|
So I just bought two male robos today and they are fantastic and adorable. A couple of questions though: I already have a pair of gerbils, so will they likely freak out if I put their aquariums side by side, and if so is it a scent thing, or can I tape cardboard to the outside of the aquarium so they can't see each other? I've noticed that when the hamsters chirp, the gerbils will stop what they're doing and look around and vice versa. Also, do robos jump very high? There's about five inches from the highest surface they could stand on and the top of the cage, and I'm not sure if I should bother getting them a mesh lid. Also worth pointing out, I had no idea my gerbils were so massive until I brought the robos home. They are positively ginormous by comparison.
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2012 23:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 16:56 |
|
|
MacGyvers_Mullet posted:Also, do robos jump very high? There's about five inches from the highest surface they could stand on and the top of the cage, and I'm not sure if I should bother getting them a mesh lid. I have a teddy bear hamster, so ymmv, but while they can't really jump, they can do some really acrobatic climbing... so if they would be able to reach up to it while on their hind legs, they can easily jimmy their way up and out. I had to tape down a lid on the top of one of my cages after my hamster managed a daring escape out of it, down the back of a bureau, under the door, and down 2 flights of stairs to a basement, avoiding 2 cats.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 00:27
|
|
|
A Sloth posted:Well, just split the hamsters cage up. Seems Wulfstan has decided to be an aggressive little toerag and attack Guthrum constantly. If they're fighting a lot, I would suggest against ever putting them together again or giving them the opportunity to reach each other or sense each other, as it'll probably stress them out. My last Robo pair became 1 and a half Robos when one decided he felt like eating the other in the nest. He then died himself from overeating, it seems, as they were both dead when found. Ever since, I've kept to separating hamsters as soon as I get them, the mom/daughter pair was the last time I tried to keep two together, figuring since they were mother/daughter, they would form a support relationship, but no. edit: And hamsters can crawl along the undersides of mesh aquarium tops. I've witnessed it myself. They are acrobatic motherfuckers, do not underestimate them, I suggest putting something fairly hefty(1-2 pounds) on the hamster cage's top to weigh it down and prevent escapes. I had one pile all the carefresh into one corner until he could just stand up and pop the top off, then escaped, fell 6 feet to the hardwood floor, crawled along into the storage room, and I only found him because his butt-tufts made a little clean line on the dusty storage room floor. When I found him, he was in the middle of chewing on a mouse's skull, presumably one that had died years prior when we had a mouse problem(125 y/o house, stone foundation, real hard to keep the mice out). But still, 
Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Dec 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 02:22
|
|
|
Captain Invictus posted:edit: And hamsters can crawl along the undersides of mesh aquarium tops. I've witnessed it myself. They are acrobatic motherfuckers, do not underestimate them Quoting this just to get the point across. Hamsters can and will climb on anything they can get near. One of mine even did it when my old cat laid on top of the cage so it could bite it in the rear end. Hamsters give no fucks. Also, A Sloth, sorry to hear they won't get along. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 18:09
|
|
|
Thanks for the advice about cages. I ended up having to seperate the Robos since the bigger one wouldn't stop harassing the little one. I hoped it was just play fighting, but once I watched them for a bit, it was obvious that was not the case. The little guy was cowering in the corner and would freak out and run away any time he saw the big one. At one point the little one buried himself in a corner, but the big one ran over, dug him up, then started attacking him. The pet store said they'd take the aggressive one back and put him up as a free solo adoption since I bought them less than 24 hours ago, with a warning that he shouldn't be caged with other hamsters. The owner told me that, even though they'd probably grow into the same size given time, the size difference is great enough now that there's a high chance the big one will try to eat the little one given his behavior so far.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 18:44
|
|
|
If they're fighting, chances are even if the little one suddenly got a lot bigger, that they still wouldn't be able to live together. Hamsters hold grudges like pretty much no one else.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 18:51
|
|
|
cat with hands posted:You have to wonder why that's not the default reaction to a threat instead of the standard guinea pig defense, aka the 'huddle up and hope my pal looks tastier' technique. It is curious. Instead, they went with the "overbreed and take out the predators through diabetes and high cholesterol" option. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 21:19
|
|
|
