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Sirotan posted:With the ball bearing types I got used to replacing them every couple of months because they were such pieces of poo poo. Maybe your pigs just abuse theirs more than mine? You might want to just keep some stock on hand maybe... Oh, I meant that it's the one you leaked.
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May 19, 2014 19:46
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Adult Sword Owner posted:Oh, I meant that it's the one you leaked.  And yeah, I was just saying that you may just have to get used to replacing them constantly if your pigs abuse them. Was just mentioning the mindset I had to be in before I switched over to the post-style opening. There's probably not much you can do to change the pigs' behavior.
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May 19, 2014 21:10
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I present my hamster, Peanut: Caught in the act of nomming :  Snuggled up sleeping in bed next to my boyfriend (when he's out of his cage, he either likes to sleep in my cleavage, or next to my boyfriend's hip):  He is a high quality hamster, although we might have to be more careful how we get him out soon, we're going to be temporarily looking after a friends cats for a few months, and I'm sure they'd like him as a little snack.
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May 20, 2014 10:23
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Party Boat posted:One of our pigs, uh, deep-throats the tube. One of our pigs likes to do this too. Another will completely contort her body so she's drinking upside down.
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May 21, 2014 13:03
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dweebgal posted:I present my hamster, Peanut Now that is one drat cute hamster 
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May 21, 2014 23:14
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Best picture I could get: Princess Hamerella has lost some fur on her butt. She remains totally active and hasn't lost any weight, and the Internet seems to suggest that this could either be: A. Moulting and there's nothing I could do about it. B. A bad diet that needs more protein. C. Renal failure and nothing I can do about it. D. Excessive scratching / grooming. E. Mites. My best guess would be either A or C, because nothing's changed in her diet whatsoever. From what I read moulting is pretty normal, especially for Russian hamsters. Has anyone experience this? I don't think it's renal failure (or a number of other horrifying diseases) since she's behaving just like normal. I guess it could be excessive grooming, but she doesn't seem to do it any more than normal and definitely not in that spot. She normally grooms around her face. Since the hair loss is so localized I can't imagine it would be mites, either. tentawesome fucked around with this message at 17:48 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 08:01
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Clone Farmer posted:I have noticed a sad lack of degus in here. I'm here to fix that. And no one on my FB is properly appreciating my lil babbys. I appreciate your degus! I've never seen mine sleep like that, kinda half upside down pose. Weird - ours pretty much exclusively sleep in a little ball, or one stacked on top of the other. I'm also disappointed with the lack of degu love in this thread, they're so great. I had rats in the past, and the degus I have had now for 3 weeks or so are already proving to be at least as good pets, with the added bonus of being diurnal and not keeping me up at night (and also not piss everywhere like my rats used to). They're really getting used to us now, they love hanging out and crawling all over us when we let them out - we degu-proofed our very small apartment so they just spend most of the day running amok. That cage is epic, I definitely have a bit of cage envy. My girlfriend and I are on an ultra tight budget atm so we made our own by converting an old ikea desk, built a base out of scrap wood and so on. Found an old dollhouse which I built a roof for as a hut, and bought them a wheel. I also made an adventure tunnel for them, converted a tall shelf that we found in a dumpster into a bit of a maze with lots of logs for chewing and the like (it's like 15cm x 15cm x 2m). Here's a pic of the hut (minus it's current hammock and wheel), if anyone is interested I'll take a photo of the adventure tunnel.  and yes that is an old dish-drying rack used as a door. And here they are! Dagny and Shifty having a nap 
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May 26, 2014 17:31
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Cleaned the hamster cages last night, woke up this morning to find Bitey, the sole girl of the babies my old hamster gave birth to, dead on top of her bedding. It looked like she was walking along and dropped dead, maybe from an aneurysm. She was clean and chubby, healthy, and this suddenly happens. Man, what a bummer. I know they don't live long, but I don't like it when they just up and die without warning, makes me feel like I did something wrong. Also hurts a lot because I watched them grow from newborn babies.  The rest of them are active and happy as usual, I held them all and they all slept in my shirt. My girlfriend wants them to sleep in her shirt but for whatever reason, maybe her scent or something, as soon as they get in her shirt they just get completely wired and crawl all over the place in there, while when they go in my shirt, they'll curl up around my neck or on my shoulder or stomach and go to sleep really fast. Weird, maybe they're just used to my scent and feel comfortable sleeping on me, but haven't gotten used to her yet.
