[Hamster Tales Part 7]

Day 7
Tuesday, 1 January 2008

With more tissue falling from the sky and no thieving sisters to disappear it this time, Pixie manages to stuff her house full. Once done, she burrows into it happily.

There is peace and quiet the whole day. Since the opportunity to fight has been taken away from them, both girls spend a lot of time hiding in their respective burrows.

But, as the day wears on, Pixie begins to brood. Maybe she misses Picnic, or maybe she’s upset that Picnic had inherited the Princess Castle instead of her.

She goes and sits in the sealed connector and refuses to budge from there. She sits silently for ages, as if thinking that the door will open if she sits there long enough.

I resist giving in and opening the door for her. I don’t think Picnic will welcome her just yet.

Because Picnic, on the other hand, couldn’t care less. She spends the entire day working on her tissue nest and preening.

Day 8
Wednesday, 2 January 2008

The girls have been separated for more than 48 hours. I think it should be enough time for them to reflect on their crimes and resolve to be better hamsters.

I open up the door between the two cages. At this moment, Pixie is wandering about restlessly.

But all too soon, because she keeps checking there, she discovers that the door to the castle is open.

Hurray! Pixie ventures into the castle happily.

While her tyrant sister is still sleeping in her gigantic tissue nest, Pixie invites herself into the luxurious castle wheel to enjoy its facilities.

She runs for a while, humming softly to herself, not too loud because she doesn’t want to wake her sister.

After some time, she decides that she’s tested fate enough for the day and quietly tiptoes her way back to her own cage before Picnic the Tyrant Queen Hamster can discover her.

At some point in time, Picnic the Tyrant Queen Hamster deigns to wake her royal self. She stretches her little bones out and then begins her daily stroll around the royal grounds.

Her royal walk takes her to the royal wheel where she prepares to start on her royal exercise for the day.

“What is this?” she booms.

Queen Picnic sniffs and peers around suspiciously.

“I smell the smell of a peasant ham!”

Outraged, Her Royal Highness Queen Picnic storms out of her wheel and calls her guards to arms as she marches off to dispense royal justice.

Carrot Stick and Milk Biscuit try to scamper after her, but they soon fall behind because one can only go so far without legs.

Very quickly, the resourceful queen discovers the source of the transgression.

With a cry of vengeance, the queen sweeps into Pixie’s cage… and comes upon a fallen cheese biscuit.

“Die, peasant!” she yells as she swoops onto it.

Satisfied with the sentence she has pronounced on the unsuspecting biscuit, the queen continues her patrol.

She discovers the village granary and claims its contents for the royal tax.

When the royal purse is stuffed so full that nothing else can go in, Queen Picnic continues on her queenly mission for world peace.

There!

The queen spies the Villain Pixie, Trespasser of Royal Wheel, who has unsuccessfully gone into hiding.

Yelling a queenly battle cry, Queen Picnic pounces on Villain Pixie and a tussle ensues. Fur and paws tumble together in a blur, and then the two bounce away from each other like magnets repelling.

Pronouncing herself victor, Queen Picnic squeals triumphantly and jumps into Villain Pixie’s wheel to celebrate her victory.

Pixie is somewhat traumatised. Since her cage and food and wheels have now been usurped by Picnic the Tyrant Queen Hamster, she has nowhere to go but into the castle.

She slinks away to the connector, through it, and into the castle. She hops into the royal wheel out of habit.

The two loony bins are now in each other’s wheels.

But, very soon, Her Royal Highness bores of Pixie’s wheel because it’s too small and peasantly for her royal bones. She swaggers haughtily back to the castle to seek out the luxurious royal wheel.

What is this?

The queen finds Villain Pixie, Trespasser of Royal Wheel, in the royal wheel, befouling it once again with her peasant self!

Enraged, Queen Picnic leaps into the royal wheel and goes for the jugular.

Squeak!

Pixie jumps out in fright and dashes for the connector. She rockets home in record time and sits quivering in her own peasantly backyard.

I seal off the connector before Queen Picnic can amass an army to give attack.

I fear they may have to be separated forever.

We shall see.

Coming Up Next: The Great Escape Artist

Categories: Hamster Tales
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[Hamster Tales Part 6]

Previously in Hamster Tales: After my little hamster princesses get past the shock of moving into a new home, they fight each other. Then they make up. Then they poop in the food dish and eat in the wheel. Then they go to sleep in the messy basement instead of in the pretty $22 house.

