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It would appear that little Clover has blood in her Urine  I'm hoping that it is just an UTI that can be cleared with antibiotics.At least there are a couple vets in the area that treat hamsters. Edit: Vet diagnosis was a UTI. She is now on antibiotics that should clear it right up. -CHA fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Jun 27, 2017 |
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Jun 26, 2017 10:51
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Clover died tonight She was a good little ham and I'm glad I was able to give her a good life.
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Jul 7, 2017 03:16
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Sorry to hear that man. Hams are unfortunately very durable physically, but very fragile health-wise. It's good you gave her a good, loving home.
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Jul 7, 2017 04:07
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-CHA posted:Clover died tonight Sorry to hear it. We had to have our hamster Ratta euthanised this morning too, it sucks. 
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Jul 7, 2017 13:45
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Sorry for your losses. Here's Grizelda and her sort-of doppelganger to lighten the mood.   
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Jul 7, 2017 17:24
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On a lighter note this is our old lady rescue gerbil Magrat. Hanging out in a frozen mug to keep cool on a hot day  Sleeping with her nose pressed against the glass 
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Jul 7, 2017 17:41
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Thank you guys. I'm sorry to hear about Ratta, Blacknose. It really does suck to lose a rodent friend. I got way to used to having two hamsters, it felt weird just having one. My wife and I went out to look at ham babies, and we ended up with this little firecracker we called Willow.  10 minutes into the drive home, she had already figured out how to escape the carry box and was efficiently destroying the tabs that kept the box closed. We had to distract her with tissues just to buy enough time to get her home and in her bin. She is sweet and fearless. Has zero issues with being touched, still working on having her tolerate being picked up. I have a feeling that she will be a great companion once she gets adjusted to us.
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Jul 8, 2017 23:48
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That is the most cunning and actively-plotting expression I have ever seen on a small rodent  .
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Jul 9, 2017 09:25
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I picked up the 9" Silent Runner wheel since Willow ran the old flying saucer into oblivion. Very happy with this new wheel. Almost ready to say that it out performs the Wodent Wheel, but I will need to see how the ball bearings hold up.
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Jul 25, 2017 15:09
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We're pet sitting a chinchilla for three weeks, I've set up a massive cage/ metal baby park looking thing for him. His owner doesn't really play with him or even touch him and i don't know if it's possible to teach an old chinchilla new tricks? We can pet him a little but I haven't tried to pick him up. I'm afraid he's not gonna like that, and maybe even do that thing where they let go of their fur to 'escape'. Also, for our hamster we use wood pellets, we/she like it more than that sawdust poo poo, but are you allowed to use it for chinchillas?
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Jul 29, 2017 14:01
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mrfart posted:We're pet sitting a chinchilla for three weeks, I've set up a massive cage/ metal baby park looking thing for him. His owner doesn't really play with him or even touch him and i don't know if it's possible to teach an old chinchilla new tricks? We can pet him a little but I haven't tried to pick him up. I'm afraid he's not gonna like that, and maybe even do that thing where they let go of their fur to 'escape'. Chinchillas generally do best with just fleece for a floor, but if you need to use bedding either should work. That said, how well he will take to getting picked up a lot depends on his personality. If he is pretty calm he might not have much of a problem with it. You can always go with the tried and true method of bribery with Cheerios or plain shredded wheat cereal to get on his good side. When you have him out keep a hold of the base of his tail so he can't get loose.
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Jul 30, 2017 02:28
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Khisanth Magus posted:Chinchillas generally do best with just fleece for a floor, but if you need to use bedding either should work. thanks for the info. i didn't know about the use of fleece as an alternative to bedding.
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Aug 2, 2017 08:06
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Willow managed to escape yesterday, i have searched everywhere but have had no luck finding her. Last night we left food out in some bucket traps in every room. None of the food left out was disturbed. I need some advice as I feel that she may have squeezed into the floor or walls. I feel absolutely terrible that she escaped.
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Aug 11, 2017 13:16
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Rodents tend to go along walls, not in the open ground, so place traps along where wall and floor meet. There is still hope. How did she escape?
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Aug 11, 2017 14:41
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Im honestly not sure how she escaped. The only thing I can think of is that she climbed her water bottle and muscled her way out of the side of the cahe under the lid. Im going to pick up some live catch traps and place them in areas she may have gotten to.
