[Hamster Tales Part 2]
Day 2
Thursday, 27 Dec 2007
They sleep through the whole day.
They sleep through the whole evening.
It’s worrying. I wonder crazily if they’ve died of trauma.
My pets have no name yet. They keep hiding in the basement and I can’t see them clearly enough to name them.
I cannot touch them, either, because all the hamster guides say I have to let them settle for three days before interacting with them. But I inadvertently rouse them at 9 pm because I need to change their water and open their wheel for business.
The Goonfather had said not to allow them access to their wheel until they’re toilet-trained because he doesn’t want them to poop in the wheel.
But I think what the heck. They need their wheel or they’re going to stay in bed for the rest of their lives.
For toilet-training, I had given them a little toilet hut and put toilet sand into it, supposedly to make them poop in there.
After one day, there’s no poop in the toilet hut. But there’s poop in the food dish. The Goonfather picks the poop pieces up and throws them into the toilet hut.
I hope they get the idea soon.
I let them get used to my scent by letting my hand linger in the cage for a minute. I try to tempt them with a tiny piece of dried fruit but they’re not interested, so I let them alone.
At 1 am, the Goonfather turns off the bedroom light to go to bed. I’m still at my computer doing stuff.
15 minutes later, I hear a sound coming from the cage. I get up to investigate.
Awwwww. My widdle hamster has discovered the wheel.
I do a quiet celebratory hop and dance, and squeal in excitement soundlessly so as not to wake the Goonfather.
I am choked up with joy and pride even though a hamster running on a wheel is about as unremarkable as kilometre-long Toto queues during Chinese New Year.
But I don’t think my reaction is all that melodramatic. After all, I haven’t seen them move from their bed for 24 hours.
I sit there and watch my cutie get used to the wheel. She start-stops every few seconds as if trying to learn how to manage the wheel. After 10 minutes, she gets tired and retires to the basement.
I go back to my computer.
At about 2 am, I hear another sound and rush to the cage.
Both of them are at the wheel.
I want to scream with happiness. I want to wake the Goonfather so he can witness it but he has to work tomorrow.
I sit there for an entire hour watching them share the wheel. It’s so cute I’m dying from cuteness overload.
I am amazed that I can just sit there and stare at them for over an hour without feeling bored.
Once in a while, one of them will come out of the wheel to sniff around, drink some water or groom herself.
I feel compelled to sit there and not ever go away because I don’t want to miss any single moment of cuteness.
But I finally reluctantly leave them to go to bed because it’s already past three in the morning and I need to sleep.
I guess there is always tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Squabbling Sisters
Typical hamsters. They sleep all day and once you turn off the lights, they start running crazily on the wheel.
And they always poop in their food tray. :p
Haha, even how much you train them they would poop everywhere.
Try to buy more of the wooden shavings for stock up. You need to change it every 3 days for hygiene, try to at least.
And your hamsters are really cute.
Hamsters have short life. But they make lots of babies.
Koogeek, I cannot believe how stupid you are. They live typically 1-3 years and only b****s say ‘my hamsters made lots of babies.’ (Pardon the language but I am very annoyed when people underestimate how hardworking it is to breed hamsters and the strain on the mother.)
Anyways, congrats on the hams! They’re adorable. I love the last picture ^-^ Oh and also you might be relieved to find hamsters are already toilet trained, just that they poop in a certain place and pee in another, just maybe not the toilet. Let’s hope that place isn’t the wheel :P
Actually if you’re as anal as I was, don’t use wood shavings. They’ve been known to cause respiratory problems in the long run. There’s quite a bit of info about that on the net that’s why I got scared & switched to alternatives. That’s why even pet shops these days use pelleted paper bedding like Breeder’s Celect, Pet’s Preference or that other one in the big brown paper bag (forgot the name).
And wood shavings don’t absorb pee as well as pelleted paper. That’s why my guinea pigs were always getting their fur dirty, wet & smelly. When I switched over, it was a miracle. Their fur was no longer pee stained & stinky.
Well I’m glad your wheel has solid surfaces and is not those metal rail types. Those have been known to cause broken feet when they accidentally slip through.
I’m starting to sound like some naggy animal care person thingie now!
Oh btw, don’t be too disappointed by the potty training. Out of all small animals, bunnies & chins are the only 2 furballs most receptive to potty training. And yes, its normal for them to crap in their dinner plate :-p
Lol Derrick. I’m more naggy than you :P
Aspen wood shavings are perhaps the only type of woodshaving that’s safe. Pine and Cedar are big no-nos. About the brown thing, are you talking about Carefresh? I used to use that but it strained my budget :P
Also annoying that they poo in their food dish (once when it was near empty they peed in it…), but gladly mine don’t as I give them a potty anyways. They pee in it and poo in their sock and pretty much whereever they sleep >.
Nope, Carefresh is recycled paper. I’m talking pelleted recycled paper. I was refering to the brand that came in big brown bags. Cheaper than Breeder’s Celect but the pellets are of lower quality. It breaks down into powder when very wet. That’s why I still prefer Breeder’s Celect.
Aspen very rare these days. Much easier to get pelleted paper bedding. Unfortunately it looks like QY’s is pine. Sadly, some shops still happily sell it to unwitting “victims”.
My guinea pigs used to pee & poop everywhere except their food dish. Like I said, buns and chins are the easiest to train. Gerbils, hamsters and guinea pigs will drive you up the wall and they STILL pee and poop every where. LOL!
Some good reference for QY:
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Courses/anphys/1999/Cook/Text.htm
http://www.ahc.umn.edu/rar/housing.html
Actually, a simple Google search will throw up tons more websites explaining why softwood bedding is bad. Only plus point is that its cheap & that’s why its popular. That plus ignorance in some cases.
