the munchkins

The munchkins have a new addition!

2010-05-01T22:02:00.004+08:00

Welcome home, Summer =)

You must be really tired...

RIP

2010-01-07T22:38:00.003+08:00

Good bye, Cream. You were wonderful.

She was still running the wheel this afternoon, yet no one saw her pass away. She was a great hamster, and still is in our hearts.

This is her life: recorded down

Our current setup

2010-01-03T17:25:00.003+08:00

Part 2

The long long awaited part 2!!!

Apologies guys. Got caught up with work, but rest assured, the hammies and gerbies are all carefully tended too on a daily basis, or whenever we walk past their tank area.

Fatty lives in the biggest cage of them all. Her plastic box is durable, accessible and livable. Her entire floor is covered with fluffy bedding, and she often makes a nice mound to sleep on. Fatty eats the most too, as she is the biggest. She's also the first of our hamsters to use the toilet we gave her. She comes toilet trained =)

Salt and Pepper live together. Well, almost. They are separated by the divider in their cage, as we do not want them to mate. They still remain the best of friends, and they enjoy playing together in the playpen. Sometimes, they can be found lying next to each other by the divider. They groom each other through the bars, and Salt loves climbing up to the top, even doing monkey bars. Perhaps she's showing off to Pepper? =P

Last but not least...BUTTER! He's the fastest, the smallest, the hardest to catch, and a whole lot of other superlatives which there aren't English words for. He's our only roborovski hamster at the moment, and he's white-faced too! He runs at the speed of light, and is not very easy to catch. He has the best cage in a tank setup.

More to come!

Our current setup

2009-12-05T20:47:00.003+08:00

Part 1

Herby and Gerby live in their own tank. They have a cardboard toy to chew up (we bought it from Pet Lover's) which is in the shape of a doll house thing. It has a back porch and a front yard and fences and an upstairs balcony. Sorry we don't have any photos =( Now, the whole basement has been chewed up and it's kind of lopsided. But nevertheless, our gerbils continue to sleep upstairs and in the rooms.

Cookie lives in our smallest tank; she has a dino for her house, and she really loves fluffing the fluff =) she is rather minimalistic, having only a wheel for company. But hey, she runs pretty fast! Cream lives in our orange cage, and she has a wooden house for sleeping under. However, she prefers to fluff up the fluff and bury herself underneath it all. Sometimes we have difficulties spotting her!

Cotton lives in our blue cage, which is identical to the orange cage, except for it's colour. Haha. He has his big green house (our first house we bought) and loves it. We can often hear him scrabbling around and arranging the fluff inside the house. Neurotic!

Watch out for Part 2 over the next few days! =) it will contain details about Fatty, Butter, Salt & Pepper! =)

The Munchkins...have been revived!

2009-12-04T20:33:00.005+08:00

With a bang!

Cookie & Cream still live separate. Both are really really old. As of the time of writing, they are 14 months old! Closely following behind is Cotton, at 13 months. Our 3 oldest hamsters. Guess who's our oldest gerbil? Well, that's easy. We only have 2 old gerbils. Herby and Gerby! And they keep giving birth like crazy. Maybe the saying 'breeding like rats' have some truth to them. But hey! Don't call them rats; they don't like it. 'Gerbil' is a better word for um...a better rat =)

Anyway, Herby and Gerby are officially parents to 23 babies! One died, so there are 22 of Herby and Gerby's kiddos out there! Imagine...22 of Herby and Gerby's replicas running around, eating, sleeping, chewing, hanging around... Cool eh? If you add the numbers (refer to the 'Babies' section out there), it's only 21! The last 2 are part of the new litter! =) Only 2 yeah...as 3 others died due to unknown reasons (perhaps due to immaturity at birth). Hope these two survive! It's one lighty (who's fat) and one agouti (who's active).

Cotton is as friendly as ever, he always wants to make friends with Cream and Cookie, but they respond differently.

Cream is quite receptive to Cotton; she will snuggle up with him, but if he tries to get too close, she'll squeak. Cookie will squeak as long as Cotton is within 5 cm of her. In fact, she may even SQUEAK and back off and fly off your hand. Sometimes, when we wake her up for dinner, she'll squeak really loudly and fly out of her dino house and try to bite you. I guess that's what you get for trying to wake a hamster!

That's all for today! Look forward to...

(1) Our current setup

(2) Our current food regime

gerbil babies

2009-09-25T13:15:00.001+08:00

Apologies for the lack of photos. Again.

Herby and Gerby's pups will be 1 month old in less than a week. We are looking for good, caring owners to adopt them.

4 pups of 2 males and 2 females. One male is argente golden colour, while the rest are golden agouti.

All our other hamsters are happy and active.

Cheers!

the votes are in!

2009-09-05T08:46:00.001+08:00

And it just proves that this blog has no visitors. Haha.

Cotton 1 vote.

Fatty 1 vote.

So it's a tie for now! Vote's still open =)

Some cute photos =)

2009-09-01T15:13:00.001+08:00

Updates! Fatty, Gerby, Cotton and Butter are vying for the cutest rodent award. Please vote!

Well, technically, Gerby is just...pregnant. Or rather, was. She's given birth to 4 healthy pups now, who are not as active as previously but still...suckling well!

Cotton loves that corner between his food dish and the cage. Sometimes he even munches on a bit of food over there. How cute!

Fatty loves being carried. Here, she's supporting herself in Hammiemummy's hand, and staring at the camera. She actually looks like she has a pig snout. Haha.

Butter loves sleeping in a ball! He makes himself a nest amongst the fluff and goes to sleep, with his legs drawn towards his body and his back bent. Nice ball!

So now, vote!

If the button does not work, send your response to bensing_AT_gmail_DOT_com =)

We are glad to receive your response!

new gerbil litter

2009-08-30T10:41:00.000+08:00

3 golden agouti and 1 argente golden pups =)

quick update!

2009-08-21T23:50:00.001+08:00

1) Fatty got a new bin. It's huge. Measurements to be confirmed.

2) Gerby is pregnant! Bump growing bigger by the day. She's still skinny though. May pop within the week.

3) Our new recycled paper bedding is a success. No sign of allergy (except Butter, who's losing some fur). No stink. Looks nice. Cheap!

the hammie house

2009-08-14T21:11:00.001+08:00

Finally, an update for the month of August! I shall not make any empty promises, but I'll try to update at least once a week!

The pet shop at Bukit Timah Plaza sold us rotten pet food a few weeks ago, so we went back to exchange it, and got a new nut mix in return! The mix is rather unhealthy though, it consists of plenty of sunflower seeds, and oats! That's the good part. The oats is like organic food, and it took a while to get the hammies to eat the oats (they only ate the sweets!). Cookie proved to be the toughest of all; she starved herself whenever we refused to top up her food. Until a few days ago, where we looked in her bowl and...all the oats were gone! She's been eating well ever since =)

Anyway...here's Herby being naughty and sleeping through the day =P

And just as I tried to get a closer shot, he flipped over and lay on his side.

Aww...

Here's Butter under his wheel. He's as small as ever, and he's still scared of our hand...not sure what else can help but just a lot of patience and care! At least he doesn't go flying from our hands often!

And here's Butter pondering over his overturned food dish.

And in his specially prepared nest!

I think he's really awesome. A little worried about him now as he's losing fur over his right back leg. Perhaps it's the (1) new bedding, (2) new food, or the (3) grass. The first photo shows our new bedding. We decided to try it as it's cheaper. It's paper, and seems to absorb well. No major complaints!

Presenting...Cookie!

She's really flat.

And Fatty, of course. On the lookout!

The Hammie House.

Our gerbils

2009-08-05T18:57:00.001+08:00

First of all, thank you to everyone who adopted our 5 babies from our second litter of gerbil babies. 3 males were adopted by Yang, and the other 2 females by Jamal (who has not told me their names yet). Wishing them all a good life!

We also went back to the pet shop which we gave our previous batch of gerbils to (for a small fee), and 2 of 3 were still there (the 2 females). The other male was bought with another male from the shop owner's own batch of gerbils.

Here they are: (we talk about them using the names Veronica and Betty)

She's really fat, isn't she?

Peeking out above their toppled wheel stand with another gerbil in front.

Looking at me through the glass.

And getting more interested in herself. Cleaning time!

And HERE: our second litter of babies still living with daddy and mommy!

A baby sleeping with mommy. The thickness of the tail is obvious.

Baby piled on baby.

And about a week after all the babies got adopted, we changed their habitat to SOIL! They really love to dig and sent soil flying in 2 different directions. Buried in the soil is a ceramic mug, a bone which is supposed to be their treat, and their bendy wooden house (can be seen in the 2 pictures above). They first dug out the house in a record time of ten minutes (usually, they find it after a few days).

Herby stoning by himself.

Gerby sleeping on the hay bed.

Herby peering out of their tank.

Herby and Gerby sleeping together, with their food dish (filled with soil (by them) and their ceramic cup (a nice cubby hole underground).

They are huddling together!

Herby wakes up again to chew some hay (maybe make the mattress thicker).

And he drinks some water (he's really tall).