Day 6
Monday, 31 December 2007

It seems like my loopy girls have decided to fall out with each other again. Or, rather, Picnic has decided to fall out with Pixie. The tyrant girl has staked claim on the castle and kicks up a stink whenever Pixie comes to visit.

Pixie is so terrified of Picnic that she has no choice but to live all alone in the big new cage. She doesn’t look at all happy even though she actually got a better deal (her cage is three times the size of Picnic’s castle).

Yesterday, I had shredded a piece of tissue paper into each cage for the girls to make nests.

Today, when I check in on them, I notice that Pixie’s cage has no more tissue. Picnic’s castle, on the other hand, is bursting with tissue.

It’s nice to know that Picnic is enjoying the tissue and keeping herself busy playing FedEx with it.

I wonder if Pixie approves of it.

Pixie keeps wanting to go into the castle but she’s hesitant. Sometimes, she stops at the mouth of the tunnel, just short of stepping into the castle, then she’d get cold feet and scoot back to her cage.

Sometimes, she bravely ventures in and tiptoes around until Picnic discovers her and chases her back to the big cage.

Poor Pixie. I don’t know if I should just separate them and disable the tunnel access altogether.

Maybe I’ll wait and see if this continues.

Because Pixie’s tissue shreddings have all ended up in Picnic’s castle, I gave her some more. Two pieces this time.

Later in the night, I check on them again.

What’s this?

I see Picnic boldy tromping into Pixie’s cage.

Pixie freezes on the wheel.

She tries not to look at Picnic. She looks left and right. You can almost see her little mind furiously working out a solution to all of life’s problems.

Picnic sniffs around curiously, makes burrows in the wood shavings and then emerges where the new pile of shredded tissue has been placed.

Oooh, tissue.

Picnic starts stuffing tissue into her mouth.

Exactly how much tissue could a hamster want? She stuffs and stuffs and stuffs for all she’s worth.

When most of the tissue has gone into her mouth, I put my hand down. That is, I lower my hand into the cage, not doing anything else, just putting my hand there.

Picnic rolls her eyes at the intrusion, stops stuffing, and struts back to the castle.

Pixie darts into her $22 house and hides behind the remaining tissue.

I sigh.

I seal off the tunnel access and give Pixie more tissue.

They’re both on their own now. My heart aches a little for them.

Next Up: Absence Makes the Heart Grow… What?

Categories: Hamster Tales
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[Hamster Tales Part 5]

The story so far: I have acquired a pair of female Roborovski hamsters. They’re skittish as hell. I allow them to settle in without interference as start of the taming process. But they get territorial and fight, so I give them a big new cage with new toys. The trauma of being in a new environment makes them forget their feud and they kiss and make up by the end of the day.

Day 5
Sunday, 30 Dec 2007

I think introducing Picnic and Pixie to their new playground has traumatised them back to square one. They’re so terrified (or disapproving) of the new place that they’ve been huddled together in the basement corner of the Pink Princess Castle an entire day and night.

It’s now 2 am and they’re still not coming out to play.

I’ll have to wait another three days, let them get back their sense of security, before taming can start.

The first three days, I didn’t give them a roofed house (most hamster guides say that dwarf hamsters need those) because the castle didn’t have room for a house like that.

So, when I bought the new cage, I also bought a proper house for them to sleep in. It cost me $22.

They’re not sleeping in it.

They prefer to bury themselves under a pile of shavings and tissue in the castle basement.

I hope it’s because they’re still wary of the new cage and don’t dare to sleep in there yet. It’s possible they will migrate later. I’ve read that hamsters are fond of changing their sleeping spots every so often.

My little princesses are also still pooping in the wheel and in the food dish.

I read through six pages of a poop thread in the hamster forum. It seems like only 20% of hamsters are conscientious clean freaks and will poop in one logical designated spot. Most hamsters just poop wherever they feel like pooping at the moment.

Oh, well, not a big deal. Hamster poop is so tiny you can hardly see it, anyway. It’s like the size of a small ant. And there’s no smell.

I don’t know where they are peeing, though. Wherever it is they’re doing it, it gets soaked up before I can see it. I hope not where they’re sleeping or that’ll be really disgusting.

