout the day, then the body will also begin to save energy.

Do you monitor the temperature in the room where the rodent is kept?

Factors contributing to torpor in hamsters at home

Factors that can cause an animal to fall into a sleepy stupor:

Cold - in this case, the animal triggers the same instinct as in wild hamsters - the body switches to economy mode. If the room temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius, then this condition cannot be avoided. The temperature in the room should be at least 15 degrees Celsius.
Darkness - you should not place the cage in a very dark place, as well as in an excessively light one. The animal accepts the darkness as a short daylight hours, so it goes to sleep.
Improper nutrition - if an animal is malnourished or lacks vitamins and minerals, then its activity is greatly reduced. In order for energy resources to be consumed more slowly, the body starts saving mode.
Stress - due to severe shocks, a hamster can fall into a stupor in order to recover from the shock it has experienced.
Fear can be swimming, a sudden attack by a cat, falling from a height, or any sharp sound.

This is interesting: the owner’s untimely desire to play with it can cause stress in the animal. If you constantly wake up a rodent during sleep, it will become very irritable and aggressive, or even go into hibernation.

Is it worth waking up a torpid hamster?

There is no clear answer to this question. A decision must be made based on the situation.

Some experts argue that you should not interfere with the life processes in the animal’s body so as not to harm it. In the wild, the hamster prepares for a long sleep, so it eats up the subcutaneous fat layer so that it has something to eat during hibernation.

In addition, according to facts, those hamsters that sleep for a long time in winter live much longer than those that are awake. Only winter sleep has a bad effect on future offspring - children are born less often and in smaller numbers.

If the owner decides not to wake up the pet, then he needs to make sure that the rodent wakes up in comfortable conditions. It is recommended to insulate the cage, put more cotton wool in it, and carefully move the pet into it. You need to put a lot of healthy food in the feeder so that after waking up the hamster has something to eat

There are those who argue that a hamster that lives at home has absolutely no need to hibernate. Therefore, it is better to wake him up so as not to disrupt his further rhythm of life. In this case, the owner needs to correct the error in care so that his pet no longer falls into torpor.

It is also necessary to wake up the rodent if it has not eaten the fat layer, but has fallen into “emergency torpor” in order to avoid dehydration and exhaustion of the body. If he is not awakened, he may die of starvation.

What is numbness?

What is this numbness like?

Symptoms of torpor in hamsters

The condition can be determined by the following symptoms:

the heart beats less often, it can be difficult to hear and feel its beats;
the body cools down;
the muscles become stiff.

In other words, it appears that the hamster has died.

Duration

Factors contributing to torpor in hamsters at home

Factors that can cause an animal to fall into a sleepy stupor:

Cold - in this case, the animal triggers the same instinct as in wild hamsters - the body switches to economy mode. If the room temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius, then this condition cannot be avoided. The temperature in the room should be at least 15 degrees Celsius.
Darkness - you should not place the cage in a very dark place, as well as in an excessively light one. The animal accepts the darkness as a short daylight hours, so it goes to sleep.
Improper nutrition - if an animal is malnourished or lacks vitamins and minerals, then its activity is greatly reduced. In order for energy resources to be consumed more slowly, the body starts saving mode.
Stress - due to severe shocks, a hamster can fall into a stupor in order to recover from the shock it has experienced.
Fear can be swimming, a sudden attack by a cat, falling from a height, or any sharp sound.

Is it worth waking up a torpid hamster?

There is no clear answer to this question. A decision must be made based on the situation.

Reply to the post “A hamster is a special animal”

And I found a Djungarian hamster in front of the entrance to work. We have a basement floor, she was running in front of the door, she couldn’t get upstairs and couldn’t escape. And we had a cat at work at that time, she was also sheltered, she was lucky that she slept, she usually came with us to smoke. And there are a lot of cats in the area anyway. I work at night, they found an old round lampshade and until the morning they fed me cucumbers and gave me water from a lid. In the morning, a colleague brought from home two cages to choose from and two houses, so she settled in quite well. She called it Sleeveless - one front paw was missing for a long time, apparently. Not long before this, she picked up a kitten on the street - she decided that the hamster was her pet, she could stare into the cage for hours, stick her paw and muzzle in there and be sincerely indignant if she was bitten on the nose. It was fun to watch them until one day I returned from work and saw that the cat had turned over the cage - no, Sleeveless survived and forced me to go through a whole quest to find and rescue her from a hard-to-reach place. And she died at the wrong time. On December 31, 2022, in the morning I returned from work and immediately smelled this smell, which cannot be confused with anything. Then I also thought - apparently 2022 will be great with such a start. She left very much like a hamster - in a bowl of food, covered with sawdust. And for a long time after that the cat was looking for its friend in an empty cage on the balcony.

