I’ve never seen a hamster grow to old age. They always die in some horrible way first. Get your kids a hamster! It’s not so much a pet as it is a $25 life lesson on the fragility of mortality.
I (and my siblings) had a total of 6 hamsters. 4 died of old age, 1 suddenly bled out overnight, and 1 died pretty young, but nothing was obviously wrong, so I dunno.
My neighbors had more than a dozen rodents (including 5 guinea pigs). They all died horrifically, including 4 that were killed by mouse traps. Because of course you should have mouse traps, and also keep small rodents that you allow to escape constantly. As an adult, I think the parents were seriously negligent in teaching their children, and then also negligent in buying more rodents for the grinder after the first two or three met horrible fates.
We’ve got two guinea pigs, and in my opinion, they aren’t that hard to keep alive.
My daughter’s guinea pig just died, but he was an older fellow. He went with her to college and got her all the way through to a few months past graduation.
As George Carlin said, “You’re supposed to know it in the pet shop. It’s going to end badly. You’re purchasing a small tragedy.”
I’ve never seen a hamster grow to old age. They always die in some horrible way first. Get your kids a hamster! It’s not so much a pet as it is a $25 life lesson on the fragility of mortality.
I (and my siblings) had a total of 6 hamsters. 4 died of old age, 1 suddenly bled out overnight, and 1 died pretty young, but nothing was obviously wrong, so I dunno.
My neighbors had more than a dozen rodents (including 5 guinea pigs). They all died horrifically, including 4 that were killed by mouse traps. Because of course you should have mouse traps, and also keep small rodents that you allow to escape constantly. As an adult, I think the parents were seriously negligent in teaching their children, and then also negligent in buying more rodents for the grinder after the first two or three met horrible fates.
We’ve got two guinea pigs, and in my opinion, they aren’t that hard to keep alive.
My daughter’s guinea pig just died, but he was an older fellow. He went with her to college and got her all the way through to a few months past graduation.
As George Carlin said, “You’re supposed to know it in the pet shop. It’s going to end badly. You’re purchasing a small tragedy.”
https://youtu.be/ktp-Zsm25dU?t=140s
First rule of rodent fight club is you don’t talk about rodent fight club.
I’ve heard that hamsters will play dead so effectively, that they will convince their owners that they actually are dead.
So, assuming that’s true, some hamsters die horribly in a small box underground.
Since we are on the hamster death topics,
My first one’s cage was left in the yard by my dad. In summer. I don’t even need to tell you how this ended.
We got a second one, went to grandma’s house for like 2 days and when we were back he got a parasite on his stomach. The treatement didn’t work. :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMs25XpjrAo
I had seen a Lemming die of old age, right before my eyes.
It never got smarter than trying to dig deeper holes.
On the plus side you now have a fantastic metaphor to whip out when the conversation steers to term limits in government.
Sorry about your lemming bro :(