Picnic has appointed a new dining room in the castle. She has decided that the best place to eat is in the wheel, since she’s already pooping in there.

Yes, it makes perfect sense to eat and poop and play in the same spot. Then you can stay put and don’t have to waste time travelling anywhere else for hours and hours and hours.

So Picnic brings all her food into the wheel.

I bet she will drag her water bottle into the wheel, too, if she can figure out how to.

Sometimes she sits there and eats quietly. Sometimes she holds the food in her mouth and runs.

Sometimes she leaves the food on the floor of the wheel and runs and the food makes an awful rattle as it spins around the wheel.

Sweet little Pixie rolls her eyes and sighs with resignation.

Next Chapter: Tissue Thief

Categories: Hamster Tales
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[Hamster Tales Part 4]

Day 4
Saturday, 29 Dec 2007

They’re still squabbling when I wake up this morning, but not as much as last night.

Late morning, Pixie sniffs around the basement while Picnic uses the wheel.

I feed Pixie a yoghurt fruit drop. She spends a minute eating (and cheek-stuffing) the whole thing. Then she goes to bed.

Picnic seems restless. She’s on the wheel 10 seconds then climbs out and explores the cage for 3 seconds. Then she goes back to the wheel for 10 seconds and comes out again for 3 seconds. This happens over and over till I’m giddy.

During one of her expeditions outside the wheel, I offer her a yoghurt fruit drop.

She eats a little of it and loses interest. She tosses it onto the floor and goes back into the wheel.

She thinks it’s more fun to do her giddy 10-second-3-second routine.

I think she’s bored, so I decide to introduce her to the exercise ball.

I lower half the ball into the cage and she runs out of her wheel to investigate the intrusion. She tries to nibble at the half ball. Then she hops into it.

I lift her out of the cage and attach the other half of the ball. I put it on the floor and she starts making it roll all over the room.

I can’t tell whether she’s enjoying it or trying to get the hell out.

Most hamster owners say that their hamsters love their exercise balls.

I let Picnic roll around for one minute, then stop the ball in case she doesn’t like it. I open the ball and scoop her out.

I think she doesn’t like to be held. She’s jittery and keeps squirming. I put her back into the cage and she scoots off to the wheel.

When she exits the wheel the next time, I offer the ball again to see if she wants in again. She doesn’t. I guess she’s not ready for it yet.

The girls sleep through the rest of the day.

While they’re sleeping and not squabbling, I go out and buy stuff for the new cage.

I come home with tons of new stuff.

So far, I have spent $300 (in just four days) on cages, bedding, furniture, food, toys, grooming. This is becoming a very expensive responsibility.

But I’m excited. My girls will have their new cage tonight and they won’t have to bicker anymore because there will be more space and a new wheel.

The Goonfather and I spend three hours getting their new cage ready. He does all the drilling and installation work. I do the cleaning and decorating work.

We’re finally ready.

We move the squabbling ladies to the readied new cage while I wash out the Pink Princess Castle and put new bedding into it. (They’ve managed to make quite a stink in just four days.)

The furniture is mismatched but I can’t do anything about it. There’s no Hamster Ikea.

The girls are curious and frightened in the new cage. They want to explore and they want to hide all at the same time. They like the new aspen bedding I bought them. The wood shavings are larger and allow them to burrow underneath, creating earthquake-ridden ground in their wake.

When the Pink Princess Castle is clean and ready, we slide the tube connector into place. Now the two cages are linked and they can go anywhere they like.

Picnic finds the connector first. When she discovers that she can return to the castle, she’s ecstatic.

She carefully goes down my makeshift ramp into the castle and sniffs around. She makes burrows in the new bedding. When she’s happy with the mess she’s created, she goes back through the tube to the new cage.

Picnic hesitates in the new cage. She decides that she prefers her old home so she makes a U-turn and goes back to the castle, leaving Pixie (who’s running in the new wheel) all alone in the strange new foreign land.

For a while, Pixie enjoys her new wheel with no idiot hamster sis trying to crowd her out.

She does the 10-second-wheel-3-second-explore routine.

I leave her alone to settle in and wait for her to discover the tube connector.

Two hours later, I come back and she’s still on the wheel.

Something is wrong.

She looks traumatised. She’s sticking to the wheel like it’s a bomb shelter and Hiroshima is happening outside. She’s running on it as if it will take her to the Gobi Desert if she runs fast and long enough.

