I (and my siblings) had a total of 6 hamsters. 4 died of old age, 1 suddenly bled out overnight, and 1 died pretty young, but nothing was obviously wrong, so I dunno.

My neighbors had more than a dozen rodents (including 5 guinea pigs). They all died horrifically, including 4 that were killed by mouse traps. Because of course you should have mouse traps, and also keep small rodents that you allow to escape constantly. As an adult, I think the parents were seriously negligent in teaching their children, and then also negligent in buying more rodents for the grinder after the first two or three met horrible fates.

I've heard that hamsters will play dead so effectively, that they will convince their owners that they actually are dead.

So, assuming that's true, some hamsters die horribly in a small box underground.

Since we are on the hamster death topics,

• My first one's cage was left in the yard by my dad. In summer. I don't even need to tell you how this ended.

• We got a second one, went to grandma's house for like 2 days and when we were back he got a parasite on his stomach. The treatement didn't work. :(

I had seen a Lemming die of old age, right before my eyes.

It never got smarter than trying to dig deeper holes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMs25XpjrAo