PS The cat is from work. It sits on the plate, yes.

Heart diseases

Congestive heart failure in hamsters is a likely cause of death for hamsters that die suddenly. This occurs when old or genetically predisposed hamsters have weakened heart muscles that cannot pump blood effectively. Respiratory distress, erratic movements, edema (fluid retention in the abdomen), and bluish discoloration of the skin are possible symptoms.
Atrial thrombosis is extremely common in older hamsters and occurs in up to 70%. Thrombosis usually occurs secondary to heart failure. Some symptoms include cyanosis (legs appear blue), hyperpnea (rapid breathing), and death after a week of these symptoms.
Some diseases, such as polymyopathy, can be hereditary. Transmitted by a recessive gene, the disease affects the heart and weakens the muscles, eventually leading to early death due to heart failure in some hamsters.
One study observing changes in "healthy" and cardiomyopathic (CM) hamsters found that CM hamsters had a shorter lifespan and had previously undergone damaging pathological changes in their hearts. Some of these hamsters died as early as 11-13 months naturally. It is therefore possible that heart failure will occur well below the hamster's life expectancy.

Reply to the post “Challenges in the Spirit of Jesus”

We once had Syrian hamsters. Two - a male and a female. They gave birth to cubs, three or four of them. We fed them, cleaned their cage, everything was calm. But at one point everything did not go according to the scenario of a happy hamster family. It started with the fact that the mother of the family fell ill, did not eat anything, and moved little. We fed the hamsters well with oats, corn, wheat, greens, carrots, etc. But they always had little food, or they did not like such food at all. The next day, after the hamsters’ mother began to get sick, my wife and I came home from work, I went into the room where there was a cage with hamsters and saw real chaos in the cage - all the hamsters were rushing around, attacking each other, the hamster’s mother was lying in the corner of the cage and cracks. And in the center of the cage lies a red shredded tomato, to which the hamster brothers and sisters periodically run up to refresh themselves. I ask my wife when she managed to throw a tomato to the hamsters. She replies from the other room that she didn’t give them any tomatoes. And only then, having taken a closer look, I look at the small spine sticking out of the tomato. And I understand that this is fucking not a tomato. It was the most disgusting and unpleasant thing I have ever seen in person in my life. Just a piece of fresh meat with barely visible bones, no fur in sight, and the head, apparently, had been eaten by the poor hamster's siblings. I confess that I was a bad owner and, apparently, turned out to be a bad person, because the only thing I could do in this situation was to stuff the cage into a potato bag, holding back the urge to vomit, and take the bag to the trash. I first opened the cage; it is possible that the hamsters were able to safely get out of the cage and found freedom. But I didn’t really care anymore; I wanted to forget this sight as quickly as possible. I read articles on the Internet and came to the conclusion that it is not advisable for Syrian hamsters to live as a family in one cage. Or you could read about the characteristics of Syrian hamsters in advance. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What to do after the death of an animal

But even preventive measures and careful care will not stop the onset of old age. If the hamster has reached old age, sooner or later it will have to be buried after death. In this case, you need to find out what to do according to the law. A hamster is a very small rodent. It can be buried in the local area, or in a park or planting - where there is a low probability of digging up the earth. Cadaveric poison harms the environment, but this is acceptable harm in this case, since the pet is small in size.

Relatives can arrange a small funeral. There are special funeral agencies that provide similar services: they have cemeteries for pets and the ability to cremate a pet. However, the cost of such a funeral will be high.

If the owners of the hamster valued them very much, they can try to carry out such a procedure, especially since this method of burial will alleviate the child’s condition after the loss of the pet.