And goes back to sleep, exposing his white belly!

adopted

2009-07-30T11:04:00.002+08:00

Our male baby gerbils have been adopted! The 3 active babies now live in a 51 gallon glass tank. How cool is that? Some photos are available here: http://www.yanglifelive.tk/

gerbils, second litter

2009-07-20T10:42:00.001+08:00

Glancing at our home page, Herby and Gerby are barely 8 months old, and they are already parents to 10 babies.

Currently, their second litter is 4 weeks old, and in about a week they will be nearly huge gerbils already. In fact, they look like mini replicas of Herby and Gerby now.

Can you believe that they grew from THIS:

into THIS:

They have grown fur and opened their eyes and are eating hamster delight already!

A delightful bite of toilet roll, with babies suckling under Gerby (to the left).

Gerby trying to prop herself up to allow the babies to suckle.

The cute babies underneath the log house!

The current setup of their tank (note: objects may have been pushed around, and food may be strewn around in the actual tank. This is the clean and pristine version).

We have since changed their bedding twice, trying out a really cheap fluffy bedding which ended up giving them sore noses! We have since changed back to okoplast, and are seeking a cheaper alternative for our huge tank!

gerbil babies are off to a new home

2009-07-01T22:38:00.001+08:00

Address: Pets Village, Suntec City Basement.

Where they will be sold to a better home.

There! The tank on the upper floor, to the left. Can't really see them...so here's a closer look!

They are happy in their new home. They have the same wooden house, a fake brand bottle (oops), and a small side 'through' full of hay. Cool setup.

In memory of Herby and Gerby's first litter...

Someone's butt.

Someone buried. I think Gerby did that.

Someone upside down.

Someone sleeping.

And...Family Sleep!

When they were much smaller...

Ah, they have just started learning the wheel. This one has just started looking at her siblings learn the wheel.

Looks hard into the distance...

And sniffing the ground!

And when they were still milking...

Golden agouti female gerbil!

Suckle suckle suckle.

We will miss you babies! Have a good life!

PS. Two of our gerbils (female golden agouti and female argente golden) were adopted by Xinyi. They are having a good life, growing fat, and peeing on the wheel (oops). Congratulations Hina and Vienna!

Food time

2009-06-30T23:58:00.002+08:00

Now, when the spoons are up and the bowl is filled, the hamsters come running. We recently got some CAT FOOD for our hamsters. It's 26% protein, and it's meant to make them fat.

Anyway, here's a video of Cotton who is eating in his food dish.

How cute!

A new litter, again

2009-06-22T23:56:00.002+08:00

This morning, Gerby gave birth to 5 healthy pups, who immediately drank milk and filled their stomachs.

The only problem was, we did not witness any of the pups being born. Gerby managed to give birth to ALL the pups in about an hour. Not bad huh.

Here is Gerby two days before giving birth.

Fat right?

Here are the 5 healthy pups piled together.

And in this photo, Herby pokes his head into the picture.

That's quite cute Herby...

When Gerby gets startled, she'll jump forward, leaving the babies detached from her in a messy line. Something like this:

Sometimes, a stray baby may be left out too!

But don't worry, for she'll find it and move it back towards her.

And Gerby shrinks back after the whole thing is over.

We now have TEN gerbils (adult, young, and younger) in our tank!

Cookie bit Cream

2009-06-18T23:20:00.001+08:00

Just tonight, Cookie bit Cream rather hard on her face, and Cream is running around in her own box, while the wound closes up. We hope that she heals soon, and we wonder why Cookie did it. Poor Cream =(

reintroduction

2009-06-15T10:41:00.001+08:00

We reintroduced Cookie and Cream yesterday. Cream's behavior is just that of a bully. She takes pride in being able to flip Cookie over into a submissive wailing position. And we were so worried that Cookie would not be able to get any rest being chased around by Cream all day long. Or rather, all night long.

But this morning, we saw the both of them sleeping together in the house. Oh how cool is that! The reintroduction worked, and we hope that they will continue to be good friends as they were at the start =)

hey there fatty =)

2009-06-12T11:05:00.002+08:00

Fatty, our only Syrian hamster, is pretty cool. And pretty too. Her coat is a nice spotted brown on white. I think we really got a nice hamster from pet lovers.

Here's a video of her as she stirs from her afternoon sleep! She is distracted by my hand just outside the cage bars and stands up to get a better view.

Presenting...Fatty!

i thought the gerbils didn't run their wheel

2009-06-11T20:02:00.003+08:00

But I found it toppled when I returned just now. Lol. Wonder what they have been up to, and how puzzled they must have been as to WTF is the wheel lying on its side. Serves them right for running so fast. Haha. Anyway, Gerby is pretty awesome in that I still find her milking the babies now and then...they seem to find her pretty well, in fact they are darting all over the place when I open the top, and this is a video of them in their overturned box cover:

And this is a video of our only LIGHT COLOURED GERBIL =P yes, I am biased. Haha, but this just films her smelling the food and running all over, even on top of their log house.

Oh, the gerbils eat a healthy 30+ pellets every meal (twice a day). It's two big scoops of hamster delight, and they finish it all. Today I topped it up with the remaining mealworms (about 20+ pieces) for good measure. They have yet to bury their food =)

split pen failure

2009-06-10T16:18:00.001+08:00

I regret putting Cotton and Pepper together in the split pen. Pepper jumped from my hand and they formed a fatal hammieball.

Cotton got injured; I gave him arnica, and now he's sleeping (albeit a little ruffled up and sigh....hurt).

He's less receptive to my hand now...shies away when I reach into his cage. So I just gave him a bit more fluff and one ikan bilis (he finished his previous once). I also gave him a wooden toy clipped to the side. But for now, he's just sleeping. Poor him.

Get well soon, cotton.

wheel runners

2009-06-10T13:08:00.002+08:00

Herby and Gerby and their brood enjoy the wheel immensely. The babies can already run quite fast on the wheel, and they look so cute! Here is a video of them fighting over who gets the wheel.

Herby is pleasant; he lets the babies run and when they try to get on while he's on, he makes way.

Gerby, um, she just runs. And she flipped lighty out of the wheel several times already. Just watch!

Test post from Windows Live Writer

2009-06-10T12:59:00.001+08:00

I have stumbled upon this Windows Live Writer program included with messenger, and it seems to be fine. Let's try some features:

(1) A photo of our argente golden baby gerbil below:

(2) The second photo is the same photo, but with a backdrop shadow effect and a watermark, and a sepia tone applied, courtesy of WLW.

I think WLW is quite impressive, will use it in my next video post.

Cheers =)

EDIT: video support is not as integrated as I would like it to be...ask me for tips on how to use WLW and upload videos (requires several more clicks).

splits and divides

2009-06-07T15:27:00.004+08:00

Cookie and Cream split cage:

We swap their sides once every day, in order to get them to be used to the other's smell. This arrangement has been going on for 2 weeks already, but Cream is still aggressive towards Cookie, and Cookie keeps screaming when she sees Cream.

Cotton and Pepper temporary split playpen:

I placed the both of them on either side, and observed them. Pepper made aggressive noises like Cream, but Cotton was unfazed. This behaviour is unlike Cookie's cower-and-run tactic. Perhaps Cotton has more man in him than we thought he had! The video shows the both of them standing down each other for 2+ minutes. Observing the other. Weighing their chances. They probably know that they cannot get at each other through the bars (before this, they were jumping and squeaking and boxing through the split!).

I hope to build the split tank (shall go take measurements now) soon, and as soon as salt gives birth (probably anytime soon), I'll move Pepper and Cotton into the split tank.

I am optimistic about that arrangement, and I hope that the split tank will be of great use in future.

active babies

2009-06-05T14:03:00.004+08:00

The gerbil babies, they are actively running all over the place. Climbing over the loghouse, chewing on the loghouse, biting mummy's yoghurt, nibbling on a big piece of carrot. Everything to keep themselves entertained.

Naughty gerby escaped again last night by chewing through one of the holes in my make-shift cover. I think I should go to the hardware store to find a solution. SOON.

Cool babies.

stupid gerby

2009-06-04T08:21:00.002+08:00

She escaped last night, and the babies were left huddling by themselves under the wooden house. Herby probably put them there.

Fortunately, I caught her after about 10 minutes of searching, and after a small nip of the web between my thumb and index finger -.- stroked her and put her back.

I turned around to get a cardboard box to fashion into a makeshift cover by stabbing holes through them, and turned back to see gerby jumping up and clinging to the side of the tank at the top.

Naughty gerby!

For the babies sake, I hope she does not pull off that stunt again. But it's not easy for her to escape now...the cover I made is a cardboard box inverted and pulled tightly over the top of the tank. Fits quite snugly, so for her sake, and the babies, Gerby you better stay in there!

gerbil babies, gerbies?

2009-06-03T18:36:00.000+08:00

Can we call gerbil babies 'GERBIES'? Gerby would be thoroughly confused.

Anyway, here are some cool shots of the babies:

Day 11

Today, the babies are supposed to be already zooming around the tank with their eyes closed. To get a nice shot of them lining up is not easy, and they don't understand english =(

To the left are the 5 babies on top of each other, all over. To the right are the same 5 babies, being good kids now. They are...lining up! =) well, except the light-coloured one...

