Yesterday I came home from school getting ready to clean out Bamboo, my 1 year old Syrian Panda hamster's cage and instead I see her buried under all her bedding. Dead.

About a month ago she escaped from her cage and we found her in my dads bedroom and returned her, but I also have a cat and do not know if she had got to her before we did. There did not appear to be any damage on the outside of her.

Then a couple weeks later she stopped letting me hold her. I tried to pet her and she'd run, and if I tried to pick her up she'd squirm and threaten to bite each time.

I feel like it's my fault because I never cleaned her cage as often as I should have, and I know that can cause respitory problems because of the ammonia from their urine.

Oh gosh, I just realized something. I just changed bedding about a week ago.. she seemed to be doing fine but maybe now that could have been the cause?

Also, could she have starved to death? I noticed when cleaning her cage for the last time her
Food bowl was completley empty, and there wasn't any buried in the cage.. but I don't know how long she didn't have any food. I checked a couple days ago and her bowl was full of grain. Her water bottle was half full.

There was no bedding anywhere on her face or mouth, so I'm assuming she didn't choke. She does like to eat her bedding. I had mixed her old bedding with some of the new bedding because I didn't have enough left for 1 change and I didn't want to waste it.. could that be the problem too?

I'm devastated. She was my baby and now I don't know when I'll ever be able to get another.. but when I do I'm definatley getting 2 dwarf hamhams.. they're so tiny and cute
And having multiple hammies will be more fun. I love how they pile up on each other when they sleep..

Here is a picture of bamboo... and her grave

http://i32.tinypic.com/ta1ms8.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/33uaiy0.jpg

Did you notice a different odor coming from her cage? Did you notice her having a wet tail? A lot of times hamsters will get "wet tail" and then they die. This happened to one of ours. He was pure white so it was easy to see. He got to be less active and then stayed in one spot.
But the odor was the give away.

Her back was wet when I picked her up after she had passed.. but I don't know about the tail because I didn't pay attention to it, and I'm not going outside and digging her up to check. There WAS a very strong, repulsive stench coming from the cage that it was starting to make my room stink, but I figured it was because I had waited too long to clean her cage and that I had just switched to a less absorbant bedding so it wasn't hiding the smell as well. She did start staying in one spot, just over by her wheel.

I don't know for sure. It could be wet tail. It is basically when they get loose bowels. And the odor is a bit different (I think) than a cage that hasn't been cleaned. Believe me, I am not as diligent as I should be and the smell is different.

If it was wet tail - there was not much you could do for her, unfortunantly

I had never even thought of wet tail.. I think that's what it was.. I feel better now that I know if
She was still alive when I got home she wouldn't have been for long anyway and there was nothing I could do.

Yeah, I work with small animals at my job and many hamsters get wet tail when they're stressed out. It's very hard to treat and the mortality rate is very high.
Luckily though, dwarf hamster are less susceptible to wet tail (at least in my experience). I always recommend the Chinese Dwarf Hamsters. They're not as fast and hard to handle as the Robo Hamsters (Roborovski Dwarf Hamsters) and aren't likely to be aggressive like many of the Dwarf Campbells Russian Hamsters are.

I have the same hamster and it just died too. It was kind of exactly the same thing, and my hamster looked just like yours did. It was only about 4 months old and I just found it in its little lookout dead... It had been smelling funny for a while and I was really bothered by it. I think it might have been wet tail with my hamster too because its back was wet when I found it dead too. May little Bamboo and my dear Bip rest in peace...

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