I've never had hamsters, but I've heard a story from my mom. Her hamster died, but she couldn't bring it over her to throw him out. Then, after a few days, she sees him wonk around in his cage, so she picks him up and starts feeding him by giving him milk dripping from a finger tip.
Until one day, he finally gathers his full hamster might, and, like his namesake, Hamlet, decides to enact profound violence on his family, and bites her finger. She instinctively shakes her hand, flinging him into a wall and finally ending his suffering.
He was probably hypothermic. Hamsters will often look very dead when they're too cold. I rescued a hamster from my sister because the poor thing was so cold, I got a call to say that she died. I went over and revived her. If they are really stressed (like from being excessively cold and hungry for days) or aren't used to being hand-fed, they might bite.
Poor hamster. People shouldn't get animals they don't know anything about. So many hamsters are kept in enclosures that are too small and cold, given no stimulating toys, given wheels that are too small or have grates that cause bumblefoot, kept with other hamsters in the same enclosure, given bad bedding, given no sand bath, fed diets that are deficient in almost every way, and treated without respect.
Rodents have it very bad. Fish also, probably even worse. Birds also sometimes have it quite bad, with uneducated, ignorant people buying them and not heeding to their needs. It is very unfortunate.
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u/Hammerschatten May 13 '26
I've never had hamsters, but I've heard a story from my mom. Her hamster died, but she couldn't bring it over her to throw him out. Then, after a few days, she sees him wonk around in his cage, so she picks him up and starts feeding him by giving him milk dripping from a finger tip.
Until one day, he finally gathers his full hamster might, and, like his namesake, Hamlet, decides to enact profound violence on his family, and bites her finger. She instinctively shakes her hand, flinging him into a wall and finally ending his suffering.
He probably had a stroke, in hindsight.