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Captain Invictus posted:Maybe if you suck at keeping mom properly fed nutritionally and constantly harass/stress her out and rub your face all over the babies to remove her scent and confuse her instincts she'll do that yeah From the horror stories I've heard it seems more like absolutely anything can provoke a hamster into eating its babies.
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Oct 16, 2014 14:08
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^ the same is true for mice, who will also attack each other at the drop of the hat because Mice Reasons
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Oct 16, 2014 17:53
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Xoidanor posted:From the horror stories I've heard it seems more like absolutely anything can provoke a hamster into eating its babies. Not to mention that population balance is hardwired into rodents. Too many young, they'll eat one if there's nowhere to expand. Sickly or defective pups are taken out of the mix because they're bad for the next generation; sometimes excess males get killed as well if there's too many in the litter. Hamsters don't survive in the wild by being cute, they survive by being ruthless little savages.
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Oct 16, 2014 18:21
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Ruthless little savages that can't always scratch themselves without falling over.
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Oct 16, 2014 19:45
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Jedit posted:Not to mention that population balance is hardwired into rodents. Too many young, they'll eat one if there's nowhere to expand. Sickly or defective pups are taken out of the mix because they're bad for the next generation; sometimes excess males get killed as well if there's too many in the litter. Hamsters don't survive in the wild by being cute, they survive by being ruthless little savages. Well good for them, in the meantime have Day 4: Much Less Pink, No Less Squirmy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Z8b10k3R8&hd=1 Includes some peeping and one adventurous baby already crawling around the outskirts of the nest. They're starting to show colors and they've grown tiny little whiskers now!
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Oct 16, 2014 21:39
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Day 5, their ears are forming, getting furrier, that sorta thing. Much more talkative too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpRrfnkWR7U
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Oct 18, 2014 02:14
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I was honestly looking forward to a new video  I didn't even notice they had no ears before now, that's so cool. And they are SO wriggly!  does Sam normally cover them? I thought they'd be deeper into a covered nest like I'd heard of other hams making.
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Oct 18, 2014 02:42
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Yeah, she covers them with her body and if she's in the nest a while she'll cover herself with stuff too. I just tend to move stuff out of the way to take the video so it's clearer, it's not a huge hassle for her to drag some nearby materials back to the nest, takes her like 2 minutes to rebuild it. They're becoming more and more vocal, I've had a few "JEEP JEEP JEEP JEEP JEEP JEEP JEEP!" happen today. I reaaaally wanna hold'em 
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Oct 18, 2014 02:55
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Think of potentially having to clean up half eaten hammie bits and control yourself! Is it you have to wait until their eyes are open or like 2 weeks or something? The bit where one of them yawned caused me to make some pretty embarrassing squeeeeee noises myself, I think teenie tiny baby squeaks might have broken me completely.
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Oct 18, 2014 03:05
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Oh I know I can control myself, but I want it to be a week later from now.  It's about two weeks, yeah. I held the last litter before their eyes opened and Honeydew, their mom, who was normally super skittish at all times, was still fine with them.
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Oct 18, 2014 03:10
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It's the one year anniversary of me adopting two of my pigs (white one on top, Pom, and on bottom, Flora), and I'm celebrating with intense anxiety, after Pom just leaped out of my hands and fell about a foot on top of a wooden tunnel toy in the pig cage as I was putting her back. She hit her back left side and leg, and acted like it hurt immediately. She's now happily eating hay in the hay box but I'm all worried about some kind of internal injury. drat pigs.  
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Oct 19, 2014 14:43
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Sirotan posted:It's the one year anniversary of me adopting two of my pigs (white one on top, Pom, and on bottom, Flora), and I'm celebrating with intense anxiety, after Pom just leaped out of my hands and fell about a foot on top of a wooden tunnel toy in the pig cage as I was putting her back. She hit her back left side and leg, and acted like it hurt immediately. She's now happily eating hay in the hay box but I'm all worried about some kind of internal injury. drat pigs. Be okay, little pig  . Give her another hug and a poke, and lots of apology veggies.
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Oct 19, 2014 14:45
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Be okay, little pig Well she is contentedly eating her poo while also trying to sleep next to her buddy in the hay box right now. I think she's going to be fine. She is a bit of a porker so I think she also had some 'cushioning' that helped her earlier, yay fat pigs! 
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Oct 19, 2014 16:49
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Sirotan posted:Well she is contentedly eating her poo while also trying to sleep next to her buddy in the hay box right now. I think she's going to be fine. She is a bit of a porker so I think she also had some 'cushioning' that helped her earlier, yay fat pigs! Can't say I ever noticed my pigs eating their own poo poo during all the years. EDIT: After some quick googling I found that I've mistaken them eating their own poop as them cleaning themselves. VVVVVV: 
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Oct 19, 2014 17:38
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You know when they lift up a leg and look like they're adorably cleaning their bellies? That's them eating a poop, fresh from the butt.
