Is it possible for, what appears to be, a healthy hamster, one day, to just keel over and die the next?

Question

Granted, we've had this (dwarf) hamster for about a year and three months-and who knows how old it was while in the pet store (I do know that dwarf hamsters live for about 1.5 to 2 years), but she showed no signs of aging.
She's been running on her wheel for the past few days, all active and no slow-ness in movement-like normal. Then, the next day, when we go check up on her, she wasn't in her little house (where she normally is always), but rather tucked near a corner-dead, stiff, and non-responsive when coaxed ("touched").
Please, if anyone knows anything, it would mean a lot.-Thank you.

Answer 1

Do you have a little brother that is mad at you? Check there.

Answer 2

really? dwarf hamsters only live to 2 years old?

growing up, i had an albino dwarf hamster that lived for at least 3 years (and no, my parents didn't replace him with me not knowing).

but i do remember little guy in his final days. he had gotten skinnier and more wiry-looking, and was just racing around his cage all the time, and he sort of had gotten yellow on his underside a little bit. and then one day i came home from school and went to see him and he was dead.

Answer 3

Since dwarf hamsters have an average life span of 18 months, i think its safe to assume it was old age. Mine died the same way. (FYI, hamsters do like to snack on dry rice...keep in mind, rice expands after its ingested...so dont feed more than a couple peices or it will expand in the belly and can be fatal.)

Answer 4

Well yes, since they are sensitive animals. My vet was really surprised that lots of people keep them as pets since they are quite sensitive.

One day, the hamster looks fine, the next, they become sickly. If they had the cold (possibly infected by ppl who are sick), its quite possible that they die from it. Again, they are sensitive.

Sometimes, hamsters can die of heart attacks... It's really hard to tell.

If your hamster was old, she would've stop being active, slept more/longer.

If you dont mind me asking, is your hamster dead?
Her body was cold when you touched her right?
Because I read from a forum that someone was trying to wake their hamster, but it took 15minutes or so to wake it. The owner thought it was dead.

Answer 5

Yes, it can happen. I have had 4 hamsters. One, died out of nowhere. Second, was already sick. And the last two, died of old age. My last hamster, Nicki, appeared to be healthy and active. I came back, after a few hours, and she was in the corner of her cage, and died. She had died of old age, but it was really sad. But, my first hamster relates to yours. It was very active and good and nice, but after 2 days, it was just...... upside-down, and gone..... it was upsetting.....

Answer 6

Hamsters have a short life span of about 2 years max, and that is if you are lucky

Answer 7

had 3 of them as a kid all die curled up in a ball while sleeping.

just part of owning a hampster....they die.

they have tiny hearts and bodies...any little error or problem and it can cause death. plus few animals will show sickness as they take it as a weakness.

cats purr when in serious pain or illness along with being happy. some purring is taken as just happy...misread.

Answer 8

Hm....maybe she was just shocked by something... but then again, hamsters live short-ish lives. So get a new one if it helps. Or something that lasts longer like a dog or cat.

Answer 9

we've had many dawrf hampsters and there have been some that have just died suddenly, those were usually the runts of the littler though. it also may have had a heart attack or it was not consuming enough nutrients.

Answer 10

if it was fine yesterday, it died of old age! they don't live very long! mine ran it's self to death on its wheel! a vet once told me they some times speed up their own death that way! like they don't want to die slowly!! ran and ran with out eating! it's was crazy, but true!!