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May 27, 2014 11:43
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I'm seriously considering getting a pet rat but have no idea where to start. I guess the first question to ask is where do I go about getting a rat? I'm still not even sure that its a thing that people do. Also, Is upkeep similar to that of guinea pigs and other rodents?
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Jun 2, 2014 21:16
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64bit_Dophins posted:I'm seriously considering getting a pet rat but have no idea where to start. I guess the first question to ask is where do I go about getting a rat? I'm still not even sure that its a thing that people do. Also, Is upkeep similar to that of guinea pigs and other rodents? Let me direct you to The Rat Thread. There's a lot of good info in the OP, and those in the thread can answer any other questions you may have for rat-specifics.
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Jun 2, 2014 22:33
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Forewarning: rats eat vet bill money like no other creature on earth, especially female rats. If you don't mind spending ridiculous amounts on their upkeep and environments though, definitely get them. They're the most affectionate pets I've ever owned, dogs and cats included.
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Jun 3, 2014 00:43
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Aye, I loved my ratties when I had'em. They were like mini dogs. Over time I'd actually had ramps and platforms built all over one room so they could go wherever they wanted
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Jun 3, 2014 08:29
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RubySprinkles posted:Let me direct you to The Rat Thread. There's a lot of good info in the OP, and those in the thread can answer any other questions you may have for rat-specifics. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction 
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Jun 3, 2014 17:40
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SocketWrench posted:Aye, I loved my ratties when I had'em. They were like mini dogs. Over time I'd actually had ramps and platforms built all over one room so they could go wherever they wanted I've looked at cat towers for my chinchilla, but as a broke-rear end grad student I realized I could take all the cardboard boxes I want from Aldi, and they're already in all sorts of shapes and sizes with cutouts and holes for rodents to have a blast.
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Jun 4, 2014 02:24
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I took Princess Hamerella to the vet today (skin scrape revealed her hair loss is because of mites) and the receptionist asked me if my carrier cage was her house. While I get that she wasn't a vet or anything, I would assume if you're working at an animal hospital you would at least be an animal person.
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Jun 5, 2014 17:13
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Maybe it was a trap to see if you were evil.
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Jun 6, 2014 05:24
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lemonadesweetheart posted:Maybe it was a trap to see if you were evil. Not a trap, but I'll bet you the answer has been "yes" on at least one occasion. They have to ask just so they can find out if you're dumb without being accusatory for no good reason.
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Jun 6, 2014 08:08
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Jedit posted:Not a trap, but I'll bet you the answer has been "yes" on at least one occasion. They have to ask just so they can find out if you're dumb without being accusatory for no good reason. This makes me sad 
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Jun 6, 2014 13:01
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A hamster was one surrendered to our rescue living in a giant plastic container that once housed cheese puffs. People are awful to little animals.
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Jun 6, 2014 16:04
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So one of our guinea pigs is in for surgery today. She is having an abscess removed from her neck. What can we do to help her heal up? I know the vet will give us some discharge papers with info on them, just looking for general post surgery care tips for the pig. We do have some probiotics to give her, I read that is a good idea after they have surgery.
Ardemia fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 21:29
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Mostly you are going to want to keep her confined in a smaller cage to limit the amount of running around she can do, and just keep an eye on the incision area to make sure she doesn't mess with it. They bounce back remarkably fast from surgery, my last pig I had a bladder stone removed from was up and acting like her old self by the next morning.
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Jun 7, 2014 14:33
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I managed to get a picture of Chip sleeping inside my shirt before he woke up. 
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Jun 7, 2014 14:59
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I figure this is the thread. I'm interested in keeping a couple of rats, any hints? I'm currently ratsitting, and my friends keep their rats in a small-ish birdcage with multiple levels, teatowels over the various levels to save their adorable paws. They are apparently required to be played with twice a day for an hour at least (and one of them, Maya, is seriously insane, she wants to play fuckin' constantly), and are fed cooked pasta and other similar human basic foods. Is that roughly on track?