If a gerbil draws blood (not too serious), do I need to go get that finger checked out or should putting my finger under running water be fine and dandy. My brown gerbil seems to be fine most of the time, but likes to bite hard enough at least once every month or two. It's weird too, cause you'd figure after about 2 to almost 3 months of owning them and handling them every day, the brown guy would stop his shenanigans, but nope. Maybe it's because he is still young. EDIT: Am I going to turn into a Were-gerbil? Zetsubou fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Dec 20, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2012 14:27
|
|
|
Rodents bite. Provided they aren't living in squalor and haven't been hanging out with wild squirrels and bats, you ought to be fine.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2012 02:15
|
|
|
There aren't a ton of diseases that gerbils carry that are transmittable to humans, but there's a risk of infection when pretty much any animal, people included, bite hard enough to break your skin. If they break the skin, just wash up with some antibacterial soap and use some antibacterial ointment on the wound to be safe. It wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on the bite to make sure it's not getting puffy or inflamed or anything, but it's honestly nothing to worry about. As far as the biting behavior goes, it's possible they're confusing your fingers for delicious, delicious sunflower seeds. I have one that bites when she's irritated and one that is more chill and just squirms when she's irritated, but they'll both try to nibble and occasionally chomp down if I've been handing food recently and haven't washed. Sumac fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Dec 20, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2012 02:30
|
|
|
The local Petsmart carries the Oxbow Essentials food for every small animal EXCEPT chinchillas, and Petco doesn't carry Oxbow products.  What's a good place to order it online that won't charge an arm and a leg for shipping?
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2012 19:28
|
|
|
Edit: nvm
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2012 19:35
|
|
|
Dr. Foster & Smith has it: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16624 I've bought from them a bunch of times, shipping is free if you can pad out your order to $49. You could maybe ask your local PetSmart to order it for you too.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2012 19:50
|
|
|
Fraction posted:If they're fighting, chances are even if the little one suddenly got a lot bigger, that they still wouldn't be able to live together. Hamsters hold grudges like pretty much no one else. With my hamsters it was the little one who was the aggressor.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2012 20:41
|
|
|
Just dropped the chinchillas off at the vet for boarding. They initially wanted to put them in a room with a bunch of dogs that was about 8 billion degrees (I was sweating putting together their cages and I was just in a t-shirt), and I was all "awww hell naw" and they moved them to a colder room with some birds. I hope they don't move them back  Now I'm gonna be worried about the little guys the whole week I'm gone. I wish I could've found a petsitter but the only person I know who's staying in town over Christmas is terrified of all animals, even chinchillas.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2012 22:27
|
|
|
Uh oh, one of my pigs is drinking an inordinate amount of water. Is there another symptom I can cross-diagnose with, or is it vet time? His weight's unchanged and is just as active.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2012 08:28
|
|
|
How long has this been going on? Weeks or days? Have they been getting less wet greens than usual recently? Do you have a second bottle? Maybe that bottle's not releasing enough liquid so he's more playing with it than drinking it. Could you swap out to test? Personally with zero symptoms I would probably wait a week and watch daily for other changes. I might isolate for a day to check how the poops look and if they're normal okay, if not that's a corroboration to get to the vet. If it's a stone or sludge at a very early stage they can probably flush it without surgery, so that's maybe an argument for going in sooner rather than later.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2012 18:09
|
|
|
It's only been happening for two days, their greens consumption hasn't changed, the only thing that has changed was that we switched from Timothy to Bluegrass hay from Kleenmama. I'll give him some towel time and see if his poops are strange.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2012 19:02
|
|
|
Ah hah! It's possible (probable even) that the two types of hay have different moisture contents, whether because of the difference in the age of the hay in the package, or because of the hay type. That's the likely culprit and if no unusual poop patterns you're in the clear.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2012 19:54
|
|
|
Aquatic Giraffe posted:Just dropped the chinchillas off at the vet for boarding. They initially wanted to put them in a room with a bunch of dogs that was about 8 billion degrees (I was sweating putting together their cages and I was just in a t-shirt), and I was all "awww hell naw" and they moved them to a colder room with some birds. What jerk puts the birds in the COLDER room? On the other hand, they'd all go back repeating dog noises if the vet boarded them in the warm room.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2012 03:06
