tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Dec 26, 2011 21:44:35 GMT -4
Yes, I dream about my hamsters, including the hamsters I had as a kid.
The one I dream about most often is Porco Bruno. He was mildly brain-damaged. You could say he took more work to socialize than any other hamster I've had, but that would make it sound like a finite process, which it wasn't. I was always having to figure out new work-arounds to deal with his incurable weirdness. Somehow, in the midst of all that constant negotiation and accommodation, PB and I became good friends. He died far too young.
I guess it stands to reason that I'd dream about a critter with whom I had so much unfinished business.
In my dreams, we're hanging out together the way we used to early in the morning, with him keeping up a running commentary of companionable chirps and squeaks while he collects the food caches I've left out for him. At the same time, I'm edgily aware that at any moment he may feel moved to fling himself over the nearest precipice, or take off running northward at top speed, and I'll have to scramble like a major league outfielder to catch him.
There's no plot. It's just a slice of life with Porco Bruno.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Dec 5, 2011 0:34:06 GMT -4
Thank you, Pinky.
I'm sorry to hear about Frasier. I love your pictures of him, especially the one where he's peeking out of a fold in a pillow. Is the white blaze down his head and spine something that's developed with age, or has he always had it?
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My other current thought about Syrians: Evolution has made them an obligate solitary species, but I'm not sure it's made them a species that likes being alone. They're a remarkably amiable critter, one that can get along with anything as long as it isn't another rodent. I'm mindful that evolution takes no notice of characteristics that don't affect species survival. The whole thing makes me wonder whether we console their loneliness the same way they do ours.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Nov 30, 2011 18:39:26 GMT -4
One of the sorrows of keeping hamsters is that their lives are so short. I had a thought a while back that I've found consoling: Hamster lives are longer than we think. They just run faster than ours do, as though they're permanently set on Fast Forward.
In short, hamsters are overclocked.
Their hearts beat 450 times a minute. They've got a 16-18 day gestation period -- the shortest of all the mammals. They're weaned three or four weeks after they're born, and hit puberty at four or five weeks. A few weeks after that the obligate solitary thing kicks in, and they have to go out into the world and become self-supporting adults.
They do what we do, only faster. You can watch them getting old -- slowing down, eyesight deteriorating, fur fading -- but still being very much themselves, just like us. Thing is, with them it's a matter of months.
They die quickly too, most of them. It's a terrible shock to us, but it's proportional.
We love them, and miss them when they're gone. That's unavoidable. But we shouldn't mourn so much for the brevity of their lives. They're not that short. They're just that fast.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Nov 30, 2011 18:01:32 GMT -4
Thank you, Hamsters82. I'm trying to find a new small-animal vet. The last one I went to was unnecessarily rough.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Nov 27, 2011 11:00:45 GMT -4
(O Moderators, I don't know whether this belongs in the health care thread, or whether it's a legitimate topic on its own. If I've guessed wrong, please do not hesitate to move my message to the appropriate place.)
My hamster Lucius and I have been living together for about eighteen months. I don't know exactly how old he is because he's a re-homed rescue case, and the staff at the Petco had no useful information about him. Back then he was small, shy, and fast-moving. For most of this year he's been a big, calm, deliberate hamster, so we're looking at full maturity and then some. Until now, his health has been good.
Lately he's been drinking and excreting a lot more water, and his cage has a definite pong no matter how often I clean it. Where he previously was a solid daytime sleeper, he now wakes up several times a day and goes at the tube on his water bottle like a diva at a microphone.
Sometimes I find him trying to drink in his sleep: eyes closed, ears flat, fruitlessly sucking on a spot halfway down the water tube. After a while he realizes he's not getting any water, opens his eyes long enough to find the end of the tube, gets his drink, and then falls asleep again. Eventually, he makes his way back to his hideout. He's got to be seriously thirsty if he's out getting a drink when he's that tired.
On the food front, I'm starting to feel like his dish needs a refill every time I walk past. He isn't over-hoarding; when I clean out his cage, there's never much of a stash in his hideout. He's just going through a lot of hamster chow.
I've wondered about Cushing's Disease, but he hasn't been shedding fur or losing weight, and his muscle tone is good. The only dark pigmentation on his skin is on his ears, and they've always been like that. His skin is no dryer than usual. I've also wondered about the possibility of a kidney and/or bladder infection, but his appetite is good and he's not lethargic.
Mostly, I wonder whether he has diabetic tendencies. That would be my guess if a human had those symptoms. Any opinions?
On the assumption that he does have diabetic tendencies, I've stopped giving him bits of fresh fruit as snacks. Is there anything else I should take off his food list? My usual hamster chow is Fiesta Max. Should I try to remove the bits of dried fruit, or mix in non-sweet hamster-appropriate material to spread the treats a little thinner? And would it help to give him more high-protein snacks?
As usual, any advice will be gratefully received.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Feb 25, 2011 21:38:45 GMT -4
I'm very happy with my rescued Syrian, Lucius, who may be the Best Hamster Ever. I wish he could live forever.
I'm not likely to ever do rescues on your scale -- I'm sort of crippled at this point -- but I have a big cardboard carton full of extra cage components, given to me by friends who switched their rats over to other cage styles. If you ever need more cage space in a hurry, I'll be happy to bring it via cab to the Brooklyn address of your choice.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Jul 16, 2010 0:43:03 GMT -4
It's a hard time when you can't even shop the produce aisle without remembering those who are gone.
