Passing away is inevitable and saying goodbye to a late friend is painful. All animals will die, be it sooner or later. We will all one day lose our beloved pets to old age or even unforeseen circumstances. That’s why it’s essential to learn how to dispose of a dead hamster. So you’ll be prepared when the time comes.
Hamster Life Expectancy
Hamsters don’t live all that long and typically live between eighteen and thirty-six months. In the wild, most hamsters live up to about three years but can sometimes live up to four years in captivity. However, the average lifespan of each hamster breed varies. The Roborovski Dwarf is the breed of a hamster with the most extended lifespan, with an average lifespan of up to four years. The Chinese Dwarf, on the other hand, has the shortest life expectancy at a little under two years.
Signs A Hamster Is Dying
Knowing the telltale signs of a dying hamster is good, so you can act accordingly. Some symptoms come from old age, sickness, or other underlying conditions. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do If your hamster has any of these signs due to old age. However, it would be best if you reached out to your veterinary doctor as soon as possible once you notice any of these symptoms.
- The hamster stops eating.
- The hamster gets more sluggish with each passing day
- The hamster is continuously shivering
- The hamster is drooling more than usual
- The hamster is making unusual noises
- The hamster has stopped grooming itself
- The hamster keeps grasping for air
- You keep noticing flies in the hamsters’ cage
- The hamster has stopped pooping and peeing
- The hamster’s body vitals is frequently alternating
How To Know If Your Hamster Is Dead
You must physically check if hamsters are dead before you declare them so. There are a couple of reasons hamsters may suddenly stop moving, so be sure to confirm if they are still alive.
Hamsters can fall into hibernation to survive extreme weather conditions, deprivation from a light source, or lack of food supplies. Numerous animals hibernate typically at the same time of the year and around a similar length of time. A hamster’s metabolic rate will reduce during hibernation, making it challenging to determine if they are resting or dead. They might often look slow, even though they’re breathing very slowly. You should immediately figure out what caused it if you notice your hamster is hibernating. Hibernation is rare in captivity, though, since most pet owners tend to feed their hamsters and regulate the temperature of their cages.
When hamsters are startled, stressed, depressed, or anxious, they may play dead. Though playing dead might sound funny or cute, it’s not an action you want your hamster to perform frequently. Hamsters employ this tactic as a kind of defense mechanism in the wild. It is a natural, automatic response to stress and terror. Thanatosis is the practice of acting stunned or dead when frightened, mainly because predators in the wild tend to consume only living animals.
You can follow the steps below to confirm if the hamster is dead.
- Pick up your hamster, preferably while wearing a glove and place a mirror or silver spoon close to its nose to see if it mists. This way, you can easily confirm if the hamster is still breathing. Be sure to spend at least a minute to ensure this step works.
- Place two fingers on the hamster’s chest to check for a pulse.
- Open up the eyes if they are shut to examine the pupils. The hamster has probably already passed away if the eyes are unresponsive and have large black pupils.
- You can also stroke or cradle the hamster to confirm if its whiskers twitch or if its body will move. Try and check if the hamster is warm while doing this. A hibernating hamster, though a bit colder than usual, will still have a little warmth, unlike a dead hamster.
- You should also transfer the hamster to a warmer environment to see if there will be any changes. You can also try holding the hamster close to your chest and gently massaging it to create blood flow.
- Lastly, you should check for rigor motis if the above steps fail. Rigor motis is the medical term that describes the hardening of an animal’s muscles after death. This is caused by chemical changes after an animal dies and is the last way to confirm if the hamster is genuinely dead.
Call your veterinarian doctor if you believe your hamster is still alive. However, if you conclude the hamster is dead, the next thing you should do is to dispose of the body properly.
