Meet Princess
Yes, don't let the beady eyes fool you, this hamster is royalty. OK, OK, since she may not be royalty, she's at least the very descendent of the original Syrian hamster clan. That's right, all Syrian hamsters that we can buy from a pet store or breeders descend from a pretty small line of five original hamsters!
Hamsters seem like the ideal pet for a little kid. I contend they are not. Our hamster, gifted to us by Emily's after school program, does not wake up until about 2130L (9:30 pm for you civilian types). She's a lazy bones all day long, and then goes nuts from about 9:30 pm until the sun comes up! Hey, we would have known that, had we done a little research, but no! Gimme dat hamster! Hamsters are not nocturnal, are they?
So, who is up after 9:30 pm in our house? Me, that's right! I feel bad because she's running around in that cage in my office (how'd she get in here?) and wants some attention. I always oblige. I put her into her hamster ball, and she runs around the house like a lunatic for about thirty to forty-five minutes, burning up them sunflower seeds. What is fun, though, is that after she's had her way with the hamster ball, she's a lot easier to handle, and will climb around on your shoulders or go digging in your shirt pocket. She has never bitten, but she does nibble on occasion. The fact is, if she wanted to bite you she could put on a whompin' with those big, seed-smashing incisors. She never does, she just probes around with her mouth because she's busy using the rest of her appendages to do other stuff...
For fun I give her a whole baby carrot that I slice up in the kitchen. She stuffs her cheek pockets so full she looks like she's gonna burst. If she gets a full load, she'll stop taking treats momentarily, go hide what you first gave her, and then come back for more. Packing things away is her life, so her and I see eye-to-eye on some things!
Notice the clips on the door to her cage... I used to use electical ties, she would chew right through them like so much butter! I had to go to these dog leash snaps to keep the escape artist from plying her trade. So far, so good! Gotta love the hardware store.
Still, rodents like these are great pets. She only makes about 200 little poops a day, and quick back-thrusts on Corella the cat gets her to spit up the hamster pretty quickly!
Hamsters seem like the ideal pet for a little kid. I contend they are not. Our hamster, gifted to us by Emily's after school program, does not wake up until about 2130L (9:30 pm for you civilian types). She's a lazy bones all day long, and then goes nuts from about 9:30 pm until the sun comes up! Hey, we would have known that, had we done a little research, but no! Gimme dat hamster! Hamsters are not nocturnal, are they?
So, who is up after 9:30 pm in our house? Me, that's right! I feel bad because she's running around in that cage in my office (how'd she get in here?) and wants some attention. I always oblige. I put her into her hamster ball, and she runs around the house like a lunatic for about thirty to forty-five minutes, burning up them sunflower seeds. What is fun, though, is that after she's had her way with the hamster ball, she's a lot easier to handle, and will climb around on your shoulders or go digging in your shirt pocket. She has never bitten, but she does nibble on occasion. The fact is, if she wanted to bite you she could put on a whompin' with those big, seed-smashing incisors. She never does, she just probes around with her mouth because she's busy using the rest of her appendages to do other stuff...
For fun I give her a whole baby carrot that I slice up in the kitchen. She stuffs her cheek pockets so full she looks like she's gonna burst. If she gets a full load, she'll stop taking treats momentarily, go hide what you first gave her, and then come back for more. Packing things away is her life, so her and I see eye-to-eye on some things!
Notice the clips on the door to her cage... I used to use electical ties, she would chew right through them like so much butter! I had to go to these dog leash snaps to keep the escape artist from plying her trade. So far, so good! Gotta love the hardware store.
Still, rodents like these are great pets. She only makes about 200 little poops a day, and quick back-thrusts on Corella the cat gets her to spit up the hamster pretty quickly!
posted by Mark A. at 10:22 PM
1 Comments:
My nieces got a pet hamster. I was going to dye it blue but it got sick and passed on. They got a new one, but it was black. Damn. I have some hair bleach somewhere.....
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