Why did my hamster die?
I went to check on the hamster, I brought it's cage down and it was just lying in between the hosue and the wall, it's sides were a bit flattened. I don't know why it's died, it's not old (not even 6 months) and it's eyes were closed. It's cold, so I think it's dead, and we havn't changed anything in his diet or water recently. I havn't noticed anything strange about his behaviour recently so I'm a bit confused. Any ideas?
Update:Temp was fine, there was nothing i could see that resembled diarrhea
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Feel for the heart but I'm certain it is dead.
It could be any number of things and with absolutely no signs of why it could have died the only absolute way to find out why it died would be to have an extremely expensive autopsy done on the animal which often most places will refuse to do.
- Infection, a small cut could have formed into a nasty abscess which spread to the blood and poisoned it.
- Respiratory infection- wheezing, coughing, chirping, discharge eyes, heaving sides etc.
Be WARNED that rodents will not show any signs of illness until they become more severely ill because they are prey animals and instinctively will not show signs of illness because they are afraid of they look weaker something will pick them off.
- Cancer, more uncommon in hamsters but it could have been an internal tumour.
- Sudden death, like in rabbits a nasty shock or something e.g. a pet cat, a child shouting or jumping up near the cage, a loud noise or they think they saw something could have caused shock which can take several days to cause death.
- Heart attack, mostly for the same reasons above.
- Poisoning, he or she could have eaten something that fell into the cage, contaminated foods, someone could have fed it something or it pulled something through.
- Swelling bedding which is basically bedding that it digests, swells like a sponge in the tummy and causes serious blockages and death.
- No reason for death. Like many animals and even humans, sometimes they can just drop dead this is usually a heart defect or shock though.+
Has he had any problems with diarrhea? Often times hamsters get internal problems and they get diarrhea, and the discomfort around their bum could kill them if its not kept clean.
How was the temperature in the cage? If it was too hot, he could have been trying to get cool when laying between the wall and house, and died in his sleep from overheating.
If its neither of those things, then its hard to say. Hamsters are incredibly fragile.
Be aware that if he got too cold he could go into hibernation mode. There are many tales of people burying 'dead' hamsters that were actually hibernating.
Hamsters should be kept in a room of about 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit. If temperatures drop below sixty, your hamster will probably be induced into hibernation.
You 'll know they're not ''dead" when they're hibernating if they are breathing. If you look closely and carefully enough, you'll see their whiskers moving slightly.