How To Store A Dead Hamster
It will help if you exercise extreme caution when handling any dead animal. You shouldn’t hold the body with your bare hands, especially if it has been hours after the hamster died. You don’t want to get contaminated now, do you? It’s essential you put on some hand gloves, preferably some disposable ones, and wear only clothes you wouldn’t mind discarding or thoroughly washing later. Be sure to act swiftly when you confirm the hamster is dead. Rigor motis starts to set in within fifteen to thirty minutes when a hamster dies, so you should preserve the body in a sealed bag if you have not yet decided what to do next. You can keep the sealed bag with the body in a cold place, like a freezer. Please don’t keep the body in an open space because it will start to smell once it decomposes.
There’s no set time on how long it will take before a hamster starts smelling because this usually depends on how it dies. For example, hamsters that die from external injuries will start decomposing and smelling earlier than hamsters that die from old age in their sleep. Keep the temperature of the location or receptacle you’re storing the hamster’s body in as low as you can. Preferably, the hamster’s dead body should be kept at about four degrees celsius or below. You can store the dead body for as long as possible if you keep the temperature at zero degree celsius.
How To Dispose Of A Dead Hamster
Once you’ve got the dead hamster out of the cage, you should first clean up. Any gloves you used to handle the dead hamster should be thrown away.
Next, use a disinfectant to thoroughly clean the hamster’s cage and all its items. All the items can be kept and reused later on, but be sure to completely dispose of the hamster’s bedding and litter, if any, in the little box. You should clean and disinfect the cage completely with disinfectants, soap, hot water, vinegar, and bleach. Please ensure the accessories are dry before using them on a different hamster. It would help if you took a while to dry out the accessories and cage since any new hamsters put in there could become ill due to the chemicals used for the cleaning process. It would be best if you cleaned the cage with a hamster-safe antibacterial spray just to be on the safe side.
Make sure you dispose of any wooden accessories in the cage instead of cleaning them. Wooden cages and accessories are too tricky to clean, particularly after a hamster pees on them. That’s why it’s best to always go for plastic accessories instead.
To dispose of the hamster’s body, you can use one of the methods below.
Bury The Hamster In Your Home
- First of all, you need to confirm from your local authorities if it’s legal to bury a dead animal at home. If yes, you should read up and comply with the burial regulations of your location. These rules are enacted to reduce the spread of disease from the illegal and wrongful burying of animals.
- Make sure the spot you choose to bury your hamster is not close to any water source. A minimum of fifty feet should separate the spot from any body of water. Doing this prevents the water source from becoming contaminated by your hamster’s rotting remains. Also, it would be best if you don’t bury a hamster or any dead animal in an area vulnerable to flooding.
- Call to confirm with the local utility company in your region to ensure there are no water, electrical, or gas lines in the location you plan to bury the hamster.
- You should also get a biodegradable pet casket to bury your hamster. Using a biodegradable pet casket will easily prevent the body from being dug up for food by scavengers. This is likely to happen if you bury the hamster in a regular container. Also, ensure your hamster has a big casket to fit inside comfortably, so consider the size of your hamster when buying the casket.
- Dig a hole that is at least three feet deep and large enough for the hamster’s pet casket to fit in using a spade or shovel. The depth of the hole you dig will depend on your state’s laws, so be sure to confirm the exact specifications you need from your local authority. Otherwise, it would be best to dig deep enough to prevent scavengers from digging the body up. Three feet from the top of your hamster’s casket is the ideal depth for burying a hamster, so you should go with that if there are no laws regarding depth in your location.
- Be sure to protect yourself from germs by wearing disposable hand gloves when placing the hamster in the pet casket and burying it. Also, be sure not to touch your clothes during this process or be ready to throw them out once you’re done.
- Make a cross or place a stone at the grave once you’re done. This way, there will always be a physical reminder on the spot.
Burying a dead hamster at home is the most common way to dispose of a dead hamster.
Bury The Hamster At A Cemetery
Visit the international association of pet cemeteries and crematories if you decide to bury your hamster in a graveyard instead. Pet cemeteries provide transparency regarding how your pet hamster will be handled. They will give you all the necessary information you need about the process.
