I "inhereited" 4 hamsters from a friend whose "family" could not keep them from getting out.

I had a good cage for them already. Cockatoo proof... very well made.

One day soon after, I saw that one of the hamster looked liked its ass was being eaten off... sure enough couple days later it was so bad bones appeared and next day it passed on. I thought ... hmm musta been insane or something.

Few days later... another one showed signs of the same thing. Again it pased on... I had my suspicions... there was a mean one that was able to "figure out" the locking mechanism but didn't have the strength to push the door open. We had "hamster City" inside the cage (yes it was that big) and soon pieces of it were begining to show signes of gnawing terribly.

This stuff all happened when no body was there to see. Everything started to be gnawed to pieces... we gave them wood, rocks and so on to chew on... but the chewer didn't like it...

Well, about another week goes by. Since this is the first cage that could keep them in... one of the hamsters was growing much much active... well I thought this was the one that Did the others in... so I seperated them with heavy Hardware cloth in the cage.

Next morning there was a hole in the hardware cloth (sheesh) and the one I thought was the meany was 1/2 eaten, of course dead.

This was the middle of the January a few years ago that was EXTREMELY cold.

I was able to hold this one... but all of a sudden it went balistic on me. Bit me 5 times in about two seconds. Large ones too.

Thrown back in the cage... I prepared and nice Ice Cold bath for it, in the kitchen sink. 32 Degree Farenheit. It got grabbed by my leather work gloves and dropped into the Sink... Then was wrapped in a nice Warm Plastic wrap... and we went for a nice walk to an open field...

I went to the nearest chainlink fence and placed it on the horizontal bar...

Somehow it's feet and chest got stuck to the tubing... so I went home to go get something to help out about 10 minutes round trip... But... I forgot to go back and help it out until morning...

Something terrible had happened to it... it was gone except for the one leg and 4 feet and a bit of it's chest... there was no other tracks around... what a terrible loss...

Oh did I mention there are Barn owls living around this field?