Day 17

Today, the pups are supposed to start opening their eyes. If not, they will probably be able to see by day 20. Well, one upside of them not opening their eyes yet is that it's easier to catch them. They can't see the hand coming. Only thing is that they hop a lot. I mean, a lot. With their tails outstretched and all. Cool gerbies!

The curious pup peers over my hand. Yikes. I mean, she tries to peer. Eyes are still shut

She tries to bury her nose through my fingers, just like Herby and Gerby when they were younger.

Mr Dark Coloured stares into the darkness.

Don't fall over, pup!

big move to new house

2009-06-02T21:52:00.001+08:00

Here goes: the BIG move to a new cage!

Why the move?

People were adopting our babies (litter #2), and we planned to give away our small blue alex cage with the 2 male whities (see Our Babies) to aunty's friend. Therefore, Salt and Pepper (current residents of the small blue cage) had to move. Into cream's big pink cage! With 3 storeys (though we removed a storey, so it's only double decker now). A big change for aunty Cora's babies.

As of last saturday, aunty's friend has successfully adopted the 2 whities. Left alone in her medium-sized tank is blackie (only a pet name!).

Enough talk. Here are the photos =)

I could not find many photos of Salt and Pepper running around their new cage, because the first thing they did was to run the wheel in tandem!

Meanwhile, we moved Cookie and Cream together into a split cage. We have been switching their positions (left and right) up to twice a day, hoping that they will get used to each others smell. Hopefully it works, if not we are faced with a logistic nightmare.

See the beautiful cage? Their floor space is not much, but decent at least. They have one wheel each, one bottle, one food dish, one nest. Till today, Cookie still keeps screaming when Cream comes near. Only consolation is that Cream has stopped hissing near Cookie. Hope the split works! =)

Meanwhile, since we are on the topic of houses, Herby and Gerby's big new tank is pretty cool.

transfer

2009-05-27T10:15:00.003+08:00

I moved the gerbils over to my place yesterday. The transfer was just a little shy of disastrous.

When my cab got to my place, the first thing the skies did was to rain.

Baby gerbils got a little wet. And one of them was not moving. He was curled fetal and I thought he was dead.

But after blowing on them with a hairdryer for a while, they started moving.

That was last night. As of now, they are happily zooming around. And to quote a website (http://www.gerbilbreeding.com/develop.htm), the pups are "motoring along very fast". All over the tank.

I sexed them this morning and out of the 4 dark coloured ones, we have 1 boy and 3 girls. The light coloured one is a girl. Gerby has made this pretty cool nest to place them in. After I took the babies out for sexing, I placed them back in, and gerby seemed to be fine with it. Previously she would go all crazy and shift the nest somewhere else. The only gripe I have with the nest is that it is directly below their bottle. Hope it does not drip or they will get wet!

gerbil babies

2009-05-26T18:45:00.001+08:00

Our gerbils, their babies are 4 dark coloured and 1 light coloured. I think the light coloured one is a very light brown, yellowish. While the other 4 are probably cinnamon coloured like herby and gerby.

babies playing

2009-05-25T15:47:00.003+08:00

Babies' new (smaller) tank

2009-05-25T15:39:00.004+08:00

The big swap took place today. Herby and Gerby and babies were moved to the bigger tank, while the 3 hamster babies were moved to the smaller tank.

Some news about the 3 hammie babies:
1) blackie (female) is the largest of them all now. I put some worms in their tank and she took most of them. Greedy blackie!
2) both whities are male. Don't ask me how I know. Just go google "sexing baby hamsters".
3) their fur usually explodes when I hold them. Like fuzzly and all.

Enough said. Now let the pictures do the work =)

Butt to butt: blackie and one whitie. "Where are we? Oh no...we have no more tank!"

What's this huge thing? Another hamster? No, it's round...and it rolls!

Teehee! Having lots of fun!

Blackie joins in the fun.

But when the ball rolls away, they change their focus to the toilet roll tube.

I wonder what whitie is running from...maybe the tube is chasing him.

Here he goes again, with the ball. Blackie and the other whitie rush towards him.

Here is whitie on my hand with a peanut, no it's the DOG BONE!! next to him =)

The massacred dog bone, with the bone part bitten off by the three rascals.

Whitie comes back to play with the ball.

But eventually decides that blackie is nicer to chase instead.

squirmy is gone

2009-05-18T08:44:00.003+08:00

Squirmy is believed to have died, as he wasn't getting ANY milk at all. He never suckled and was always left out.

And the mommy and daddy probably ate up the remains of the dead pup.

So now we are down to five pups. Go gerby =)

PUSHHHHHHHHHHHH gerbs!

2009-05-16T18:00:00.013+08:00

Early this morning, a small squeak alerted us to the arrival of the first of Gerby's litter of 6! After the birth of the first, the rest came at intervals ranging from 5 mins to half an hour...

All of them were born purple, but quickly pinked up after being given the lick-wash by mummy or daddy. Only no. 3, whom we nicknamed Squirmy (because he is sooo tiny compared to his siblings and didnt have enough energy to do anything except lie there and occasionally squirm like a worm), was born almost black, not moving and we thought he (arbitrarily assigned sex) was dead. he lay there, a dark heap of deadness, and gerby even gave up on licking him and chucked him aside..

TEN minutes

Here are some photos of the first TWO pups which popped out =) The second was born within 10 minutes of the first.

In the first, Herby and Gerby share their parenting duties and clean the pups. The second picture shows the first 2 pups wiggling about in the soft paper bedding.

FORTY minutes

After about another 30 minutes, another 2 pups were born. Right now, we have a total count of FOUR pups. The 3rd one, as mentioned earlier, was still lying there, not moving, even as Gerby went into labour for the 5th one.

SIXTY minutes

Gerby is still in labour. The time between delivering is increasing greatly. Pup number 5 comes out a healthy purple. Yes, that means that the pup has yet to take its first breath. But at least purple is a better colour than black, which the 3rd pup was. Gerby licked the pup till it started to turn a healthy pink. Herby meanwhile relegated himself to a corner and fell asleep. Through the past 50 minutes, he had attempted to mate with Gerby several times, but clever Gerby turned him down.

Here we see Gerby feeding the pups milk, in the midst of labour.

TWO hours

Finally, all 6 pups are out! I bet that Gerby would have 8 because she still looked big. But I lost the bet to hammiemummy =P

Gerby gave birth to 6 pups with tails! More awesome than hamster babies! Haha. Below you can see the 6 healthy pups (photo is a little blur) wiggling about and below...Herby and Gerby taking care of the bouncy babies!

mummy, i am hungry

2009-05-13T18:41:00.006+08:00

This post is dedicated to Salt, our beloved winter white, and her food dish, our beloved turquoise food dish.

Hey hey! Let me dig in this treasure chest!

Ah shucks. I can't reach the bottom!

Finally! Ha, found some treasure. Yum yum.

Yummy yummy yum yum!

Ah man. Let me search some more...

Hmm..what's that to the right? Is that...a white speck? A nut!

A nut!!! YUM.

broccoli!

2009-05-13T18:18:00.006+08:00

Broccoli is a healthy vegetable which most children are picky about. But not our babies. In fact, they love it.

Presenting...

Herby!

Fatty!

Cotton! He looks half asleep.

Butter!

Salt and Pepper! Umm...I think they have finished eating...

Cookie!

Cream!

They are fed fresh food (broccoli, carrot) once every few days. And they sure look forward to it each time! Well..apart from cream, who only ate one small piece today. She turned her nose at the other pieces. Pepper, on the other hand, grabbed two pieces from me. Salt got another piece, but she ate less.

Herby and Gerby wasted theirs today. Ate half and threw it on the floor. I picked up the stalk and put it in their food dish.

Let's hope they are not getting sick of it already!

cookie gave birth

2009-05-06T15:00:00.002+08:00

She gave birth to 3 pups! They shall have no name, as they will be given away when they are ~~ripe~~ mature.

cookie is pregnant!

2009-05-04T10:06:00.005+08:00

And we have moved her into a tank so that she will have her own space to give birth. Here are some photos of her in her new home.

Cookie running the wheel! It's a new pink wheel which we bought such that we can have enough wheels for all of them.

Here she goes, eating in her food dish. She takes up the whole dish =P a dish that both Salt and Pepper could fit into.

After exploring around, and satisfied that we weren't abandoning her, as she still can find food and wheel and water, she sits down and sleeps.

give the gerbils a box

2009-04-28T09:11:00.005+08:00

And don't expect to get it back. The gerbils can completely dismantle and dismember a box in less than half a day. Put the box in and they sniff around, climbing into it and scratching around. Until they realise that they can bite it. And they chomp crazily.

Like this:

Chomp... Chomp... and Chomp...

After that Gerby laps up the water crazily. It must be really tiring chomping all that cardboard.

the babies

2009-04-22T12:59:00.005+08:00

This is a post dedicated to our two babies, Salt and Pepper. They are very grown up now! In fact, as of today, they are 3 weeks old!

Hello, Salt! Looking for something?

Salt wanders out of her house...

...and inspects around.

Meanwhile, Pepper is already outside. He looks in the corner.

