Their one and only tool for this life of crime is a set of sturdy teeth. They are also born with a desire to gnaw at anything and everything to keep their ever-growing teeth from becoming too long. In the cage a hamster will happily gnaw on the cage bars, wood chews, hard dog biscuits or whatever else is at hand. Their natural instinct to inhabit dark places means that they naturally move under or behind, and even into furniture. Oh yes, many a hamster has been found inside a sofa one was even given up for dead when a search failed to locate it.
Electric cables are an accident just waiting to happen to a hamster.
One hamster chewed through such cables and managed to set fire to the house. And walls and floors aren't hamster-proof either. But before you get your hamster into its cage, there is the perilous trip back from the pet shop or breeder s to home. One hamster escaped on such a journey and managed to avoid detection. The owners had to get the garage to strip the car.