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Aug 11, 2017 15:25
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Please do so sooner rather than later. If she gets into insulation, she's done. Check behind furniture or any gaps near walls she may have gotten to. Listen carefully for scritching sounds. Don't be afraid to take a crowbar to the wall, I did that to get Steve the hamster out when he escaped.
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Aug 11, 2017 17:39
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So a bit of bad news... While searching earlier I discovered a 1" high by 4" long hole in my kitchen that is right out in the open at the bottom of a cabinet. Inside from what I saw is full of old fiberglass. Not sure if it leads into the basement, I moved into an 1800's farm house so the basement is a complete maze with all the nooks and crannies. I've set traps both in the basement and right outside the hole in the kitchen. I'm going to listen carefully tonight to try and hear any activity. I'm hopeful that I will hear some sign of her, but I'm prepared for the worst at this point.
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Aug 11, 2017 23:11
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I hope you end up finding Willow safe and sound, or she comes looking out of hunger. We had a hamster once that escaped and we couldn't find it for an entire week - my mother later found him, incredibly famished, but still alive, and he recovered not long after that. It turned out he had hidden himself in the one place none of us looked, which was underneath the sofa.  I have no idea what he drank in the meantime though.Captain Invictus posted:Please do so sooner rather than later. If she gets into insulation, she's done. Can you explain why this is in more detail? 
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Aug 12, 2017 08:22
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Insulation is usually made of fiberglass, if a hamster shoves a bunch in their pouches or it gets in their eyes, it's basically thousands upon thousands of tiny splinters and likely will cause severe respiratory problems as well, all very bad things for small animals. All is not lost yet, but for the future, when keeping hamsters in an aquarium-style cage, always keep a heavy object of some sort weighing down the top so they can't just pop it open a bit and squirm out. I often use the food container, it doesn't have to be super heavy but something like a half of a brick or so will ensure they can't bounce the top up a bunch until it opens a little.
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Aug 12, 2017 08:40
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A somewhat hopeful update. I haven't found Willow yet, but I found an access from under the counter into the basement. The basement is large but has sand floors where I have found rodent prints that are larger than the mouse tracks. Over the past couple days I have been smoothing down the sand to easily see new tracks and figure out the patterns of these larger rodent tracks and blocking paths and placing traps accordingly. I'm hoping that these tracks are Willow's and not just some extra large mouse.Captain Invictus posted:All is not lost yet, but for the future, when keeping hamsters in an aquarium-style cage, always keep a heavy object of some sort weighing down the top so they can't just pop it open a bit and squirm out. I often use the food container, it doesn't have to be super heavy but something like a half of a brick or so will ensure they can't bounce the top up a bunch until it opens a little. The funny thing is that her cage is two stacked bins, there is nothing for her to climb in the top part, and the lid of the bottom part is held down by the top bin. I'm thinking for the future I will rig up a way to lock the sides of both lids instead of relying on weight.
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Aug 15, 2017 02:52
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Never assume there's nothing to climb. If there's nothing to climb, they will MAKE something to climb, even if that means moving 3/4 of their entire cave's bedding to make a mountain to do so.
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Aug 15, 2017 03:00
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Problem! posted:I want to switch up my chinchillas' food to see if I can get the picky eater to start eating his pellets again. Problem is, looks like Oxbow is my only option for not crap chinchilla food. Are there other brands out there that are equivalent? I know this is a super late post, but I like Sherwood Pet Health chinchilla food. It smells fresh and has a short list of ingredients. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A1JXRK4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Aug 23, 2017 09:54
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Capn Jobe posted:So my girlfriend and I have a chinchilla, N00blet. Here is a GIF of her: SF SPCA and Animal Control have chinchillas, the other shelters in the Bay Area should too. Not sure if they get younger ones though.
