the hammie house

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 =)

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

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

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

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!