273 replies to this topic

[Azayles]

Excellent update! Maybe do a once a month update, or whenever you have time? (Whenever people add more data lol) Also would love to see that distribution curve with the new data

[emiee7]

I love this! It's sad but is very informative.

[Noelle & Hammies]

Great job! It's an amazing chart, it's just so sad the lifespans have been decreasing so much.  

[Spangoid]

Its scary to see that only half of all hamsters make it to 1 year old!

 

When I take my hamsters (inc Chris Millie and Blue, yep they are also mine!) the figures come out very different. I mean looking at all the hamsters we have had, only 1 has died before the age of 1.

 

Hamsters that has passed

Benson - 3 years 3 months

Hedges - 3 years 1 month

Millie - 1 year and something (opps!)

Sir Ian - 10 months

 

Hamsters still with us

Blue - 1 year 5 months

Pie - 1 year 5 months

Mash - 1 year 5 month

Gyoza - Not sure...

Cedar - 6 months

 

So of the 4 hamsters that have already passed, only 1 died before the age of 1 so that leaves a survival rate of 75%

 

And say that none of the surviving hamsters will get any older. If we say that Gyoza is over 1 (sorry little man, I have no idea how old you are!) that leaves us with 7 hamsters who have survived to the age of 1 which gives us a survival rate of 78%. And if Gyoza is under 1 year, it gives us 67%. But these are only on the basis that the hamsters will not get any older. If both Gyoza and Cedar live to over 1 year, then the survival rate will be 89%. 

 

I know thats only based on 9 hamsters, but it does seem significantly higher than the forum average of 50% survival rate at the age of 1 year. What would be interesting is looking at the different countries and what the average lifespan is as it appears to me that hamsters in the UK do actually live a lot longer than US and Canada...

 

Ok Amy, you can stop rambling now!

[Luci]

 

I know thats only based on 9 hamsters, but it does seem significantly higher than the forum average of 50% survival rate at the age of 1 year. What would be interesting is looking at the different countries and what the average lifespan is as it appears to me that hamsters in the UK do actually live a lot longer than US and Canada...

 

Great observation, Amy 

 

I think that your thoughts do have merit, especially considering that I've had a 4/9= 44% survival rate at one year (of my hamsters who have passed away).

Edited by Luci, 12 May 2013 - 09:20 AM.

[malloria]

^That's so sad, Luci.

 

I've had all my hamsters make it to a year (9), and Gilly will be at least a year in July, at which point it'll be 10.  I need to remember how fortunate I've been and hug the rest of you more when you write about early losses in Rainbow Bridge.

[Luci]

Thank you malloria, you have always been wonderful in your condolences

[LoriS]

as an aside, my vet who has treated exotics all her very long
career, has told me the same thing has happened to rats...
they used to live to 3-5 years and now she sees them dying
all the time about 1 1/2 years old.

cause of death would be an interesting variable.

Yes! what's going on? when i was a kid in the 80s my syrian lived 4 years and 1 month! I wonder what would happen if you tracked manner of death as well? would we see a mean age when hamsters may begin to develop serious ailments?

Edited by LoriS, 12 May 2013 - 12:55 PM.

[Azayles]

Excellent work, Amy You've basically calculated hamster actuary tables

Yep, Gyoza IS over a year old :O It was his Birthday on the 29th of April - and I completely missed it!

I suck at this :P

[goldandglitter]

UPDATE - The original post has been updated to include more data!
 

 
I would love to include your data, but I need a bit more information.  What species was Blixa, and what year did she pass away in?  Thank you for your help.  
 

 
Thank you for your contribution!  
 

 
These all sound like amazing ideas.  My concern is data.  I would need a lot of data (probably from 300+ hamsters) to make this possible.  

She was a Russian (Campbell's) dwarf, and she lived from 2007 - 2010.

[Lillias]

This is interesting. What I'm seeing is that the hamsters I thought had early deaths were actually near the mean.

 

I don't remember posting in the original thread, so when you are ready to update again, here's my data:

Campbell 15 months (2005)

Chinese 42 months (2008) - [I have a death year recorded for her, but I can't seem to find the month. She was around 3.5 though.]

Winter White 31 months (2011)

Winter White 31 months (2011)

Robo 22 months (2012) - [I'm not 100% of her age when I got her. The rescue had her down as 9 months, but she wasn't quite full grown. I figured in an estimate of 6 months as her age at adoption.]

 

 

My current hamster is a Robo and a little more than 15 months right now.

[WeepingMilkshakes]

syrian - 18 months - 2013

robo - (approx) 20 months - 2013

 

A friend of mine studying to become a vet said she rarely sees hamsters over 18 months recently, and the oldest is about 24 months :(

[Ldoerr]

I had Silver for 7 months before he died :( I do not know how old he was when I got him since I got him from Petco. 

 

My mom told me that I had a dwarf that lived for over 6 years before he finally passed. He had a tumor that was half the size of him for the last year or 2 of his life. My mom does not believe in taking small pets to the vet so he was never treated for it. This was 10 or so years ago.  

[DoctorPepper9]

 

What would be interesting is looking at the different countries and what the average lifespan is as it appears to me that hamsters in the UK do actually live a lot longer than US and Canada...

 

 

 

I was wondering about this because my hamster is still alive and is 1yr 9months and 17 days old and mine is from a pet store

 

My best friend had a Syrian which made it to 2.5 years old this one was from the same pet store I got mine

The reason my best friend hamster died was because it had a stroke :(

 

Edited by lpetlover87, 18 October 2013 - 11:37 PM.

[Mark Grant]

 

I was wondering about this because my hamster is still alive and is 1yr 9months and 17 days old and mine is from a pet store

 

It puzzled me, because our hamsters here in Canada have only survived 21-26 months, whereas I'm sure the ones we had as kids in the UK lived 3-4 years. Of course it's possible that my parents were replacing them without telling us .

 

I guess their genetics have diverged over the last few decades, so it's possible there are differences between the two countries which could significantly affect lifespan.

 

From what I remember, our three Syrians here were:

 

Hambo: 21 months

Indiana: 22 months.

Houdini: 26 months

 

Edit: In terms of causes:

 

Hambo had a stroke and was gone the next morning.

Indiana was just old age: he got slower and slower and one day we came home from work and he was gone. Even so, up to a couple of days beforehand he would still wander around the back yard and dig a hole for himself, but then he'd go to sleep in it .

Houdini never really looked old, unlike the other two, but we think a growth in his abdomen got him.

Edited by Mark Grant, 18 October 2013 - 11:30 PM.