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Oct 19, 2014 17:39
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She probably got hurt but unless she landed in just the right way, there's likely no long-lasting injury. I tried to get a good video yesterday morning of the babies as they've become incredibly energetic, but Sam was having none of it. She kept covering them up every time I tried to take a video, and this was the best I could do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cEKpQKnE3E I managed to lure her out of the nest a minute ago though and got her distracted in the corner for a few minutes. Got some decent, mostly non-blurry video of the babies, and it seems like most of their umbilical stumps have fallen off finally! They're getting so big too, and super talkative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGy3pkRNF6M
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Oct 19, 2014 20:53
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Sirotan posted:It's the one year anniversary of me adopting two of my pigs (white one on top, Pom, and on bottom, Flora), and I'm celebrating with intense anxiety, after Pom just leaped out of my hands and fell about a foot on top of a wooden tunnel toy in the pig cage as I was putting her back. She hit her back left side and leg, and acted like it hurt immediately. She's now happily eating hay in the hay box but I'm all worried about some kind of internal injury. drat pigs. Pretty good pigs you got there
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Oct 21, 2014 03:00
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Day 8 and they're getting really big and pudgy! Sam's less easily distracted by mealworms too. Gotta give her more to keep her distracted for more than a minute, and the third one I tried giving her she snatched right out of the tweezers before I could drag her away from the nest! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0eOs-ugUCU&hd=1
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Oct 21, 2014 03:18
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Adult Sword Owner posted:Pretty good pigs you got there Thanks! Here's some more pics, because why not:    
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Oct 21, 2014 15:34
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Captain Invictus posted:Day 8 and they're getting really big and pudgy! Looks like Mom is pretty pissed at you. She is getting a lot of snacks out of it though. General question for the thread: How cold can it get for a hamster? My apartment is probably 65-70 degrees, but they won't turn the heat on until November 1st. Zara has pretty much buried herself whole in the substrate, but that may have more to do with me just giving her more substrate in general.
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Oct 21, 2014 22:48
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dj_clawson posted:Looks like Mom is pretty pissed at you. She is getting a lot of snacks out of it though.
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Oct 21, 2014 22:52
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And speaking of pissed moms, she snuck up on my while I was recording and nipped my finger holding the phone! Not hard, just a warning nibble, like "get away from my kids". But the babies now have fully formed muzzles, and their eyes are forming slits where the eyelids will separate, within the next couple days they should start blindly stumbling out of the nest, I can't wait! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIURekRjLog&hd=1 I've actually almost run out of mealworms already, gotta go buy some more for her.
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Oct 22, 2014 02:04
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Captain Invictus posted:And speaking of pissed moms, she snuck up on my while I was recording and nipped my finger holding the phone! Not hard, just a warning nibble, like "get away from my kids". But the babies now have fully formed muzzles, and their eyes are forming slits where the eyelids will separate, within the next couple days they should start blindly stumbling out of the nest, I can't wait! Do they make go-pros for hamster heads?
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Oct 22, 2014 02:38
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No lie I was thinking of getting a Gopro to just attach to the corner of the cage and record the babies all the time.
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Oct 22, 2014 02:42
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Captain Invictus posted:BABIES So I had to re-home my poor guinea pig, my allergies were just too much to deal with. I'd only had him two months though so it's not like he was super attached to me. He should be happy in his new home with an 11 year old girl for a best friend.I have instead brought home the tiniest baby hamster! I'm about 90% sure it's a female, without having a chance to do a real inspection. She can't be more than 4 or 5 weeks old, she is teeny. This is where I need your help, goons! I can't figure out what to name her! She's a short-haired black banded ham ("panda bear hamster"), and I was going to give her a panda name or cutesy Chinese name, but I haven't found one I like yet. I'll consider pretty much any name, though. Can you guys help me out??   
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Oct 22, 2014 20:48
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Name her "Comedy Option"
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Oct 22, 2014 21:24
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Has anyone had any luck with fleece bedding for degus? Our chinchilla and our two guinea pigs all use fleece cage liners, and it'd be nice if we could just have a bunch of sets we could launder together and change instead of going through a big sack of Carefresh every couple of months.
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Oct 22, 2014 21:40
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A Scary Little Dog posted:I'm loving these baby updates!! Gosh they're cute. She doesn't really look anything like a panda tho... She looks more like an Oreo to me! maybe a bit unoriginal? Zoo pandas have cute names generally if you want to google a list of zoo panda names?