|
|
|
The wife just got a pair of fairly young male pigs. They fit in the palm of my hand, so still pretty young. I'm just curious what steps we can take to ensure they get along and aggression is kept to a minimum. The slightly larger of the two does the "rumbling sway walk" after smelling the wife's hand. Just curious if he is being dominant towards her or the other pig who is in the cage. Any beginner tips are appreciated in terms of insuring they get along, or at least trying our best to do so. Vital Signs fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Dec 22, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2012 21:10
|
|
|
Vital Signs posted:The wife just got a pair of fairly young male pigs. They fit in the palm of my hand, so still pretty young. I'm just curious what steps we can take to ensure they get along and aggression is kept to a minimum. What worked best for my males was giving them all a bath together, the shared trauma bonded them. And I think it neutralizes their scents, so they're more used to each other. alucinor posted:Ah hah! It's possible (probable even) that the two types of hay have different moisture contents, whether because of the difference in the age of the hay in the package, or because of the hay type. That's the likely culprit and if no unusual poop patterns you're in the clear. As a guinea pig owner my life revolves around poop. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2012 06:53
|
|
|
Vital Signs posted:The wife just got a pair of fairly young male pigs. They fit in the palm of my hand, so still pretty young. I'm just curious what steps we can take to ensure they get along and aggression is kept to a minimum. Unless you actually see them fighting I really wouldn't do anything. If they are that small they're probably siblings and may do just fine with each other. As to your other question, I'd guess he was the more dominant pig and is just doing his thing. Just keep an eye on them, I don't think you have anything to worry about at this point.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2012 14:51
|
|
|
Bastard Tetris posted:What worked best for my males was giving them all a bath together, the shared trauma bonded them. And I think it neutralizes their scents, so they're more used to each other. Sirotan posted:Unless you actually see them fighting I really wouldn't do anything. If they are that small they're probably siblings and may do just fine with each other.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2012 17:58
|
|
|
With my pigs I just run a bath so that the water is about chest high for them, making sure it's warm but not hot. Then they're put in it and I usually just use water and no soap/animal shampoo since I haven't found anything I'm comfortable with using on piggies. They are seem to like it when there's not much splashing going on. Then I take them out, wrap them in separate towels, clip nails, dry, and brush out. Then I have clean piggies for about a day.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2012 18:15
|
|
|
My parents got "guinea pig snacks" for the pigs and I dont know if they can actually eat them. Theyre made with Rice flour Sweet potato flour Salt Annatto I am just not sure about the rice flour. Its labeled for small animals and specifically says guinea pigs but I dont trust labels.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2012 18:43
|
|
|
Saint Darwin posted:My parents got "guinea pig snacks" for the pigs and I dont know if they can actually eat them. Theyre made with That sounds pretty crap and so are most guinea pig treats. I wouldn't feed it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2012 19:43
|
|
|
My hamsters got a gym for Christmas from my parents. It's basically a separate wire cage that has little exercise toys (including a pedometer on the wheel) like ladders and teeter totters. They each get an hour or two a night in it once they wake up.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 05:54
|
|
|
I need a little guinea pig help. We bought two supposedly female pigs from a pet store ten weeks ago. I know the white one is a sow because she turned out to be pregnant. Now we have two fluffy white day-old piglets. They seem to do all right, as far as we can tell they see and walk just fine. I'll take all four to the local vet that's supposed to be the best one for rodents after the holidays. We're not sure if the brown pig is the one that got her pregnant, so we seperated it from the little family. This makes it very sad and it cried all night. We don't want the white one to get pregnant again, but the brown one can't be alone for a whole week. That's just too sad. We tried sexing it, it definitely looks female, but when we put them together yesterday they did a mating dance and ran off to get some privacy. Today the white one just nipped at the brown one. Therefore this question. Is anybody here experienced enough to reliably sex our guinea pig from these two pictures? If it's a female we can let it back in with the others. In the meantime we'll go have a talk with the pet store, if they're open for Christmas.  