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Aug 23, 2017 10:09
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My chinchilla Cody is about 15. I adopted him from my brother last year as his job and new baby makes taking care of a chinchilla on top of a dog and cat really hard. I've bought him almost all new equipment but haven't bought a new, bigger cage yet so I'd like to get some thoughts. The current cage is about 2 x 5 x 3 ft? with a metal floor. I've set up second floor jumping and resting surfaces, and a hay hutch and woven hay mats for floors, along with paper bedding in the corner that he pees the most. I let him out in the storage room where his cage is everyday for about 15-30 min while I clean his cage and refill his food, hay, hay topper treat, etc. He definitely enjoys running around the room and try testing weak spots in the chinchilla-proofed barriers... I bought a 15" wheel but he doesn't ever use it. He also doesn't sleep in the fleece hammock above the second floor, though I leave treats him in there so he'll rummage through it. He loves sleeping in the hay hutch and will actually lay on his side when he's in it. Would a bigger cage encourage him to have more freedom and be less bored? Or is it just more important that I give more more time running around the room? Sometimes I'll leave him free in the room for like 1-2 hrs but after the initial running around he tends to pick a spot and then zone out or fall asleep or something. Or maybe I should remove the gigantic wheel since he doesn't use it anyway, and set up a platform or a brach there since he seems to enjoy perching on the log and chew posts? Some images of the set up:    
jomiel fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Aug 23, 2017 |
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Aug 23, 2017 10:27
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So after two weeks of daily searching and even setting up a trail camera. I have zero evidence of willow being anywhere. I was out picking up bedding today and saw an adorable tiny baby ham and decided that it was time to move on.  This is Ivy, Also known as "Puff". Her body is basically a round mass of fluff. Picking her up was a bit of a hasty decision as I still had Willow's cage just as she had left it as I was hopeful that she would be found, but there was a family there looking to buy a hamster for their young (5 year old maybe) child and I couldn't bear to risk having such a sweet little ham go to a home where she could be just another neglected pet.
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Aug 24, 2017 23:52
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wow, she's ADORABLE. a shame you couldn't find Willow, but at least you did what you could to find her. Hopefully she's surviving on her own out in the wilderness and not dead in the wall somewhere. One of my previous hamsters was actually rescued off the side of the road, it had apparently escaped or something and was just walking around outside when my friend found it, something had torn off one of its back legs but it was making do despite that, so I adopted it. After having a vet check it to make sure there was no rabies or anything like that, it lived another two years in my care, probably wouldn't have made it two days like that in the wild. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Aug 25, 2017 |
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Aug 25, 2017 00:06
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Thats great that a lost injured ham was able to be rescued and live out a full life. Willow will always have a home here, if I find her a few weeks or months down the road I will take her right back and give her a safe, loving home.
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Aug 27, 2017 02:56
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Yep. Keep the traps out, I assume you have have-a-heart traps out. Set them alongside walls and stuff and check them every day, and hopefully she'll be in one one day. 
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Aug 27, 2017 03:56
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Wife found two giveaways on craigslist the other day, mom and baby. Now living happily in our dining room. Dwarf hamsters as yet unnamed. Now we have an even progression - 4 cats, 3 buns, 2 hams, and 1 guinea. Up until I tried to pet the baby, I didn't know hamsters could make sounds. Or what a pissed off hamster sounds like.  Like a dying squirrel.
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Oct 4, 2017 07:56
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Yeah they can shriek. Boobie just had a nightmare last night and woke up shrieking, it was adorable so I took him out right away and he went back to sleep in my shirt because he loves sleeping on my shoulder. 
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Oct 4, 2017 15:29
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Congratulations on your new rescue hams D34THROW. In time the baby will warm up to you. Usually by bribing with treats. Hamster sounds are adorable Ivy quietly mutters to herself all the time. She is a wonderfully sweet ham that has zero self confidence. Usually just sits in her nest while we're awake, and comes out once the lights are off and its quiet.
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Oct 5, 2017 04:34
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So a bit of great news. Ivy has been a bit of a shy ham who would prefer to sit in her nest and wait until it was dark before she ventured out. She was also highly concerned about just about every sound she heard. We would usually force her to come out of her nest for some treats and socializing time around 10:00 pm. For the past two days she has been out of her nest around 8:00 pm and has been showing a lot more curiosity in things outside of her cage. It looks like she is finally working up some courage and being more adventurous. Hopefully soon she will willingly jump into my hand to come out like Runty does.