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Oct 22, 2014 23:07
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Hamsters are not very smart, I would not keep that bed thing in there, she's likely to chew bits off and try to stuff them in her pouch which can lead to infections since she'll likely not be able to get it back out. I had that problem with one of my first hamsters and bought her a "rodent bed", she ripped it open and stuffed her pouches full of the insides and couldn't push it back out so we had to take her to the vet to get her pouches cleaned out. Also I vote for Oreo. Or Ting Ting. Replaced the audio in today's video(apparently Youtube doesn't have a "mute video" option???) since it has a bunch of talking/dogs barking in the background, but it includes the babies eating food(not milk!) and mama jumping up on my camera hand and chomping my knuckle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIkrGEcz-Ko&hd=1 Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 00:36
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Captain Invictus posted:Hamsters are not very smart, I would not keep that bed thing in there, she's likely to chew bits off and try to stuff them in her pouch which can lead to infections since she'll likely not be able to get it back out. I had that problem with one of my first hamsters and bought her a "rodent bed", she ripped it open and stuffed her pouches full of the insides and couldn't push it back out so we had to take her to the vet to get her pouches cleaned out. Really? Jeez. I've never had that problem with my hamsters but I will keep a very close eye on the situation. My first one liked to snuggle in there, the second peed on it exclusively. Hamsters! v vUpon further inspection I think she is actually a boy, just a very young one who hasn't grown giant balls yet. We'll see. Oreo is a cute name but it does feel cliched. I might end up going with that though.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:21
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Bonus video for you guys. I couldn't resist trying to record them nursing and managed to get a great, quiet video of them and mama sleeping/nursing. Wish I had captured the one black and white baby whining a lot, it was adorable. I'm so happy it came out well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnRfuAI1TiE&hd=1
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Oct 23, 2014 02:37
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HappyKitty posted:Has anyone had any luck with fleece bedding for degus? Our chinchilla and our two guinea pigs all use fleece cage liners, and it'd be nice if we could just have a bunch of sets we could launder together and change instead of going through a big sack of Carefresh every couple of months. I don't use fleece, but I do use microfiber dish drying mats and two big smooth rugs, so pretty much the same thing. They don't seem to mind, but on one spot on the floor I do have a towel down and one is obsessed with ripping up the terry cloth loops. It's much cleaner then when I had substrate in the cage, they kicked it all out all over the drat place. (I've posted pictures of my set up a few months back in the thread)
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Oct 23, 2014 04:56
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Oh my god I accidentally managed to capture the first jailbreak on film. One adventurous little golden one followed mama over to the food pile, grabbed a tiny seed, and started stumbling back to the nest with Sam flinging him halfway. I fully expect by the time I get up tonight for them to be all over the place! So loving happy I caught that first escapee on film, I'll have the video up tonight, it's a long one!
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Oct 23, 2014 20:02
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Aww, sweet baby, you're gonna need some more serious teeth for that pellet.
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Oct 24, 2014 02:41
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Video uploaded and switched to landscape! I was waking up to go to the bathroom when I saw Sam was a bit lean looking, so I poured a bunch of food into the cage and she went straight for it. Realizing it was a perfect opportunity to get some video, I recorded about six minutes of the babies, including a handful of jailbreaks. Sam isn't quite ready yet to let them roam around on their own though. I loving love when they try to sit on their hind legs to eat. They are SO WOBBLY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sktDnV2V3-0&hd=1 edit: and a quick video of Max the angriest hamster being extremely vocal in my shirt and responding to me when I talk to him Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 02:45
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Awwww, the little one was doing so well! They'll have those pellets beat in no time. What's the mix you're giving them? With the bright green things?
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Oct 24, 2014 17:05
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I'm pretty sure it's Kaytee hamster mix as well as...some other type of hamster food that's just the high-density big pellets like the baby was chewing on, and I mix'em together. For giggles a little bit ago I lured Sam away with the promise of mealworms and then just scooped the entire pile of babies up and plopped them onto the food pile. It then became a Benny Hill-esque scattering of baby hamsters trying to eat the food while also trying to keep away from mama. But now that they know the food is there, they're all started to venture out of the nest, which is good. That one cream-colored one in the video above has ventured all the way to the far corner where Sam stashes all the treats and pellets and was able to sit there in peace for about two minutes before Sam noticed one was missing from the nest and went and picked him by the back leg, then dragged him back and hurled him over her head back into the nest. I'm really happy that all seven babies survived and are healthy, now that they're able to eat food and don't subsist solely on mother's milk, they've increased their likelihood of survival tenfold. In another day or so their eyes should be opening, I could have sworn I saw one with open eyes already.
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Oct 24, 2014 17:14
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Soon you're going to have more hamsters than you can fit in your hands Hamsters pouring between your fingers
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Oct 24, 2014 19:35
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Captain Invictus posted:Video uploaded and switched to landscape! Is that the 12-inch silent spinner in her cage? Those things are huge. I'm going to have to build a cage extension to fit it on my bin page.
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Oct 24, 2014 22:05
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Nah, it's just the 8 inch or whatever medium-sized one is. The aquarium itself is about 14 or so inches wide. Day 12 and suddenly the nest has been moved over to the corner by the silent spinner. One of the babies managed to get himself stuck under it and was just sitting there crying, so I took the wheel out of the cage for now. Maybe when they're a little bigger I'll put it back. Right now the babies are making their way out of the nest a little bit before heading back to it. Sam isn't happy with this though and tends to run out and manhandle them back into the nest. While I'm sitting here I'll occasionally hear a "REEKREEK" as the babies loudly protest being picked up by the face/stomach/tail and flung back into the nest. Day 12 and the babies are foraging for solid foods while mom semi-ignores them. At least until she notices them outside the nest. Then it's manhandlin' time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E0Om4sBLhs&hd=1
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Oct 25, 2014 02:40
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