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 13:21
|
|
|
Here's a link to more reliably sexing guinea pigs: http://www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm But in general if they're adults it's pretty easy to tell because male rodents in general have massive testicles. I feel like I mention rodent balls too much but they're very obvious so it's hard to ignore. How long have you had the pair? Gestation is anywhere from 59-73 days according to here, so it's possible she was in a mixed group beforehand.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 14:12
|
|
|
It does look like a female to me BUT IAMAV (I am not a vet) and sexing guinea pigs, especially when very young, can be challenging even when you've got the pig in your hands. Like Pew! Pew! said, if the pig is an adult and male, it's going to be incredibly obvious to you. The best course of action is going to be to get them all into a vet for sexing. As for the "mating" dance, I have all females and they will still start shaking their butts and try to hump each other a couple times a month. That and if they were separated for a while they could just be re-exerting dominance on the herd.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 15:08
|
|
|
So these pigs are at least 14 weeks old, assumably. That's a female. My females used to hump each other all the time and made all these terrible little grunty trilly sounds like they thought it was awesome.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 15:21
|
|
|
Pew! Pew! posted:Here's a link to more reliably sexing guinea pigs: http://www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm You aren't kidding. When I was considering different hamsters my girlfriend saw an adult male Chinese Dwarf and told me in no uncertain terms that I am never owning a Chinese Dwarf hamster. I'm still not 100% sure whether the little guy had something wrong with him or if he was supposed to have testicles bigger than his head.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 17:23
|
|
|
Pew! Pew! posted:How long have you had the pair? Gestation is anywhere from 59-73 days according to here, so it's possible she was in a mixed group beforehand. Thank you for the answers. She was around 5 weeks old when we got her in mid-october, so she's over 3 months old now. She started getting fatter than the brown one around five weeks after we got her, so she might have been pregnant on arrival. She stayed in the shop for a week in a cage with the owner's two pigs, both females, but we can't remember if there were any others there when we got her. If I understand the owner correctly there aren't any breeders here, and she gets the animals from families, which is why it took two months from we asked for them until she had any in stock. I'm a bit worried that she wasn't separated from her father/brothers soon enough. I let the brown one in for a while again today. First the white one headbutted her and she hid in a corner, but then she did her little mating purr and they ran off together. She seems to be doing it less though, maybe she's just hormonal. We'll take her to the store tomorrow and let the owner have a look now that she's older, just to make sure. She seemed fairly certain that it's a sow though. The piglets are very cute, now they run around and poke their heads out of their house. They might venture out to explore by tomorrow, or even tonight. Or maybe they do it when we're not there. I'm still not sure if the smallest one can see, it looks like it runs more into walls than the other one. How soon can/should we take them to the vet to have a first checkup?
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 18:07
|
|
|
It doesn't sound like the owners of the shop you got the pigs at are the best resource on pig information so I'm not sure I'd advise you to go back to them re: sexing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 18:31
|
|
|
I was at my parents' place over Christmas and found the old 10 gallon tank we used to keep hamsters in when I was a kid. I've been wanting to get a hamster again for awhile but have decided gerbils are adorable and more appealing to me. The Petsmart near me had two solid black female gerbils the last time I was there, and I was tempted to get them... But after looking at pictures online it seems like a 10 gallon tank is pretty cramped for two gerbils even though that seems to be the recommended tank size. I don't know that I have room for anything too wide, though, so I may just stick with the 10 in which case I should probably go for a hamster instead, right? Unless two gerbils would be fine in that size of a tank, but I'd still feel bad for not giving them adequate room to run around and dig. How are the temperaments of dwarf hamsters compared to gerbils? Is it fine to keep one by itself? I see people keeping them in pairs a lot, but my experience with hamsters is that they kind of hate everything that's not you or food, so I feel like just one would be a safer bet. And is it true that gerbils are generally cleaner than hamsters? It's not necessarily going to put me off of them, just wondering so I know what kind of schedule to keep on in addition to what I have for my other animals. I can't imagine a dwarf hamster in a 10 gallon tank would be as bad as the syrians I had when I was a kid that really shouldn't have been together anyway. Edit: after doing some more reading, it looks like a 10 gallon tank isn't recommended for dwarf hamsters. I guess if anyone has suggestions, then, I'm open to them! Not Your Senorita fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Dec 27, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 20:18
|
|
|
If you're DIY capable, you could always make a multiple level tank topper. It looks pretty simple to do, and imo would make the ten gallon a pretty good habitat for a pair of gerbs.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 20:44
|
|
|
And if you're not DIY capable, you can buy a tank topper.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 20:59
|
|
|
Those tank toppers look awesome and would be exactly what I would want if I did stick with the smaller tank. I think I might have to do that, then. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 21:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 16:56 |
|
|
Today was the worst day. I woke up to find Doc Brown (the lethal white) dead in his house. I have no idea what happened. We just had his back teeth fixed about a month ago, and he was eating and drinking fine. When I took him out last night he was being his normal self, and wheeking for his romaine like usual. He'd even gained weight since his last vet visit. I know realistically, it was probably nothing that I did. He'd had rough treatment for 3.5 years before he came to me, but I can't help but feel like the crappiest piggy mom ever.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 04:34
|
|