I'm sure you're right about pets in the years before AC. I've seen statistics on the large number of human infants who died in NYC every summer of "summer complaint," and wondered whether that was really heat exhaustion.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Jul 13, 2010 9:28:59 GMT -4
Well, by golly. It's a long-haired black hamster. First one of those I've seen, too.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Jul 13, 2010 9:24:56 GMT -4
I loved it. Their hamsters just keep getting better.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Jul 12, 2010 17:23:46 GMT -4
Last seen in 2005?
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Jul 12, 2010 13:50:56 GMT -4
I'm so sorry to hear about your small friends. We love our furry beasties, but our hearts take such a pounding when they die. Five at once is hard.
It was an awful heat wave. I hardly left my apartment while it was going on, and I worried about what it would do to my current hamster, Lucius, who has more fur than any other hamster I've ever seen. For a while there I was wondering whether he'd be more comfortable if I trimmed an inch off his perimeter, but my husband pointed out that if you're not certain it will help, you shouldn't do strange new things to an animal that's already unhappy. Next heat wave, I'm going to get one of those Blue Ice things, wrap it in a few layers of insulation so the cold leaks out more gradually, and see whether it's a comfort to overheated small furries.
It's a sad thought, but you can't be the only bereaved pet owner in the city. I know the authorities only announce the human death toll during heat waves, but there have to be a lot of companion animals that die of heat stress as well.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on May 4, 2009 7:42:00 GMT -4
Fledermaus, you were dead right -- patience is the trick. I remember you saying years ago that what you did with your Maggie to get her to be calm and happy was to never do anything she didn't want. That's what I've been doing with my newbie. I've been talking to her, feeding her tiny snacks, and letting her get used to me and my hand. When I feel her start to nip at my fingers, I withdraw them. Opening her mouth to bite gets her a puff in the face. Last night I held my finger against the bars of her cage and she repeatedly butted it with her nose, but didn't bite, nip, or appear to be thinking about biting, so hurray! Paying attention to what she wants has suggested another tactic. She always wants to get out of her cage (especially if it means she gets to run around in her hamsterball), so I've been opening her cage door and positioning my hand just outside it. She can get out, but she has to step onto my hand to do it. It took her a couple of days to work up to trying it, and a few more of putting one foot, then two feet onto my hand before withdrawing, and then a couple of days of slowly and cautiously climbing out onto my hand, then immediately leaping back inside. Today she walked out onto my hand, jumped into my lap, and jumped from there into her hamsterball, and did it all again in reverse when her hamsterball session was over. I think we're going to be fine. Thank you! (By the way, she has a name now: Agnes Margaret, a.k.a. Aggie Maggie, so in a way she's a Maggie too. Here's a photo: www.flickr.com/photos/35314672@N04/sets/72157617516155292/) ... More on non-biting: For a while, I was considering getting some bitter apple solution and putting it on my fingers. I figured I wouldn't want to live that way, but it probably wouldn't take long for her to get the idea. I decided not to try it after all. Do you know anyone who has?
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Apr 24, 2009 1:13:17 GMT -4
Thanks. It's nice to be back. Sorry for the missing info.
The newbie is indeed a Syrian; at a guess, maybe ten or twelve weeks old, bought at a pet store. Teeth and health are okay. She got a little damp-arsed a couple of days after she came home with me, but that passed after a day or two. I did disturb her in her igloo two or three times right around then because I was checking to see whether she was okay, but otherwise she sleeps undisturbed.
She has a chunk of arbutus wood which she chews on, she runs in her wheel at night, and she's started climbing the walls of her cage. She's made a well-burrowed-in nest inside her plastic igloo, and seems to be a sound sleeper. I interact with her when she comes out. Things are coming along fine, except for the biting.
She didn't try to bite me when I was first watching her in the store, and she wasn't too jumpy. In fact, what struck me about her originally was her alertness and poise. The weird thing about the biting is that she doesn't seem upset when she does it. During one incident where she was sticking her nose out though her cage mesh and repeatedly trying to bite me, she also had her paw resting on my finger the entire time.
I'm not fast enough to tap her on the nose. I've been expressing disapproval by briefly blowing in her face (not very hard).
Patience it is.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Apr 23, 2009 22:02:30 GMT -4
O Wise Fledermaus, and anyone else who reads this:
I can deal with hamsters that bite when they're scared, or startled, or feel intruded-upon. What I'm trying to cope with right now is a new hamster that bites at random when she's calm and comfortable.
I've had her for about two weeks now. We've been getting acquainted, and we're to the point where she'll climb into my hand without too much coaxing. Sometimes that's fine. And sometimes, when she's sitting there, she'll randomly up and bite me, hard, like a human making an offhand remark. If I don't scream or draw back, she'll continue sitting on my hand while I bleed all over everything.
I'm pretty sure I don't smell like food, because I never handle her without first washing my hands.
Any suggestions? I'm stumped.
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tnh
Rodent Retreat Newbie
Posts: 19
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Post by tnh on Jan 9, 2009 9:31:32 GMT -4
Thank you. It surprised me. I didn't know I had all that to say.
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