You will be charged for the maintenance of the grave, the burial plot, the pet casket, the grave digging fee, and the burial ceremony (if allowed). Of course, it will cost you a bit more if you want the hamster to be buried in a special casket too.
Some cemeteries may allow you to host a gathering to say goodbye to your hamster. If not, you can say goodbye at home before transferring the body to the officials.
The average cost is $500-5,000, depending on your location, specifications, and services.
Bury The Hamster In A Plant Pot
This is a good option if you prefer to always carry your hamster with you. All you have to do is to
- Buy a plant pot after ensuring the pot’s large enough to accommodate the hamster’s body.
- Wrap the hamster in a biodegradable cloth
- Place the hamster in the pot and bury it deep enough to cover it with plenty of soil.
- Sow the plant of your choice in the pot and watch it bloom.
Make sure you take out the hamster’s body from the plant pot and find another means to dispose of your dead hamster if the body still smells after about a week. You can also try getting a larger pot too.
Cremating The Hamster
You can have your hamster cremated at a pet cemetery or your local veterinary office if you prefer this option. However, it would help if you first visited an animal crematorium to discuss the cost and process.
You’re going to pay for the cremating process, and depending on your location and choices, the cremation process might be a bit expensive compared to burial.
You should purchase a container to hold the ashes of your hamster if you prefer to keep them instead of disposing of them. Also, you should do this if you still haven’t decided what to do with the hamster’s ashes. Please note that purchasing a suitable urn (a container used to hold the ashes of an animal after cremation) might be more expensive than burying your hamster. But, at least, it will give you a physical memory of your hamster that you can always cherish. You can decide to keep the ashes of your hamster in the urn or dispose of them when the time is right.
It’s important you check with your local authority if you decide to dispose of the ashes of a dead hamster in a public place like a yard or lake.
You can also choose to get the ashes buried and scattered for you by professionals. You will usually receive a cremation certificate if you select this option.
Dumping The Hamster In A Bin
You should first confirm from your local authority if you’re permitted to do this. However, most states allow the disposal of hamsters in the garbage since hamsters are small animals. Dumping your hamster in a bin isn’t a good idea, though. It’s disrespectful, unhygienic, and degrading, so we don’t advise you to take this option. There are other respectful ways to dispose of a dead hamster.
If you decide to go for this option, make sure to wrap your hamster’s body in a newspaper, cardboard box, or any disposable container. It would be best if you waited until the day your bin gets collected because placing the body in the bin too early will surely attract flies if left there for a while.
Using A Dead Animal Removal Service
Most cities have this service so you don’t need to leave your house to dispose of dead animals. Instead, contact the sanitation department in your location, and they’ll come to dispose of your dead hamster for you safely.
Letting Your Veterinary Doctor Take Care Of It
You can let your veterinary doctor know your hamster is dead and ask if they can take care of disposing the body for you. The price you’ll pay will depend on your personal preference and budget. For example, most veterinary doctors have two options for cremating pets.
Mass cremation, where your hamster will be cremated with other animals, and then their ashes will be scattered on the vets’ property. Private cremation, where your hamster will be cremated alone and returned to you later in an urn.
Private cremation is more expensive but is the only way to guarantee that your hamster’s ashes will be returned to you. On average, private cremation costs about $250 or more, while mass cremation costs about $50 to $100.
Composting Your Dead Hamster.
You can also go ahead and compost your hamster if you want to. Your hamster’s body will quickly reintegrate into the earth because of the heat produced during the composting process. This is a good choice if you have a compost pile lying around or know someone who does.
Conclusion
Death is inevitable and knowing how to dispose of your favorite pet in a respectable, lawful, and loving way is paramount. Take as much time as you need to mourn, and always be aware of the signs that your hamster is about to pass away. We know that losing a pet feels hard, so take your time to come to terms with your feelings when it eventually happens. Then, make sure you pick the right option to dispose of your hamster after considering the advantages and disadvantages of all of them.