And presses his nose against the plastic tank. Looking for something, Pepper?

Aha he found it. The chew stick! Which was not in the corner.

We are proud to say that Pepper is able to stand up without falling backwards! Salt falls backwards, but hope she learns. And pepper, being the ever lovable hamster, lets you pick him up, and will even crawl onto mummy's hand!

Sleepy post

2009-04-20T12:44:00.005+08:00

It's been some time since the last update. Why? Because our hamsters and gerbils have all been sleeping. Don't believe us?

Fatty lying outside her house, on her back. She's such a baby. Look how soundly she's sleeping!

Fatty, this time by the food dish. She loves sleeping on her back, though not all the time.

Gerby lies on her side below the wheel.

Told you our hamsters and gerbils were all sleeping.

Blog Updater

2009-04-15T10:43:00.003+08:00

Hey folks, do you want to be updated whenever a friendly-squiggly-extraordinary post is posted on this blog? Do place your email in the tagboard on the RIGHT --> --> --> and we will add your email! Now you don't have to visit this blog, and yet still get updates from this blog! =)

All in the Family

2009-04-13T10:47:00.004+08:00

alright, so this is my first post! as mummy to the (now) NINE munchkins! it's crazy looking after so many of them, and they have all kinds of different habits too!

right now, most of the attention goes to salt and pepper, the 2 babies.. pepper still cant poo by herself so needs a little help a couple of times a day..

as for the rest, they just get a little handling twice a day, ball time (to run around in their exercise balls) every evening, and feeding twice a day.. sounds quick but it really takes quite a lot of time!

their feeding habits are as such now:

Cookie: Marukan nut mix (twice daily)
Cotton: Marukan nut mix (twice daily)
Creamy: Marukan nut mix (morning), Gex pellets (evening)
[special arrangements as we are still trying to help her gain weight after giving birth, without engorging her cheek pouches]
Butter: Organic mix (twice daily)
Fatty: Gex pellets (twice daily)
Herby & Gerby: Hamster Delight (twice daily)
Salt & Pepper: Fresh salad (morning), Organic Mix (evening)
[nb. fresh salad prepared by mommy, consists of grated carrots and broccoli mostly, sometimes other vege]

look out for more updates about day to day life!

(i'm a stickler for routines while ben does the exciting events and stuff!)

salt and pepper

2009-04-12T18:28:00.002+08:00

Cream gave birth, the morning of two wednesdays ago (the first of April). Nope, it's not a joke! The babies are already twelve days old =)

escaped

2009-04-06T08:21:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, Fatty flumoxed us into frantically flipping and flapping feverishly around the living room.

She escaped, sometime in the morning, but we did not realise till the evening. We hereby conclude that she has the ability to:

(1) push open the ajar cage door

(2) fall great heights without crying

(3) climb agily up to the top of her cage

What a crazy baby.

We found her, after the loss of 6 pellets from her food dish placed in the middle of the living room confirmed that she was indeed still in the house. A few minutes later, we got her as she was trying to run away. The sneaky girl!

Who is safe in her cage and running like nothing happened.

cutie!

2009-04-02T22:22:00.005+08:00

No words need to be said. Just some cute photos of fatty! =)

cookie and cream

2009-04-01T14:05:00.002+08:00

In case any of you have been wondering, what happened to cookie? And her pregnancy?

Let's get some facts right. Cookie was not pregnant. She was just...fat. And to think that I smsed Aunty Cora everyday to check on Cookie and whether she had popped. But nothing to pop, never pop.

And in fact, just two days ago, Cream gave birth.

In the middle of the night, to three (number pending verification) healthy pups!

We can see one of them here:

This pink thing which moves and squeals. Yes, it squeals a high pitched squeal, which is often heard when they accidentally come unlatched from feeding position. And they only grow silent when Cream painstakingly gathers them all and cleans them. Don't you think she's awesome?

We don't have many pregnant photos, as we only realised Cream was pregnant 2 days before she gave birth. And we are not lousy hamster owners, just that we had been observing her grow to Cookie's size, and we thought she was fat, until we took a photo of her:

I think it's quite obvious that her neck is rather skinny till her shoulders, before she sort of pears out into a pear shape. Nice tummy there, Cream!

Meanwhile, what of poor Cookie? Cream turned aggressive just one day before she gave birth, and we had to move poor Cookie into a spare plastic tank which we had:

Cookie, in her small tank, scouting her cardboard box and carboard tube and new red bottle. (Note: not all in picture)

Anyway, she fell asleep soon enough in what I call, the pokeball position. I choose you, COOKIE-MON!

fatty update

2009-03-29T22:30:00.002+08:00

Poor fatty, having such a name.

But, she's our first Syrian hamster. Syrians are a cool breed; they live best alone. The pet shop people kept two syrians together but they were only 5 weeks old. At the 6th week, they will have to be separated, so we did not feel very xin tong when separating Fatty from her black mottled sibling.

In fact, we bought Fatty just 5 minutes before the shop closed.

And boy, did she give us trouble. Not the same kind of trouble like a biting Cotton or a scrambling Cookie-Cream pair or a pair of robos who think they can fly. But a really bad stinky trouble.

Now she's stabilised though, after we stabilised her food (pellets, not the best, but what we bought for her so she has no choice but to eat it) and drink (probiotics water to rid her body of the smell. We use the same dose, I realise as cotton gets, but he's so much smaller! Wonder if we increasing the dose would help?)

And she does not stink as much. Latest update is that she stands up and responds to her name being called. Clever Fatty!

a day in the life of a gerbil

2009-03-16T23:49:00.009+08:00

The gerbils' tank keeps changing, like a couple of renovators permanently digging and landscaping around.

From left to right: the gerbil's filled-up wooden house, the secret underground passage, more of the secret underground passage, the secret burrow.

With Herby and Gerby sleeping soundly. Actually, Herby seems to have been woken up by us!

Gerby stirs too, and they move through their secret passage.

They move, exploring their secret network of tunnels in the dark.

Herby sniffs the soil. "Gerby," he asks, "have you been digging around recently?"

Apparently she has. Herby discovers a tunnel leading to the back of the tank.

He stretches his head in to scout the tunnel.

Meanwhile Gerby squeezes through the tunnel to the surface.

Watch her head pop out from the hole in the ground!

At the surface, Gerby tries to hide from the camera.

She explores the food dish. "Grr, no food. Tricked again" she frowns.

Oops, Gerby is caught on film!

Curiously, she goes up close, and looks out of the tank.

OH NO IT'S THEM! I don't want to go out please mummy please please. *darts away*

After a long time of coaxing and spooking, we finally managed to get the gerbils out for their playtime =)

the burrow

2009-03-10T22:49:00.002+08:00

Herby and Gerby have extended their underground network to include an entire basement 2 made out of soil. Seems like they have gotten the better of us, being able to hide where we cannot reach or see them. And we have no choice but to feed them and watch them come out of their burrow to get their food and run back to eat it.

BAD HABITS Gherby!

Next two weeks, if they still refuse to show face or give us face, NO FOOD for 24 hrs. See if they don't come begging. I hope I haven't fed them too much such that they have their secret food store to tide through the famine, and hope they are sensible and do the RIGHT THING.

death

2009-03-03T09:46:00.002+08:00

Peanut passed away during the day yesterday.

In memory of this cute little peanut, here are some photos...

Frazzled peanut, fur damp from my hand. Wiping himself frantically!

Peering out of my grasp =)

And peering more intently!

the gerbil's den

2009-03-02T09:56:00.002+08:00

Herby and gerby have dug into their boxes and set up a neat tunnel system. Before I get pictures up (not sure how I'm going to) let me try to describe.

They have two boxes stacked on top of each other, with a hole linking both. They first dug downwards into the top box (entrance #1) and dug through the hole linking the two boxes and they chewed around the hole to enlarge it. Then they dug backwards through basement 2 to exit from the back of the box (near the back of the tank), and they dug upwards, creating another tunnel entrance from the back of the tank going straight to basement 2.

Rocks huh =)

digging gerbils

2009-02-26T15:35:00.002+08:00

Firstly, my micro SD card spoilt so it's not possible to transfer some photos over from my phone. Sigh. Looking forward to equip my comp with bluetooth.

But I shall describe Herby and Gerby's new tank. They dig, yep, dug plenty. I washed them last Sunday and filled it with two and a half packets of soil (half from the leftover from the previous time). They explored, dug around, hesitantly prodding the ground but not being very careful where they stepped. Their feet sunk slightly into the ground despite me pressing down on the soil such that their box actually flattened a bit (oops).

But after about half an hour they found their wooden house! Their behaviour changes immediately upon finding their house...you can see them frantically start to burrow and dig and soil flies behind them like a sandstorm (that's what it would be in the desert!).

And once inside the house they continue digging at the glass bottom. Ouch! But good for them la, go shorten their nails =P

I went back again on Monday and they still had not found the other box then. I picked them up one at a time and told them "you think mummy and daddy so bad to you all only give you one house arh. They looked at me puzzedly as I patted their heads and then put them back down. Due to the high level of the soil, they could actually, at some parts, reach their paws to cling onto the glass edge and struggle to wiggle themselves up. But once they peer over and see nowhere to grip onto, they give up. Once I put my face so near to gerby that she tried to climb onto my nose!

