Hamsters will escape when they have even a glimpse of an opportunity. This could involve pushing cage doors open or forcing cage sections apart. Usually, luckily, they can be found again even if it takes a cople of days. My hamster Phil escaped numerous times from her plastic fortress. Once I laid weights against the cage opening (a plastic plug thing)but she somehow pushed the plug and them over and ran for it. Strangely enough I only noticed this because the next day her cage was open but lots of biscuits (which had been in a box on the floor) were inside it - and so was she. Apparently she'd escaped, found lots of food and then decided it was worth staying after all. She's done that a couple more times too, but the worst escaping incident was the time when she got under the floorboards and ran around under the house for a few hours before deciding to resurface. Another hamster escaped but went back home, shortly after she'd given birth. I wandered into the room with her cage to find that she was trying to climb up the plastic sides of the rotastak, obviously desperate to get to her babies.

Anyway, if your hamster escapes the best thing to do is to leave some food and water out for them, in a few rooms so that if some goes you can tell where she is, and you could even put flour around the food so you can follow the trail of paw prints after them. Also wait until night time when they're likely to be more active and then go into each room quietly to see if they've made a reappearence. If any of you out there want more tales of escaping Phil they can be provided if you ask.

Hamster babies

Twice I have bought a hamster only to find it giving birth within the week, and both times they were black eyed creams. The first one was very young and inexperienced and though we left her well alone, we only ever saw three babies alive (one only had three legs), suggesting that she possibly killed some of them. The second had eight babies, but two got wet tail (an infectious disease that affects the digestive tract) and one didn't recover. It's an idea to give a pregnant female fresh fruit and to avoid handling the babies at all when they are very young( and incredibly gorgeous).

I've had quite a lot of enquiries from people with baby questions but unfortunately most of the time I've had to tell them they'd be better off looking the information up in a book rather than asking me. This isn't because I can't be bothered saying but because I believe it's safer to be as accurate as possible where babies are concerned.

What I can tell you however is that the normal length of a hamsters gestation (pregnancy) is only 16 - 18 days and that the normal litter size is 6 - 8. When they're born they have no fur. They'll eat solid food at 7 - 9 days, open their eyes at 15 days and their nursing period should last 20 - 24 days. I seem to remember that when I had to look after my baby hamsters we removed them from the mother at about 4 weeks (but might be wrong) when she was getting fed up of them, but that we kept them together (but seperated the sexes) for another couple of weeks before seperating them.

Hamster babies are best brought up in a 'traditional cage' environment. One of my hamster mothers gave birth in a rotastak, on one of the middle levels. You're not supposed to disturb the mother or its young so I couldn't move them (sometimes if they smell too much human, the mothers get cannibalistic). It was all right until the babies got old enough to explore and one fell down a tube. It seemed a bit dazed but was otherwise unharmed. Also, the mother got nervous whenever the babies tried to leave the segment they were born in.

Buying a hamster

When buying a hamster try to look at them as late in the day as possible so that they're likely to be awake. Look for the hamster that seems alert, healthy and fairly young. Some pet shops keep hamsters for months before selling them when ideally you want one as young as possible (six weeksish) so that they'll become tame more easily.

Hamster housing

I've used several cage types over the years, but keep going back to Rotastak. Rotastak used to be probably the most popular plastic caging in the UK, but now brands such as Habitrail are gaining popularity. Both seem quite similar, but of course you can't mix and match. Single and dual level wire cages are cheap and easy to clean, but a few mysterious deaths occurred in the ones I owned, possibly due to the hamster tendency to climb upside down across the cage and fall halfway across. Some books recommend glass aquariums - just make sure there's a secure roof, and somewhere to put a water bottle.

Rotastaks, and other plastic cages are expensive, and if you own a lot of sections, fussy to clean. However I feel they represent a hamsters natural habitat quite successfully and can always be expanded upon. I had, as you can see from the photos above, rather a lot of segments, built up over a period of years. Some were bought second-hand, others were birthday presents for the hamster. I tried buying a christmas present for a hamster once - a christmas-stocking-like sleeping bag. The hamster either completely ignored it or attacked it.

Hamster food

Hamsters will eat just about anything, though of course it isn't all good for them. I once had a hamster addicted to chocolate (which can be poisonous), who would wake up whenever I cooked a chocolate pop tart in the next room. One hamster escaped during easter. I found it in my room, covered in chocolate. There was also a chocolate trail across my bed and all over the carpet. Basically, they need the usual hamster mix every day, and they'll enjoy fresh food such as cabbage, lettace, carrot and cucumber, though not in excessive amounts.

Hamster tricks

Hamsters love play balls as an exciting opportunity to roam around the house without nearby human hands. Watch carefully to see if any try to escape by running the play ball at full speed into a wall.

You can quite easily teach hamsters to climb upstairs too, but of course this makes them harder to find when they escape as they could be anywhere in the house. Often they learn on their own to climb whenever they escape but a good way to get them started is simply to place them on a stair. Hamsters have little or no depth perception so so can be reluctant to jump (although many have been known to act like lemmings)and faced with a situation where there is little room to manoeuvre they might prefere to explore upwards. They'll probably stand up leaning on the stair - to help them on their way place another object or hand next to the stair so that they can reach the top. Eventually they'll dig their paws into the carpet and drag themselves up. When they're more confident they'll know something lies beyond the wall and will jump up or down quite readily, although sometimes they might stubbornly sniff around for a while first.

It can be fun to make a maze out of cardboard (cereal boxes are good)and teach the hamster to get through it. You may have to lay food through the correct route, and gradually move to putting food at the end of the maze so that they know to run to it if they want rewarding.