Anyone know how to catch a hamster?

[Leafy]

I know a lot of you here have had hamsters and love them <_< >_> I still heavily dispise them and am more inclined to kick it when found than return it to it's cage.

My idiot brother (those of you who read my LJ know what I mean) brought home his class pet over the weekend. Lo and behold, my stupid sister took it out, and didn't put the locks back on the cage, now it's loose in my house somewhere and I haven't the faintest idea of where it could be. I only know where it couldn't be and that's the garage, my room/the dog room, and my closet/the hall closet (I've got messed up living arrangements -_-;; ) but that still leaves three bedrooms, two bathrooms, the living room, dining room/computer area and the kitchen -_-;; Big house, small furry thing, bad news for the kid this thing belonged to. I've got til my brother leaves for school on monday to find it, otherwise, I get to go in with him and explain that my sister's a moron and offer her another critter ;;;

Any tips, tricks, voodoo rituals would be a big help in getting this thing out of my house. The last hamster that got loose in here chewed through the cord connecting the fridge to the wall, and in the process became hamster flambe and led to a ghetto-rigging of the power cords so the fridge would still work ;; I dont particularly cherish the idea of dealing with a third dead hamster, so please help.

Valid ideas please, sympathy won't be useful when I'm making a ten year old cry.

[sera]

leave food out in the middle of a room, keep an ear out for small strange rustling noises. my 2nd hamster was an escape artist. . or. . . just seriously messed up in the head (( he ate plastic. regularly )) anyways, so my mom accidentally ran him down at 2 am in her office. we got a flash light and plunked it down in front of him, causing him to effectively freeze long enough for us to get a towel and throw it over him. since hamsters do bite and it does hurt. <<;;;

also, they're nocturnal, so you'll have better luck. . . well, prolly now for ya'll. ^^;;;

g'luck leaf-chan. we wish you the best. hehe

[Aevelyn_LL]

The two most common hiding places that my friend's hamster liked to go to were indeed Under the fridge, and in the closet.

Also, if you hear rustling noises in any room, I'd recommend blocking off all other exits that you can by like closing the doors and putting towels at the bottom so they can't squeeze under if there's any sort of gap. That way if you do need to rip apart the room to get at the hamster, you know he can't run anywhere else.

[Aylura]

We used to have a mouse problem in our attic, and one of our cats let loose a live mouse in my mother's closet once... Heh. This worked both times without killing the critters.

Hardware stores sell live traps. Mice /love/ peanut butter, so I hope hamsters would too. Buy a couple of those traps, put them in dark corners of the house, and wait. They're fairly cheap, I believe. It won't kill it, they'll just be trapped in this long box until someone finds them. Also, be sure to check the traps every morning.

[Nyx]

When my hamster used to get out, we tried the food in the middle of the floor thing at night and it was pretty effective. You also might want to try putting it's cage on the floor and see if it comes back to it. That worked a few times as well.

[Leafy]

livetrap, good idea, thank you!

I hope I get this bugger before tomorrow -_-;; Mostly, I'd love to know why this is my problem and not the problem of the moron that let him out >_<

[Tiinotloggedin]

If you have time to wait around, it helps to put a dark tissue box in the middle of the floor with a hamster size hole in the middle. Then put a sunflower/peanut/hamster-tread inside and hide/wait for a little furry being to try to eat it.

[Leafs]

My mom caught it at 6 this morning. She heard some odd chewing sounds coming from my brother's room, and lo and behold, Hamster behind headboard! We'd love to know how he got back there though, since there isn't any way in ;; Oh well, he's caught. Thanks for the input, there were no crying children in my brother's school today n_n;;