When I found out, I throw all my pine out. I’m not loaded but if I’m gonna keep pets, I would NOT want them on unsafe bedding.
As for this pelleted paper bedding I keep going on about, you might get a clearer idea of what it looks like from these sites:
http://www.reinbiotech.com/breeder_celect/breeder_celect.jsp
http://www.fibrecycle.com.au/
I know it says cat litter but this one is NOT clay or silica based so its safe for small furbies. There are several brands similar to Breeder Celect but I still find their’s the best quality. Holds its shape when wet unlike some of the rest which crumble into powder, leaving a mess.
** End of nag
Okay okay, I promise. My absolute final post on this topic. Links to hamster specific sites explaining why pine and cedar is bad:
http://www.hamsterific.com/BeddingGuide.cfm
http://www.hamsterific.com/SelectingAHamster.cfm
http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/f13/choosing-bedding-your-hammy-avoid-fluff-other-bad-4006.html
http://www.hammysworld.com/index.php?p=shavings
http://www.petinfopackets.com/hamsters/hamsterinfopacket.html
Minou: I guess that’s the problem with keeping nocturnal creatures as pets. But I just can’t understand why any creature would want to poop in their food tray! But, wait… that’s given me an idea on toilet training… lol.
Sufie: Thanks for your comments! Many hamster guides on the net recommend changing the bedding once a week. I think that’s enough, right?
koogeek: Yup. But only if you put male female together. :P
Plushiehamsta: Thank you for your comments! =) But I would prefer if you don’t call my blog readers stupid. =P I can totally understand your angst on the topic. I’ve read quite a bit on this topic in HH and I know that most hamster lovers feel the same way as you do! But I guess there are still many people who don’t know the troubles and dangers in breeding because they haven’t had a chance to read up on it. Please give them a chance!
Well, I don’t know where my hamsters are peeing. I still haven’t seen any pee. Wherever they’re doing it, it’s getting soaked up by something, I guess.
One of my hamsters likes to go into the potty (with toilet sand) but I don’t know what she does in there! She just sniffs around and sits there and does nothing.
Derrick: Thanks for all the links and advice! Hehe. You’ll be glad to know that I’m using aspen right now (I got it at Pet Safari). The one you see in the pictures right now was the first packet I bought because I even did any research because I didn’t have time to do proper research yet at that time.
I remember seeing the pellet type bedding at Pet Safari, too. But I didn’t get it because they don’t look comfortable to me. My hamsters really love the new aspen I bought them. One enjoys burrowing underneath it and the other enjoys rolling in it (like pigs in mud!).
Anyway, I know I’m not doing everything right yet, but I’m learning everyday and making changes as I learn them. So, thanks for the advice! I don’t think one can get too anal about these things. Pets deserve the best we can give them if we make the decision to keep them.
Oh well, at least aspen’s a lot safer than pine or cedar.
lol.. hamsters in distress.. X3
woh.. i never know that hamster is so complicated to take care of..
well good luck.. :)
Haha, can those wheels be rigged to generate electricity? Just a thought. Hehehe.
Derrick: Yeah. The scary thing was when I went to Pet Safari, I saw them selling so many different brands of pine/cedar shavings. I’m sure many hamster owners never ever do research so they end up buying those because some of them are quite cheap. I feel worried for those hamsters.
zield: Yeah, I didn’t know, either, until I started reading up. Then I started getting worried. Haha.
modchip: Haha. Let me know if you ever figure out how to. :P
Gomenasai Sheylara-san. >.
Plushiehamsta: No worries! Thank you for understanding! :)
Hmm it deleted most of my post…here’s the rest:
Oh, I read some pets can handle pine (I sitll won’t take the chance though), but hamsters, rabbits, rats etc. can’t take it, I think because of their sensitive noses. Derrick, are you talking about Megazorb?
Modchip and Sheylara the crazy thing is that they actually CAN generate enough to power a nightlight. http://www.otherpower.com/hamster.html is the place I think. Crazy what people come up with but amazing when it does happen lol!
OMG, so it actually does work! Haha!
you cannot keep 2 hamsters in a small cage. When they are young , that’s ok. But then when they grow, they will bite and fight each other.
Reason? Survival. They are thinking “in such a small confine area, only one can keep”.
even tho you feed them everyday, it will not help.
take care….
Plushiehamsta: Wow, ok that’s really interesting info! Haha.
binary_0011: Yeah, so I noticed! ;) New cage coming up in tomorrow’s post!
and you know what funny? after you separated them into different cage and put the cage side by side, they will try to reach the other cage and fight.
remind me of WWF cage match. my ah sao hamsters also like that, fight untill got bleed…..
Plushiehamsta: No, the pellets look like Breeder Celect but blacker. Stinks kinda.
Derrick: Is it Yesterday’s News then? I’ve seen it in my Petsmart and it’s originally paper based cat litter but rodents seem to like it.
Binary_001: I think you’re supposed to put the cages apart from each other so they don’t get stressed by the smell of each other…? If they were Syrians they should have definetely been separated.
binary_0011: Does that mean that they actually enjoy fighting?? O_o
maybe..i ever had put a hamster in a cage together with a white mice(those small small cute cute one). they fought from day and nite…actually it was the hamster that started the fight, the white mice’s mouth so small..how to fight…
then one day my mom noticed the mice was dead…
i performed a simple ritual on that same day, hoping the white mice will live better in his next life.
binary_0011: Oh dear! Poor mouse. :(
Looking back at then, my heart goes out you you still. They are so cute and cuddlie.
Mike M: Thank you. That’s really sweet of you.
nice cage. i like it alot
Hey umm i hav a hamster and hes doing well… did that potty training thing actually work???? that must save a lot of cleaning!!! LUCKY DUCK
No, the potty thing didn’t actually work. :P