Periodically, she stops running and freezes.

But then she doesn’t know what to do with herself and starts running again.

I sense hysteria in her running. She’s not enjoying it. She’s running because she doesn’t know what else to do and she’s frightened. Maybe she’s frightened because Picnic has disappeared and she’s now all alone in this strange place.

I think of ways to help her find the tube connector so she can go home to Picnic. I can’t take her physically because she bolts when I lower my hand into the cage.

I tempt her with her favourite yoghurt fruit drop. She cannot resist it and reaches for it furtively. She nibbles at it for three seconds, then continues to run on the wheel.

Finally, I have no choice but to kidnap her.

I put an elbow tube over the wheel and stop the wheel.

(Just pretend that she’s there. I had to take this photo separately for illustration purposes.)

She has no choice but to walk into the tube although she doesn’t want to.

I quickly place the elbow tube over the connector and she walks into it.

Finally. She takes the express train back home.

When she sees Picnic lazing in a corner, I think she cries. She rushes up to her sister and they kiss. They hug kiss cuddle lick arm wrestle.

Now Pixie is no longer tense. She explores the castle curiously because I have made a few changes in it. Then, she makes about five trips through the connector tube, back and forth between the castle and the new cage.

She discovers the yoghurt fruit drop I placed at the mouth of the connector. (I had placed it there earlier to see if it would lure her into the connector.)

She finally understands the layout of the cages.

She abandons the new cage, goes back to Picnic and they cuddle hug lick kiss some more.

Both of them go to bed.

It’s 1:30 am. They’re supposed to be running about and playing on the wheel now, but they’re sleeping.

I guess they’re tired.

Squabbling and moving house can be very exhausting.

Next Up: The Food Dish is for Pooping

Categories: Hamster Tales
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[Hamster Tales Part 3]

Day 3
Friday, 28 Dec 2007

My babies sleep through the day again, mostly, although one of them wakes up to use the wheel briefly a couple of times.

I’m naming them Picnic and Pixie.

Picnic is the larger of the two, which makes her look fat by comparison.

But, of course, she’s really tiny. Roborovskis are the smallest hamsters in the world.

But because she’s bigger, it must mean she eats more than her sister. She also seems to sleep more (but this is largely conjecture since I am still having trouble telling them apart).

So I call her Picnic because picnics are associated with eating and sleeping (idling), lol.

The other one is Pixie because she’s smaller (slightly) and she’s cute as a pixie.

They’re both equally cute, really, but I can’t name them both Pixie, can I?

I can’t really tell them apart when they’re alone because they look exactly alike in terms of facial features and colouring. I need to study them when they’re together to discern distinguishable differences, but they’re seldom together unless they’re sleeping, and when they sleep they roll up in little balls in the basement and I can’t see them.

People at the hamster forum advise that my cage is too small. Roborovski hamsters need really large spaces.

So I go out and buy a giant plastic container.

The Goonfather says he will help me link the Pink Princess Castle to it so I don’t have to throw the castle away.

It’s past midnight, around 1 am. Picnic and Pixie wake up and scramble to the wheel once again.

But tonight is different. Tonight, they’re squabbling. They squeal at each other, chase each other around, claw at each other and refuse to share the wheel.

I check with people at the forum and they say that Roborovskis are very territorial, therefore need a really large cage with two of everything.

Such a pity, since they were perfectly fine sharing the wheel last night. And they still sleep together in the same bed.

They have this routine tonight.

1. Picnic runs on the wheel while Pixie hides in bed.
2. Pixie gets up and walks into the wheel.
3. They fight. Picnic chases Pixie out. They play catch around the cage.
4. Pixie hides in bed and Picnic returns to the wheel.
5. Picnic gets tired and goes to bed.
6. They fight. Pixie chases Picnic out. They play catch around the cage.
7. Picnic hides in bed while Pixie goes play on the wheel.
8. Rinse and repeat alternating hamsters.

They kind of take turns antagonising each other.

I go insane with worry because there’s a lot of squealing and paw fights. I’m afraid they will hurt each other.

But I don’t want to separate them yet because the new cage is not ready and I don’t want to deprive either of the wheel for the night.

I shall have to buy a new wheel tomorrow and set up the new cage real quick.

Next Chapter: Kiss and Make Up

Categories: Hamster Tales
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