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Oct 15, 2017 02:31
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I had a bit of a scare a couple days ago and just wanted to write about it cause it's still on my mind. I had taken my Chinese ham to the vet, and was crossing the first walk to head back. Just as I'm about to finish crossing, a car comes out making a right turn and hits me, causing the box I was holding her in to go flying forward and knocking me to the ground. My first reaction is to crawl over to the upturned box, and I see her just lying there, not moving, and I'm fearing the worst, but she's still alive, and I don't know if she's like this because of the accident, or because she just had minor surgery to remove an abscess. I'm not able to get her home for at least two hours because I have to get checked by paramedics and the police take a long time to file a report, and the whole time, she's just sitting there awake, looking out of it. I get her home and put her back in her cage as soon as possible to let her finally get some rest, and at this point she seems better, and crawls into one of her houses. I go out a few hours to study with a friend and come back, and my partner tells me she has 'something she needs to tell me' about our hamster. I feel dread crawling up my throat, and go to check on her and... ...she's running on the wheel, carefree as if nothing had ever happened that morning.  She's over two years old at this point and been through some adventures, but still going strong. I'm hoping she has at least another year left in her!Here is also a picture of her, eating up a mealworm: 
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Oct 22, 2017 21:54
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Awesome. I've had CDH's that have lived an awfully long time, one lived, no joke, 7 years. I still have the receipt to prove it. Most of the rest have lived 2-3, but the last two I got only lasted 6-12 months sadly. The most recent one, barry, I fear was my fault, there was an unexpected cold snap and we hadn't turned the heat on in the house yet, I am not sure if that killed him or not, my room was about 48 degrees when I got home from work. I've had hams go into hibernation during winter power outages before (the Halloween ice storm of 2011 that wiped out power for like 80% of Massachusetts comes to mind) until I could get them to a safer place, but I don't know if an otherwise healthy ham who had a stuffed nest would be killed in eight hours by 48 degree weather or not. My other ham whose cage was right next to his was totally fine. Maybe a coincidence, I dunno.
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Oct 22, 2017 22:21
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When I still had two of em, I went through a period of time where I had no central heat, and had to resort to a space heater during the day, and moving them into a tent with my bed at night and zipping it up so they'd be warm. Best part about that though was falling asleep to them running on their wheels. That only went down to about 55-60 degrees though. I'm sorry to hear about Barry though. What sort of care did you give to have a hamster live for 7 years? Or were they just some sort of super hamster? This is the current setup I have for mine:  I have two wheels for her to choose from depending on her mood. This was freshly cleaned cage day, so she chose the round one of course, and spent at least 6 hours that night spitting food on it and running so it makes loud rattling sounds. She never does that with the saucer. I also gave her two houses so she could pick and choose from that as well but recently, she just ended up choosing the corner behind the round wheel instead. 
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Oct 23, 2017 22:43
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I've got a surplus of regular ol' aquariums from when I had a hamster suddenly give birth to 7 babies and I had to separate them all, so I use those. I had a slightly bigger one that Junior(the Methusela chinese dwarf hamster) lived in, but it fell apart ages ago. I hold my hams a lot and they like to sleep in my shirt, generally on my shoulder or stomach when I'm sitting down. Junior was up at the counter at the pet store and people regularly held her, so I guess she was just incredibly chill with people, so maybe wasn't as stressed out when I had her and that helped her live longer???? IDK????????????
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Oct 24, 2017 02:07
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Currently have 35ish rescued gerbils in tiny squalid cages at my house. All huge mixed groups so I imagine most of the females are pregnant, and the conditions in some of the cages were really bad, saturated with urine. Some of them had really gross coats and stank of their own waste. We've cleaned them up as best we can, changed bedding, added enrichment and they're spending a few nights with us until we can move them to a dedicated gerbil rescue we have helped out before. What the gently caress is wrong with people. 7 youngsters in this tiny rusty cage, no nest or anywhere to hide.   14 youngsters and adults in this tiny tank. Probably the cleanest of the lot and it was sticky inside and out, assume from urine.  Another cage. These guys were in rough shape, their coats were dirty and stained and they were lethargic. A night in fresh bedding with somewhere to shelter and they seem much cleaner and happier. Their coats stank of piss.  4th tank. There was a layer of clean wood shavings on top, and as I went to scoop out a handful where the water bottle had leaked I dug down into filthy bedding underneath, dirty enough to make me gag. Soaked in piss and poo poo. Even the coconut was soaked through.   Absolute cuties though. Some of them are surprisingly good to handle, others run for cover as soon as you go in the room.   I really wish I had room to keep some of them, but there's three huge tanks in our living room as it is.
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Oct 30, 2017 16:07
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Jesus. Whereabouts? And what happened to the owner, hopefully they got help or slapped for animal abuse? poo poo like that is not okay.
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Oct 30, 2017 21:46
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In the UK. Nothing has happened to the owner as yet - they asked the rescue if they could surrender them and we are just transporting them. All the details will be passed on to the rescuer who I assume will take appropriate actions.
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Oct 31, 2017 10:34
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Blacknose posted:appropriate actions. I feel like this is optimistic. I hope they find homes for those poor babies, they deserve them after that horriffic start in life
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Nov 1, 2017 08:56
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