The way they dig is really fascinating. When they find a burrow of interest, you can see their interest being multiplied by a zillion, and they will dig till they cant dig any deeper, before running back to the start and digging again. As a result their burrow is seldom a steep side in the direction of their digging. It ends up smooth! Maybe the sand dunes of the desert are made by a million gerbils doing that! Oh man, I wanna live in the desert (kidding). Or maybe there are huge gigantic monstrous invisible gerbils. Well, I'll save that for an "I told you so" years later =P

Go herby gerby! =)

you can't separate the butter from peanut butter

2009-02-22T21:34:00.006+08:00

Delicious Spread
Butter See, Peanut Do

Hey peanut, nice and round you are! What are you looking at?

Nothing la...hee =)

There you go again, peanut! Distracted.

Nothing la...hee =)

He gets bored, so I place him back in his cage and try to get Butter out. But peanut climbs onto my hand as well! Attention seeker...

Peanut butter climbing all over my hand. Peering left and right.

Peanut tries to explore the ball of my palm and ends up nearly slipping down.

Dark picture of peanut curled into a ball while butter looks downwards.

Their positions quite boring. Never change!

with this post

2009-02-22T21:19:00.004+08:00

heralds the shift of this blog from purely entertaining (through photos) to part educational (facts) and part entertaining.

Presenting...

The Munchkins
Eat Play Sleep

let's party!

2009-02-19T20:08:00.007+08:00

Let's Party!!!

Play, Eat, Drink, Sleep

Sometimes, herby and gerby run alone. Look at how fast they go!

Sometimes, they run together. Think they will get confused? Think again. They don't have 8 legs altogether for no reason.

Presenting......

Herby and Gerby, together, running in a ball!

They get stuck at obstacles, just like when they are running alone.
And their eight legs get tangled up more easily...but they managed to cover straight distances together. Go herby gerby!

After their long and tiring playtime, they both have their dinner. Hamster delight. Sometimes grape as dessert.

After eating their dinner, herby and gerby rapidly lap up the water. Click click click goes the water bottle...

North, South, East and West. Gerby doesn't even know she's being photographed. Maybe she likes it! Lap lap lap.

And after that......

Thud. Herby goes to sleep. He looks kinda stiff...

And the next day, the cycle repeats again. Play, eat, drink, sleep!

cookie's new home

2009-02-15T12:00:00.010+08:00

Home Sweet Home
Where's Cream? =(

To our faithful readers, if you haven't already figured out, our Cookie is pregnant. Yep, and she's due anytime soon (18 - 21 days), so, in order to let her have peace of mind to care for her first litter, we decided to move her into a new cage. Here's cookie in her new home =)

Cookie explores her new home. She goes straight to the house with the comfy cotton inside...hmmmm new smell, she says!

Can I go behind? Behind? This is so cool! I'm getting a new house!

Cookie goes into the house, and explores.

Haha that's my new wheel too! Why is it green? Did mummy pick this? I told her my favourite colour is pink! =(

I tell her that I picked it.

Aha, my dish, maybe there's food... *peers in*

Not yet, cookie!

Wow, I've never seen this before...what's the sky blue thing? Can I grab it? Cookie climbs the back wall of her new cage.

Meanwhile...

Cream sulks as she wonders why cookie isn't with her. She even climbs...and peers over, and...OH NO
She spots cookie's new cage...and climbs the side, trying to get through.

I want to go over there, daddy! Cream bites the cage =(

She doesn't give up, climbing up and back down, and again, and again.

But cookie is oblivious. She climbs up to the second floor...and looks around, and in the distance...

OH NO! She hurries back down. Why is cream over there? =(

I must rescue her!! *runs down*

And they meet, albeit not in the way they expected. With horror they realise that there's a wall separating them. And they bite and bite. Fortunately they gave up more easily than when they bite the playpen.

Cookie refuses to give up; she climbs again, trying to get to cream.

And hangs there forlornly.

Poor cookie.

But...we hope that they will still remember each other.

What a day!

kablazam

2009-02-15T11:53:00.004+08:00

Look out! Here comes cotton, climbing out of the playpen in less than FIVE seconds.

Watch out!

cream is furious

2009-02-15T11:45:00.001+08:00

Ok, ok. Creamy...I'll get more photos of you...

Poor cream! =(

photo album of yet another wash day

2009-02-12T21:12:00.010+08:00

Cookie Cream Cotton
The preggy the not-so-preggy and the impregnator (um, should this be censored?)

Cotton sure looks pretty ugly when he's woken from his sleep! =P

He stands upright and observes my camera. Curious curious cotton!

Meanwhile, cookie tries to grab my attention. Way to go cooks! But uh...be careful of that preggy tummy? I can't really tell which way's up.

In the playpen......

They mingle, cotton keeps smelling them. Sigh cotton, they are ALREADY pregnant!

Never gives up. Even when cookie is obviously fat. Cotton looks about as fat but it's an illusion! =)

After placing them in, cookie goes to her favourite corner and sits down on her butt.

Meanwhile, cotton leaves a big mess...yes, that's from his skinny-looking cheek pouch......

......and curls up to sleep. Guys will be guys huh. Sleep anywhere =(

I didn't want to disturb him (at least he won't be climbing out).

So here comes some photos of cookie and cream in the hand!

Watch out! No no that's cotton's cage below you! (yeah, photo taken before wash I think, order a bit mixed)

Cookie in the direction of the computer. When is mummy coming on again, sighs the cute little fat hammie =)

Bumshot and sideshot. Cookie's patterned coat is really really obvious! =) Must be stretched a lot =D (ps I think I'm getting better at this photoblog thing =P)

Last but not least, hey there cookie!!! =) (post-wash)

stop being so cute!

2009-02-12T10:11:00.004+08:00

Peanut butter! Peanut peanut peanut butter! Aww...how brotherly! =)

an hour in the life of a nut

2009-02-12T04:00:00.000+08:00

Say cheese! =) Behold peanut and his stillness!

Hmph! Of course I can stay still...wanna bet?

Told you so =P Say what again peanut? Stunned look.

Ha. I'm cuter! -Butter says as he peers at me. He has been sitting still for over a minute!

Right after the food is put in...this is the scene. A short moment of shock as the cage door clanks shut. Locking them in again for another 12 hours. Then, the aroma of the food wafts up to their noses and...CLICK, something in their brain snaps and they make a mad dash for the food bowl and DIVE IN. Can you almost hear them shouting "daddy!!! we want a bigger food dish =("

Right, now peanut is screaming "daddy!!! we want a bigger food serving!"

At another angle. Peanut turns round and round.

Please, daddy?? No...peanut. Tonight! =)

the preggy ones

2009-02-09T14:36:00.000+08:00

Hey creamy creamy! Watcha doing SITTING in the RUNNING wheel? =D

Yo cookie!! Come on out...we all know =) it's alright!

Cream from the back =)

Cream again, refusing to let me take a bum shot.

Cookie, pressing flat against my palm.

Cookie's bum! Can't run fast enough =D

the cute one

2009-02-09T12:37:00.000+08:00

Disclaimer: if we did not have two pregnant hamsters, this post would be...the cute ones =)

Say hello to cotton!! *Stares at daddy*

Please don't let go daddy...I'm trusting you here...

Phew. I feel so much more secure like this! =)

Gimme a boost here, will you?! I'm trying to sit down!

neat freaks

2009-02-07T22:01:00.001+08:00

Herby and gerby are actually neat freaks. They pushed like nearly all the fluff to the near left corner of the tank and made a nest there. Reason being I cover that corner with the shirt every night and in the day so that the sunlight from the window doesn't disturb them. So now their wooden house is devoid of fluff and used to run and hide from me (the big monster).

new cage!

2009-02-07T15:33:00.000+08:00

Overview of the new cage. Two and a half-levels with a nice house. Position of house can be moved. Bag in the background was from the store. Food dish on its side will be in an upright position during meal times. This is just how it would look like after the hammies flip it =)

It looks small but it isn't. The wheel is big enough for the big hammie to run comfortably and it's 40 something cm by 30 something cm.

Just...the house. Really sweet right? It's pink!

Middle tier. With the food dish. I decided to put it there so the hammie will have plenty of space downstairs.

View of the house and the upper two levels. See the ramps?

The wheel at the back (not silent) and the ramp to the middle floor.

SUPPER TIME!!! The food dish. Spot the water spout at the back.

The water bottle! It's rather big...

cookie, cream, and cotton (Part 2)

2009-02-06T08:24:00.000+08:00

Washing Day
Part 2

Cookie, Cream and Cotton

Don't you wonder why all the AFTER photos are all of cookie and cream?

It's because our grand stag, cotton, has decided to retire to his humble abode. Tiring climbing all that fence!

Cotton gives the "WHO WOKE ME UP" face.

Finally, annoying camera in my face. Now I can go to sleep...

Eyes start to close...

Ah man cotton cotton...sleepyhead! But ain't he cute? Curled up in that fetal position. Aw so adorable!

Meanwhile, cookie and cream are still exploring everything, including...

The gnawing block...

