Emmerdale star Charley Webb has been left frustrated and on the verge of tears after a family pet kept her wide awake all night long.
The 34-year-old soap star is happy married to fellow Emmerdale star Matthew Wolfenden and together they share three children; sons Buster, 12, Bowie, six, and two-year-old Ace.
The family extends even further when pets are considered – with an adorable pet hamster living under the same roof as the soap actress, her hunky husband, and their three children.
But the hamster has just lost all it’s adorable points after keeping poor Charley, who played Debbie Dingle on Emmerdale from 2002 until 2021, up all night.
Taking to Instagram on Monday morning, Charley shared a photo of herself looking at the end of her tether and with her head in her hands.
The mum-of-three explained her pained expression, writing: “This is not a joke.
“The hamster has kept me awake all night. WHAT THE HELL?
“I thought I could hear some sort of high pitch alarm, got up. It was the bloody hamsters wheel squeaking.”
Practically adding insult to injury, she further revealed: “Ace slept through, hamster did not.”
If Charley was expecting sympathy from her fans and social media followers, it sounds like she did not get any – and she implied countless followers had decided to inform her she had failed to acknowledge that hamsters love to run around at night.
Sharing another snap, this time of her feet inside a pair of comfortable looking shoes, and wearing some soft trousers, she said she was near tears over her sleepless night, writing: “This will be me, all day.
“If one more person tells me they’re nocturnal, I think I’ll sob.”
Many hamster owners will know and attest that the rodents are indeed nocturnal – meaning they sleep during the day and become active at night.
The animals evolved to sleep during the daytime to reduce the risk of them being eaten by predators if they were to be up and about during daylight hours.
However, owners of the hamster’s should be respectful of their unusual waking hours.
Animal rights group Peta states: “Hamsters are crepuscular, meaning that they are active at dusk and dawn, spending daylight hours and nighttime in their nest.
“This can be frustrating for a guardian who wants to play with their companion during daytime hours.
“Waking a sleeping hamster can be stressful for them and can prompt them to act nervously or aggressively.”
Peta also advise hamster owners to be considerate when it comes to supplying an exercise wheel to the animals.
They recommend: While hamsters need to be able to play and explore, the well-known hamster toys, the hamster ball and wheel, aren’t designed with the animal’s well-being in mind. Both toys are often made too small, causing hamsters to arch their back unnaturally.”
Of the exercise balls, they state: “Hamsters are easily frightened, because they don’t have the best eyesight, and they use their whiskers to navigate.
“A hamster separated from sensory information, as in one of these balls, is a disoriented animal—and what is often perceived by humans as enjoyment is more than likely a panic response.”
It is recommended wheels designed for pet rats are better suited to hamsters and that exercise areas should be created where the rodents can run around merrily in place of an exercise ball.
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct at 0207 29 33033.