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Jun 10, 2014 17:38
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Synonymous posted:I figure this is the thread. I'm interested in keeping a couple of rats, any hints? I'm currently ratsitting, and my friends keep their rats in a small-ish birdcage with multiple levels, teatowels over the various levels to save their adorable paws. They are apparently required to be played with twice a day for an hour at least (and one of them, Maya, is seriously insane, she wants to play fuckin' constantly), and are fed cooked pasta and other similar human basic foods. Well, from what I understand, Rats are very social and likes to play, so that should be normal. You'd probably get better answers in the dedicated Rat Thread though. edit: \/\/ Search haven't worked for a while, though it explains why you didn't find it. Ssthalar fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 22:54
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Ssthalar posted:Well, from what I understand, Rats are very social and likes to play, so that should be normal. Oh. I'm sorry guys, I did give the search function a whorl.
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Jun 11, 2014 03:02
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So I've reached that point where my daughter's about to turn 7 and her little neighbour friend has a hamster. And now she wants one too. My wife and I have talked about it and we're pretty open to the idea of getting some sort of critter (hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, bunny, ?) so I've started doing some research to make sure we pick the right animal. I've definitely read some interesting things in this thread but wanted to see what people think based on some of the criteria we're keeping in mind: 1. My daughter needs to be involved in cleaning/caring for it. We're not foolish enough to think that she can or will take care of it by herself but the care needs to be easy enough that she can do it with supervision or on her own at times. 2. Habitat can't have too large a footprint, height is probably okay. 3. If the animal is social and happier in a pair that's okay. 4. We tend to go to a cottage on the weekends so it would need to be okay traveling a couple of hours and living in a portable habitat for a few days at a time. 5. Maybe most important we want an animal with a good temperament, who will like to be held and played with. I don't know if breed has much to do with that or if it's just luck of the draw. I'm a strong believer in taking proper care of animals, giving them a good clean habitat with proper food. I also, of course, don't know what I don't know so any advice is appreciated. I plan to use the responses to focus my research.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:30
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imbrium posted:1. My daughter needs to be involved in cleaning/caring for it. We're not foolish enough to think that she can or will take care of it by herself but the care needs to be easy enough that she can do it with supervision or on her own at times. 1. As long as you, the parents, are willing to care for the critter if your childs attention span fails, I see no problem here. 2. Habitat, of course, depends on the critter. Rats need a lot more room than say, a hamster. (ok, some hamsters) For most hamsters, you can probably get away with something that's about 3. I think mice are social animals, I know, from reading the rat thread, that they are definatly social and need other rats for company. Most hamsters are highly territorial and will, at best, tolerate other hamsters. (yes, they will fight and they 4. I'll say it right now, most hamsters are dumb. They might notice if they get moved from one place to another, but I highly doubt they really give a toss as long as there aren't other hamsters around in the new place. (if you're afraid that it won't get enough exercise in a small travel cage, don't worry. As long as it has a wheel, it will run, oh yes, it *will* run) 5. This one is the hard part. Most rodents are nocturnal and tend to be grumpy when woken up. (aka, bitey) This of course, changes heavily from animal to animal. I've had hamsters that didn't really give a poo poo about being woken up and picked up and I've had little assholes from hell that just bites anything that they can get at for the first 20 seconds after it wakes up. Gonna put up some links for some of the other specialized critter threads. Rats Rabbits Pet nutrition Regardless of your choice, make sure to read up on the specific rodent that you choose, to ensure that you have an idea of how the habitat should be. Ssthalar fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 21:10
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Ssthalar posted:1. As long as you, the parents, are willing to care for the critter if your childs attention span fails, I see no problem here. Absolutely - I figure this is the most likely outcome. Though I can hope. I think we'd probably avoid mice/rats as my daughter more wants something fluffy. I knew someone who had a rat once and it was pretty drat cool, but not my daughter's style. Will definitely do a lot of research into whatever we get because, well, it's a living thing that we're going to be responsible for for a number of years.