The food dish...

Cookie creamy! So curious!

But finally...eventually...they settled down =)

Long long wash day...wish I can line them up to take a group photo. But they go berserk everytime my hand goes near. Haha.

Part 1

cookie, cream, and cotton

2009-02-06T08:13:00.000+08:00

Washing Day
Cookie, Cream and Cotton
Photoshoot 6 Feb 2009

Hey buddy buddy! Cotton flips over. The best shot of him doing that around cooks...

Hmm, what's that over there? I smell some nice food! Direction of the kitchen. Haha but actually Cora wasn't cooking anything I think...

Let me down!!! Hmph! *Sticks rump in the air*

Gotcha cookie darling! Not going anywhere now! Don't let us see you bum!

Is that our playpen, daddy? Looks kinda cool..Oh I see cookie and cotton consorting. I'm jealous daddy. Can I make friends with cotton too? -Cream

Cream and cotton lying next to each other. For once, they are not thinking about mating, nor are they thinking about squeaking loudly at each other.

Cream goes to lie down when she's place back in her side of the pen. Aww so chubby!

After the wash...back in their cages!

Aw man, I'm sooo thirsty. Glad to have some fresh water back!

Meanwhile, cream explores the cage. Is this new is this new is this new daddy?
Me: no, cream. It's just washed.

Cream: oh. Cheh! *Climbs back down*

Run baby run! The wheel clanks a little. Think I'll do the twisty thing tighter next time round.

Haha so cute! They are both wondering why the wheel cannot turn!

The story continues...
Part 2

the tunnel below the food

2009-02-05T22:48:00.000+08:00

Oh no, there's a worm in herby and gerby's tank!! Look...it's brown and...

It just moved! It has a head! With two eyes. Gosh.

It moves very quickly too! I think it's a case of mistaken identity...

It's the magic of the tunnel. Their new hiding spot number two.

What, then what is number 1??

Haha. Their burrow. See gerby's snout sticking out? Go on...play spot the gerby!

Just a picture of the entrance to their burrow on the left, with another tunnel (now chewed up) near the bottom of the photo.

Go, gerby! Nice pose! =)

hamster delight

2009-02-04T20:19:00.000+08:00

Did you know that gerbils wink when they are happy? Google gerbil winking for some cool pictures =)

Now, for some cool pictures of our own...

Hey man...look at me run! On and on and on. Meanwhile, look at peanut's stuffed cheeks =)

Like lightning, you can barely see him =D perhaps it's the camera shutter speed. Hmm. Butter has other ideas.

And here, behold the two nuts chewing on hamster delight!! Pellet food which they love.

Peanut beneath the wheel, looking all peaceful =)

the wonders of multimedia

2009-02-03T22:18:00.000+08:00

Ok, this is my first time doing this video thing. Hope that more will come =)

But presenting (well, don't applause, they are shy)...cotton and cookie mating.

looking at...

2009-02-02T19:26:00.000+08:00

Herby and gerby's tank reminds me of the earth. How every plate is shifting beneath our feet. The ever constant change of landscape and shifts of the ground.

Peanut and butter's cage reminds me of the palace. How royalty lives with servants at their beck and call to serve them twice a day. The perpetual routine of eating and sleeping and playing.

Cookie and cream's cage reminds me of a gym. How every gymnast climbs and jumps and tiptoes gracefully. The all-so-cute look they have on their faces when we go near.

Cotton's cage reminds me of...a cage. No kidding. It's the humblest abode of all. So simple that he has no choice but to self-entertain by climbing all over. And pee all over. Poor cotton. I should get him an enclosed house!

updates =)

2009-02-01T22:36:00.000+08:00

Herby and Gerby now have this tunnel (made of toilet roll) which goes under their food dish. I think the rationale is to make a hole below their dish so that the food just falls in and gets automatically buried. But they didn't figure how they were going to dig through the dish.

Nah, kidding.

But their tunnel is cool. It's the first toilet roll they didn't mutilate. Another one inside is being chewed up.

Peanut and butter are ever so adorable. Whatever cool gene they have, their size is so perfect that how we wish we had a female counterpart to mate with them! Ah welllll...

They are so obedient now that they allow me to sayang their back. They still feel icky when i stroke their white sides. But I guess I don't like the feeling too!

photos of cookie =)

2009-02-01T18:03:00.000+08:00

The preggy one? The fat one? NO! We don't know, officially, but today something weird happened. Cotton mounted cookie again and she did not make a sound. Perhaps she's in heat again. But if the previous time was successful, can a preggy hammy be in heat again? It sounds weird right? Still searching to no avail. And cream is the fat one, bigger than cooks. So was it a mistake and is cream the preggy one? Unfortunately, I do not have photos of cream to compare, so guys, heads up and hands together for the awesome....

COOKIE!

Ah, she does look fat at her bum doesn't she? Rather thick too. Here's photos from the side and from the top.

Cookie has a fiesty character. It's nearly impossible to get a good photograph of her as she panics when she sees the camera and runs away. Only when she finds a comfortable spot (like the cool floor in the photo above =) do I try to capture her on camera.

Yeah I tried to get some photos of her underside. No hamsters were harmed in the process of taking the video, I promise. No baby hamsters too. Held her lightly but she kept struggling!

Hard to tell, we have no choice but to wait. I'll go try mating them after another 3-4 days. But first I have to search and account for their behaviour.

awesome burrow

2009-02-01T10:38:00.000+08:00

Greetings from the burrow. Nice nest, herby and gerby!

One inside and one outside. But that's not the best bit of their burrow...

See something yet? That space below the food dish (yeah, it seems like it's floating) and the dark corner which herby is looking at (he's the one behind).

It's a burrow. For real. But I couldn't get any of them inside the tunnel to take a photo. Either that or they simply dashed through the tunnel, and my shots all had blurry brown blobs in them! So I resorted in dumping two sunflower seeds in the tunnel to lure them there.

It worked =D

Both of them went in. See the two tails? The burrow stretches along the right side of the tank and to the back, and comes out in this hole at the back. They probably spent the whole day digging it!

A view from the right side. See how their eyes are closed even when eating. I swear gerbils don't see in their burrows at all! And they think that they are underground...right herbygerby?

Gerby, I think, enjoying her sunflower seed!

This morning, though, sadly, the food bowl was found collapsed so I removed it. The night before I still put food there and it held even when fat herby sat on it! Poor herbs!

They are still terraforming their tank now, digging the entire left side out and chewing up their casio box.

Pretty, aren't they? Presenting...herby, gerby, and their awesome burrow!

close ups

2009-02-01T09:55:00.000+08:00

Presenting.....PEANUT BUTTER, the TAME roborovskis!

"Hello! =)" -Butter, held by 3 of my fingers around his tummy and not stuggling.

Butter looks really stunned. Hey, is this daddy? What happened to mummy? =(

Ohh...mummy has to run some errands...butter understands! =)

Hey look what's that? Nice toys down there!! I don't know who was more scared of who, but I was freaked out when Butter jumped down from that height into the box. Luckily no injuries and he's still running around crazily =)

And look who's there? The wonderful peanut! He loves sitting on the big lump of flesh just below the thumb. Maybe he likes the warmness? But he allowed me to take this beautiful photo of him!

And behold, again, Peanut! From the top this time =)

Pose, nut! Pose! *Stones* Pose, please?? *Stones* Oh well, he likes his stone face on camera! Right, peanut? =D

I feel like a long way up, daddy...I know that's my toy, but pleasee put me down?

Looking sadly at the toys just out of reach =(

Daddy, pleaseeeee??

I guess I didn't find him cute enough to keep him on my hand any longer =P joking...but here he excitedly climbs off my hand!

And poof. He's gone!

Peeping out at his surroundings.

And here, on the lookout for the big pink thing with the camera!!

Gotcha, peanut butter! =D

playthings and nestthings

2009-01-30T00:29:00.000+08:00

Peanut butter enjoy their toys so much that they have inherited Cookie and creamy's wooden castle =) They run over it, hide under it, pose on top of it. Just worried they mis-use it and jump from it. It would be disastrous, especially if out of the box.

But anyway, glad for them! Glad they like the box and it's nice to see them exercising themselves =)

Herby and gerby did something really funny. When being transported, they pushed ALL the bedding out of their cool burrow and cowered in there with only the glass bottom and the wooden log sides for company. After they stabilized, though, they moved it all back and they are fine now! Just heard them shredding a piece of cardboard for their nest addition!

cookie =)

2009-01-29T10:03:00.000+08:00

Dedicating this post to cookie is one of the many small things I could do for such a great hamster.

Called "him" ever since 2 weeks old, cookie still deserves the endearing sayang of "cookie boy!" Both her and cream were small when we got them (like duh, right?) and they are now, 2months+, a healthy dwarf hamster size =)

At their age now, 3 months approximately, they are ready to raise a new litter. Bookings have already been made for like 3 or 4 of the pups, and we surely hope that this first litter is raised successfully!

Go cookie, the first mum.

mating!

2009-01-28T23:20:00.000+08:00

Long time since the last update.

Today deserves SPECIAL MENTION. Cookie and Cotton did something really really intimate today! They mated.

