On the other hand, if the hamster seemed perfectly healthy before hand and this stillness is unexpected, it doesn’t rule out death but it makes hibernation more likely.
Ask yourself if the hamster has more than 8 - 12 hours of daylight a day and has plenty of food. Scarcity of food teamed with low temperature and short day length could trigger hibernation. [4] X Research source British Hamster Association. Hibernation in Syrian Hamsters.
Watch the hamster for more than two minutes because it’s possible to blink and miss that one breath. If you watch for just two minutes, and you could wrongly assume the hamster is dead.
It can be difficult to find a hamster’s heart beat because they are so tiny. To do this use your forefinger and thumb of one hand and place them on either side of the hamster chest just behind its elbows. Apply gentle pressure, sufficient that you could hold the hamster this way to stop it running away but without hurting it. Wait patiently and feel for a heartbeat against your finger tips.
If it doesn’t wake up, then more obvious signs of death should occur such as an unpleasant odor and rigor mortis. A hibernating hamster should not smell unpleasant. Experts advocate this as the preferred option of waking a hamster because it closer simulates the natural waking process and places less strain on the body’s blood glucose reserves than a “rapid reboot. " Make sure plenty of food and water is available for the waking hamster.
Remember to keep the hamster in a secure container, because if it is just in a cardboard box it may wake and chew its way out! Another idea is to stand the cage on a hot water bottle to radiate heat up through the floor of the cage. Ensure the hamster has food and water, because it will use up valuable energy reserves to wake up, and these need to be rapidly replaced or the hamster could suffer liver damage.