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Jun 11, 2014 21:34
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the way I wake up my hamsters without getting bit is by placing my palm flat down on top of them. They jerk up and go into a defensive stance like usual, but they don't have any surface they can latch onto with their bitey little nippers. After the intial jolt awake, they're usually pretty docile and can be picked up. She will need to learn that while holding them is fine, she cannot take her eyes off of them for a moment, as they can run VERY fast when they want to and can fit into extremely small spaces to escape. Having a ball to put them in, making sure it's of a suitable size for them(too small and it can hurt their back, same goes for wheels) is a good idea for when she wants to have them out but not hold them, just make sure there's something blocking any staircases and such so it doesn't get injured rolling down them. Don't buy wire-frame wheels. They can cripple or gravely injure hamsters if they're unlucky and get a toe caught or something. I had a three-legged hamster who managed to snag their anus on part of the mesh and ripped part of their intestines out their anus. It was horrifying. I immediately recycled all of the wire wheels I had. Get an enclosed plastic one that has no gaps that fingers/paws can get stuck in. I've owned nearly two dozen hamsters over the years, and my advice for picking one out, as weird/painful as it may be, is to stick your hand in the cage and see how the store ones react. There will always be bitey ones who will walk right up and chomp down, but there's usually a docile one that will curiously climb onto your hand, and that's the one I always pick. It's served me very well over the years, most of my hamsters have been absolutely awesome. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 21:44
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Captain Invictus posted:She will need to learn that while holding them is fine, she cannot take her eyes off of them for a moment, as they can run VERY fast when they want to and can fit into extremely small spaces to escape. This has to be stressed. They can move incredibly fast when they want to and if they can fit their head through, their fat rear end will also get through.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:01
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imbrium posted:Absolutely - I figure this is the most likely outcome. Though I can hope. Not a rodent owner myself, but guinea pigs can be quite fluffy and I think they're diurnal.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:01
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My limited experience with pigs is that they get quite attached to what they consider home, so the regular trips away might be a bit much for them. Ours got grumpy with their cage being shifted to the kitchen while we redecorated the living room.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:15
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imbrium posted:Absolutely - I figure this is the most likely outcome. Though I can hope. They're not extremely fluffy, but you should look into degus. They might handle the travel better than some other rodents, can be very affectionate if socialized (not cuddly, per se, but they'll want to sit on you/ be groomed/petted), are clever, live longer than rats, and are cute and extremely fascinating. They do need a large cage, but height is much better than width. I have two chinchillas now (would NOT recommend those), but drat if I don't miss the personality of my 'goos. You definitely need a same sex pair, though. The more research you do though, the more you'll find that proper small animal husbandry is way more involved than pet stores make it seem. Degus really thrive on social interaction and need lots of cage enrichment too.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:52
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Party Boat posted:My limited experience with pigs is that they get quite attached to what they consider home, so the regular trips away might be a bit much for them. Ours got grumpy with their cage being shifted to the kitchen while we redecorated the living room. Apologies for my limited information. I find rodents in general and guinea pigs in particular to be adorable, but I don't think I'd gracefully handle pets with such short life expectancies.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:59
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Cythereal posted:Apologies for my limited information. I find rodents in general and guinea pigs in particular to be adorable, but I don't think I'd gracefully handle pets with such short life expectancies. It is one of the worst things about them really, they are around for such a short time.
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Jun 11, 2014 23:08
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No worries, it's not something we knew about before we got our boars and you're right that in other respects pigs would be a great choice for kids - they're relatively docile, don't sleep in the day and won't escape under the floorboards.
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Jun 11, 2014 23:09
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It can be hard, true, but after a while you just come to accept that they intrinsically don't live very long and so treasure the time you do have with each.
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Jun 11, 2014 23:09
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Captain Invictus posted:It can be hard, true, but after a while you just come to accept that they intrinsically don't live very long and so treasure the time you do have with each. True, but I just don't think rodents are for me. It's something I've thought about and decided against. As it is, the rodent and rat threads provide a steady supply of cute pictures.
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Jun 11, 2014 23:12
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Ssthalar posted:For most hamsters, you can probably get away with something that's about 30cm long, 15-20cm wide and height about a minimum of 15cm. If you're keeping hamsters in a cage 12" by 6" by 6", you're a cruel bastard who should not be allowed to have pets. A full grown Syrian can be as long as 7" at full stretch - it wouldn't be able to stretch out or stand up. I've never seen a hamster cage that was less than 8" high, 18" long and 12" deep.
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Jun 12, 2014 01:05
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Jedit posted:If you're keeping hamsters in a cage 12" by 6" by 6", you're a cruel bastard who should not be allowed to have pets. A full grown Syrian can be as long as 7" at full stretch - it wouldn't be able to stretch out or stand up. I've never seen a hamster cage that was less than 8" high, 18" long and 12" deep. Yeah, that's way too small even for a dwarf hamster.
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Jun 12, 2014 02:29
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