That's all? I can sense your shock. The horror.

Yah right, like they mate everyday...we have a video of the last bit of the mating. Last bit, mind you. And that last bit is about 3 minutes of scrambling all over cookie and thrusting.

Enough graphic details. The next 3 weeks will be growth and growth for her. This lump of 2 - 14 foetuses will be developing in her, and when she gives birth, cream will have to leave the cage to make way for the new litter! Also, we will not be able to wash the cage for 2 whole weeks. Please don't stink! And no handling of the babies before 3 weeks+ when they are still being weaned =)

Stressful huh. Can't compare to cookie!

party of seven

2009-01-24T06:12:00.000+08:00

Everyday now the routine is:

In the morning, mummy will take out all the older hammies and put them in their balls. The small nuts get maze time, while the gerbils are handled one by one.

At night, the bigger hammies get play pen time while the small nuts are put in their maze again. As for the gerbils, in the afternoon, they get to play in the play pen as they are rather restless in their tank.

Oh, did I mention they now have soil? It's way cool. We buried two secret compartments beneath the soil, and they dug both up to reveal the artificial burrows and spend most of the day lazing around inside!

The soil we use cannot really hold up. We added small bedding to the soil to firm it as well as to absorb odour, but it's starting to smell a lot like...soil. It didn't when we first started, and it has only been one day! We hope the smell doesn't take a turn for the worse =)

Cotton has also been neglecting his food. Put in quarter spoonful of organic every morning and night, and he always leaves some in his dish. Bad eating habits adopted at daddy's house? Perhaps =( Anyway, we plan to give him nut mix in the morning and organic at night. To make sure that he gains the weight he has to before we try introducing him to cookie and cream again! Only worry is that we give too much nut mix and he STILL neglects his organic food at night!

Cookie and cream are way cute, but they have been fighting with each other more often these days. Keep squeaking loudly at each other in their cage. But they still huddle and sleep together, so we're hoping they won't fight too much!

The only change is that cotton has been living around cooks and cream for 10 days etc. And the play pen we split to give the big hamsters a barrier through which they can see other. Quite a heartening sight when cotton tries to grab them through the bars, but they do squeak at each other across too! At least they can't tear each others' =)

new habitats

2009-01-23T09:34:00.000+08:00

Wash day was yesterday, and we changed the bedding of herby and gerby to SOIL. Which they took an almost-instant liking too! Herby enjoys burying his nose in the soil (and making it completely dirty) while gerby enjoys eating soil.

Well, they do dig! Promise photos when we get them and more updates =)

sleepy gerbils

2009-01-20T16:27:00.000+08:00

It's the day time, and apart from digging their entire tank up such that their food bowl is buried and the entire right side of the tank is devoid of bedding, they have been sleeping. Right.

Now I just introduced another toilet roll. They have destroyed 2 in about...6 days? Not bad huh. And I introduced another piece of toilet paper to fluff their nest more. Perhaps we should transfer their nest in its entirety. The websites say that will calm them down. As for the bedding, the websites suggest transferring the top layer but it would look weird in the new found soil, so I doubt we will do that.

Logistics to be settled:
1) water bottle: I just thought of letting the nozzle of the bottle stick through a hole in the cover. Tried it and the nozzle fits nicely, but we will need a stand on the outside to balance the bottle.
2) soil flying out when they burrow?
3) dirty gerbils?

Gosh, they had better enjoy the soil for all it's worth =)

And now, after they have investigated the hand which woke them up, they are back to sleep.

Oh, and I just fed them all grapes =)

gerby pregnant?

2009-01-19T23:15:00.000+08:00

Recently, herby and gerby have begun to nest. A common sign that babies are coming, because they don't really bother building a bed to make the babies.

But, gerby's tummy is still quite flat, and it's still above my palm when she's on. Besides, she is actually smaller than herby now, and she was larger than him about 3 weeks back.

Wait, so they are...11 weeks old now. That's mating age actually. I really don't know, except that we can only wait and see.

Oh yeah, recently they have been sleeping together a lot, sometimes even just resting together with their eyes closed. Sounds like a protective dad-to-be eh.

If their gestation is 28 days, and the likely maturity is 8 to 10 weeks, then in about 2 weeks gerby should be showing. Like, pear shaped and with a rippling tummy.

We shall see!

Meanwhile, peanut and butter are having their own fun, oblivious to the potential baby factory next to them (we hope!) =D they were very guai today, allowing me to hold them for more than a minute each, before I let them explore their new toy again, and let them play with my hand which they used as a tunnel and a slide and a climb-over all-in-one =D

What fantastic hamsters they are!

Yikes, but they peed in the box. I guess that could not have been helped. But I wiped it and hope it dries up =)

dear mummy...

2009-01-18T21:18:00.001+08:00

We can go up and look down!

We can zoom in and through and out!

We can think deep thoughts up there...

And think of mummy out there!

Love you lots mummy!

Can't wait to let you see how big we have grown =)

hey mummy, look!

2009-01-18T20:23:00.000+08:00

We have a new toy! =)

Nice toy huh, mummy? We can climb up it and go through it. We can slide down it and chew on it. We absolutely adore it!!! But we hate our photos being taken with it =D

Peanut and butter were the absolute sweeties today. Kept really still (both of them!) for at least 2 minutes and managed to take more than 50 shots in succession but I'll upload only a couple =)

First up.....butter!

Oh no mummy, I swear there's something out to get me. I'll run as fast as I can if it tries!

Ah whatever, I need to adjust my fur! This body has so much fur now I must clean a million times each day!

Aww, ain't he cute? What a sweetie! Submissively lying on daddy's hand =)

And now, presenting the AL-MIGHTY....peanut!

1) Hmmph! Not facing the camera. See who wins =P
2) *Peeks* it's still there??? Cheh!
3) Argh....why won't it leave!
4) Ok la ok la. Cheese =D

Where's mummy? Is she in the camera?

Maybe I can sniff her out. She has been hiding from us!

Mummy kiss me!! *turns cheek*

great nest (the photos)

2009-01-18T19:35:00.000+08:00

First and foremost, greetings from our miss gerby, winner of the biggest eater of the month award!

Mmm, nice carrot =)

Great, let's do a pose for the camera!

Yipee, I'm in the spotlight!!

(All three photos, still eating =P)

And after that, miss big eater dashes back into the house, cos there's no more food left.

Ok, basically, I am not such a great photo taker but I tried to capture the nest in a picture. Well, to be fair to me, I think they want their nest to be private =D

Here:

There, to the right of the wheel, a nice pile of cardboard and shavings and stuff, which herby was lying on peacefully in the evening. The actual contents of the nest include:
1) shavings from half a toilet roll
2) shavings from the bottom of their box
3) shavings from their house
4) shavings from cardboard pieces I put in
5) comfy bedding from their original comfy bedding

Right, how ingenious huh. I witnessed herby carrying shavings back and forth from the nest. Maybe gerby is pregnant and he's caring for her! =P I really don't know.

Right now their wheel is pressed against the right side of their tank and goes TIAK TIAK TIAK. And their food dish is buried beneath a lump of bedding. Gosh. I pulled it out twice and perhaps they prefer it that way. Oh, and I kwwp seeing them going over to the left corner and do some digging then suddenly start chewing. Maybe it's their food store! =)

Oh well, I shall leave their food for tonight on the bedding and see what they do with it =)

great nest

2009-01-18T10:25:00.000+08:00

I think herby and gerby are about to do it. Neh. Joking. But they are certainly making a nest which I will feel wasted since we're going to give them a new habitat this week =)

I saw herby taking some shredded cardboard in his mouth and carrying them to this corner behind the wheel. And they have been digging up the entire tank and even buried their food bowl. Great huh? Now, one of them is trying to dig their wooden house from the inside out. I can hear a lot of scratching noises.

Fantastic huh. Also, I will take some photos of their tank when I return tonight. Their box, which has been buried for a long time. Now the hole in the bottom is so big that all the bedding has fallen through and doesn't pile up in the box. They must have spent a long time doing that without us even knowing! Great work guys.

The only thing now is that they pushed everything to the right side and the wheel goes tiak tiak tiak everytime it spins, but I'm not going to interrupt their terraforming process! =)

Peanut and butter are right now, sleeping on the porch. Probably the darkest area since they are against a wall. So have covered their cage (not routine) so they can sleep downstairs if they want to, cos that's where their nest is!

Watch out for the photo updates later =)

way too smart

2009-01-17T07:11:00.000+08:00

Herby and Gerby spent the entire night (well, I don't know how long exactly) digging up the secret passage with the corn in it. Found their food bowl toppled and the passage overturned and the wheel pressing against the side of the tank such that it goes tiak tiak tiak when they run. And the corn have been eaten, not sure by who =)

Peanut Butter are not very guai today. Peanut keeps flying out of my hand so I had to cup him from the start and he stayed very still thereafter. Butter was more guai and stayed still for super long! Proud of them now, mummy? =D

naughty

2009-01-17T00:15:00.000+08:00

Heard that cotton broke his leg! But considering that he climbs all over his cage, it's no wonder. I'm sure his insurance agent is complaining now!

cricket galore

2009-01-16T18:50:00.000+08:00

Tried the hunting thing with herby and gerby again today and it did not work. They caught both, but only ate part of them. I left the crickets in for about fifteen minutes before deciding it was too disgusting for them. Perhaps they like the older ones, which jump about and are more fun to catch.

Right now I can hear the crickets singing in the bathroom. Can't wait for someone to try to find the source of the noise and open the cabinet below the sink =P tomorrow they will have no cricket hunting session, cos it's simply a waste of those crickets. The routine will be as follows:
1) clear dead crickets cos they stink
2) clear herby and gerby's tank of everything
3) catch the biggest crickets and throw them in

And sit back and watch the hunt!

Oh, for some strange reason peanut and butter are sleeping in the house upstairs. It seems they tried to throw some bedding down, so there's a mess of bedding, their original from last week, downstars and the new bedding upstairs. But regardless, just let them have their sleep! Hope it's not a territory issue, but I don't think it is cos they still run everywhere and are only startled by the smell of my hand!

say hello!

2009-01-16T07:20:00.000+08:00

PeanutButter Photo Shoot

Peanut (I think) says HELLO EVERYONE!
(To all readers, we apologise as our professional photographer is currently overseas. Kindly bear with the drop in quality of the photos!)

But don't you think he's kinda cute in that pose? =D

What's down there? Is it the FLOOR?! Should I jump? Neh...mummy taught me not to...if not I would hurt myself!

What's up there? Is that a camera? *distracted from the floor* =P

Maybe I should lie down and rest for a while. This hand-thing has been ruffling my fur and I'm tired of cleaning myself. Sigh!

What what? WHO SAID THAT?! *Looks around*

Meet Butter the zooming hamster! =)

open skies

2009-01-16T06:03:00.000+08:00

HerbyGerby photoshoot

Herby and gerby on the lookout, wondering what's attacking them with the bright light.

Herby staring at the food bowl (as usual!) and gerby peering curiously at me.

Gerby: LOOK HERBY what's up there?! Our tank top has been removed!! What happened?
Herby bounds along on the wheel happily, ignoring her.

Gerby: I'm serious! Look! She climbs to higher ground to take a look.
Herby stops and looks where gerby is looking.

Gerby climbs back down to show herby what happened, and herby stares in amazement at the open sky.

Gerby: Let's try to get up there!!
Herby agrees.

Watch out for the flying herby! Up and up and up!

Herby blushes. "Hee", he offers weakly. "Go down herby!" I gesture downwards. Obediently, he bounds back down.

THE END

growing nuts

2009-01-15T23:46:00.000+08:00

Peanut Butter are ever the sweeties. Still warming up to my hand but they let me pet them this time! I was like, "nut nut! this is a finger! it won't hurt u..." then pet pet! Right now they are happily back in their cage after a few minutes of special maze time in which they explored everything and determined their favourite colour to be white! =)

Hiding in the corner wondering what's that shadow over them. It's a monster it's a black box no it's a camera!!!

Can find the nutties? One of them is in the shadows! =)

Once again, they wonder where mummy is, but they are getting used to my hand too. Right now, one is ruinning the wheel and the other is running upstairs. They were running together a second ago =)

Oh, and one milestone, they are now officially too big to fit in the food dish together. They tried, I swear. But always one butt stuck out of the dish and they gave up and took turns.

Cheers to our young nuts!

hunting time

2009-01-15T18:55:00.000+08:00

Peanut butter stretch and yawn. Saw one of them yawn and it was really cool! I covered their cloth back so as not to disturb their rest. Herby and Gerby had a hey day today. First I took everything out of their tank, leaving only a vast expanse of bare bedding. Then I took two rather big crickets and dumped them in. Watched them jump and hunt and strangle those crickets to death and watched them devour them slowly. They really loved it, even as the crickets struggled while being eaten!

Oh, and I planned to test herby and gerby. Hehheh who wants to be my gerbils? =P I placed a piece of cardboard under the food dish and piled bedding such that the cardboard carves out a burrow like hole visible from outside, and I plan to place two pieces of corn there and see if it goes missing (or if the food bowl is toppled). But perhaps tomorrow cos today they had their feast already.

Right now, they are digging and burrowing beneath the cardboard box in their tank. And their food bowl is being filled with the bedding being thrown out. Haha. But let them be happy =)

More updates on peanut butter to be expected!

maze time!

2009-01-15T07:06:00.000+08:00

Talk about wacky. I made a maze for the nutters. The walls are high enough such that they cannot climb out, but it's too small for herbs and gerbs!

Wish I have a photo of the nutters but I had problems with the lighting. Just that they enjoyed it tremendously. Gave them about 3 minutes worth of maze time before handling them.

The nuts still don't let me take them out by coming to the door, and it's the hand chase nut routine still, but I think the good thing is that they calm down once out!

And herby gerby are the same usual naughty selfs. climbing all over and all under. No photos of them today =(

Attached: letter from peanut butter
Re: HI MUMMY! KEEP WARM!

Keep warm ok mummy? We're hoping you will cheer up. We don't have internet too, and daddy says we'll be addicted. So we hate him for that but we still love him because.......

he gives us food!

Loving you,
Peanut Butter

zamster bam it's a hamster!

2009-01-09T09:03:00.000+08:00

Cookie and creamy have interesting moods. Like...yesterday morning they refused to come out of their houses no matter how we called them and only came out when no one was looking to get at their food. Nearly freaked me out cos I thought they were dead in the house.

But thankfully they were not! Stuck their noses out in the late afternoon, but still had to tornado their house to get them out. Poor them,,.but they must move about at least! Which they were last night, running the wheel at turbo speeds to make the glunk glunk glunk noise =)

Peanut butter both have adopted the cute hammie look ever since two three days ago. They grew a butt with white fur and their body fur turned....molted? Still brown, but molted colour. They are still easily startled but they 1) don't shoot out of the hand, 2) stay super still for at least two minutes, both of which are remarkable milestones in their growth.

They are just so adorable =)

Both Herby and Gerby (or, herbygerbyherbygerbyherbygerby......ad infinitum =P) enjoy running about. Place them in the pen and zoom they go off on a cross country circuit in circles. The ball with the bell also proved to be a hit with herbs, he balances on his hind legs and runs after the ball! Gerbs is more frightened of it. And they absolutely enjoy the envelope, run in and out crinkle and flip it all over. Not to mention that they were picked up and sealed in the envelope but apparently they quickly forgot that experience.

And of course, cotton. He got the corn treat, same as cooks and cream, and he enjoys climbing all over his cage like a ninja. Or tarzan. =) I can be sitting there looking at him, then turn away for 10 seconds and he's on top of the cage. Is that good or what? I hope that what he has keeps him entertained, and I'm slightly worried cos he's starting to smell hamster (he has never had had a powder bath!).

cleaning day!

2009-01-08T00:22:00.000+08:00

Our wash day today...went well. Hammies got new clean cages and a corn treat for cooks and cream, while peanut butter had their second powder bath, which they detested. And our gerbils got a new clean box to kingdom come.

Kindly check back for more updates! =)

Our Babies

2009-01-07T14:21:00.023+08:00

Litter #6
Date of birth: 27 October 2009
Dad: Herby
Mom: Gerby
Number of pups: 7
Names: unconfirmed
Description: 6 golden agouti and 1 argente golden

Home(s): unconfirmed

Litter #5
Date of birth: 30 August 2009
Dad: Herby
Mom: Gerby
Number of pups: 4
Names: Chestnut, Ash, and others

Description: 2 golden agouti females, 1 golden agouti male and 1 argente golden male

Home(s): Chestnut (argente golden male) and Ash (golden agouti male) live with Alan, while the 2 girls live with Daniel.

Litter #4
Date of birth: 22 June 2009
Dad: Herby
Mom: Gerby
Number of pups: 5
Names: Riley, Kiley, Ziley, and others
Description: 2 golden agouti females, 2 golden agouti males and 1 argente golden male
Home(s): Riley (argente golden male), Kiley and Ziley (golden agouti males) live with Yang, while the other 2 still live with Jamal.

Updates: http://twyangzii.webs.com/gerbils.htm

Litter #3
Date of birth: 16 May 2009
Dad: Herby
Mom: Gerby
Number of pups: 5 (after 1 died)
Names: Hina, Vienna, and others
Description: 3 golden agouti females, 1 golden agouti male and 1 argente golden female
Home(s): Hina (golden agouti female) and Vienna (argente golden female) live with Xinyi, while the other 3 golden agouti gerbils went to Pets Village at Suntec City.

Litter #2
Date of birth: 6 May 2009
Dad: Cotton
Mom: Cookie
Number of pups: 3
Names: Ashoka, [unknown names for the other 2]
Description: Ashoka is a sapphire winter white female and the other 2 are pearl winter white males
Home(s): Ashoka the sapphire winter white lives with Ms Jo's sons, while the 2 pearl winter whites live with aunty Cora's friend

Litter #1
Date of birth: 30 March 2009
Dad: Cotton
Mom: Cream
Number of pups: 2 (after 1 died)
Names: Salt, Pepper
Description: Salt is a pearl winter white female, Pepper is a sapphire winter white male
Home(s): with us