Weights & Pic+Vid OVERLOAD!!!

I decided to weigh Sir Hamilton & Periwinkle tonight. It would help if I knew how much they were supposed to weigh. Hamilton weighs 169g or 5.96oz, and Periwinkle weighs 41g or 1.44oz. I also put a name tag on Hamilton's bin for decoration. I love the all the color :)

   

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Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?!

I know it's kind of ridiculous, but today while in the bakery my boyfriend noticed a Spongebob luau themed cake. On top of it was a pineapple carrying case. I want it so bad! Just to use for a hidey-house for Periwinkle. It's so cute! The cake was about $50 at Albertsons, but I found the supplies online for less than 20$. 

I have some pictures and videos I'll hopefully post in the next couple of days :)

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Miss you, Nanomoonchkie

It's been one week since I lost Nano. I feel very down today. Not only that, but it's one week until my friend Kaylin's birthday. She passed away in 2008. Hopefully I'll be able to pull out of this funk soon. I don't like it at all.

Nothing interesting has been happening, but I feel bad for not updating. Still handling both Periwinkle and Hamilton every day. Periwinkle does not like to be disturbed when she's in her little bed that she made underneath her Critter Castle. She was squeaking up a storm the other day when we tried to get her. She was SCREAMING! Thankfully hamsters voices aren't that loud. I gave her a sunflower seed and she sat there squeaking at us while eating it. I couldn't help but laugh. The cute little bugger. Oh Periwinkle, you aren't as scary as you try to be!

 

 

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Sir Hamilton McFluffy - A is for Apple

We bought an apple last week for Nano when she was dehydrated. (Rest in Peace, babygirl, I think of you every day). Instead of letting the rest of it go to waste, I decided to give a tiny piece to Hamilton since I haven't given him many fresh foods. It's not good to give Syrians lots of sugars, but I figured since I've drastically cut back on his treat intake that a little apple slice couldn't hurt. He seemed to love it! Nano would only take TINY little bites, but he was chomping away at it. We've been bringing him out of his cage every day trying to get him more socialized as well. He's soo soft.

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Hamster Beading & Pet Shops.

A friend of mine runs a site called KandiPatterns.com. It has a lot of beadwork involving the peyote stitch. They are usually for bracelets, but I decided to start making them but keeping them flat. I saw she had some hamster ones on her website, so my boyfriend made one for Periwinkle. When she finally has a bin cage, we will attach it onto the top. I also want to get one made for Hamilton. 

Today we went to two smaller petshops just to look around. The first one we went to was Royal Pet Center in La Mirada, CA. This pet store made me very sad and emotional. Their hamsters were kept in tanks. I don't think they were even 10 gallons. There were atleast four syrians to a tank. They didn't have any hideaways, or a wheel. Just some food and bedding. It looked as if one had a few small scabbed wounds on him/her. They also had two red eyed white dwarf hamsters that looked older. They were losing fur, but I don't know if it was because of age or something else. They also had no wheel or anything but food. Next was Pet City in Whitter, CA. Their hamsters were in much better conditions. They had open air cages, plenty of space, two wheels, hideaways, tunnels, etc. The syrians looked like two different litters in the same area. I say this because some looked like they were much younger/smaller. One that was sleeping in a tube looked like he had a wound, too. :(

Both of these situations obviously touched my heart very much, having just recently lost Nano, but I knew I couldn't say something right then because it would of not come out the way I wanted it to. Should I say anything? Should I try to get my boyfriend to take me back so I can try to sneak pictures? Do I just avoid these shops? 

I was really hoping to find a smaller pet shop near by that I could support when I buy my supplies, but I guess that was a bust.

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Still missing Nano! (+Periwinkle photos)

Things are still kinda gloomy since the passing of Nano. She was such a big part of our lives for so long. I miss checking on her when I woke up, and before I went to bed. I miss opening her cage and rattling her food bowl, and having her run over to me. I miss her cute antics. I even miss her bites. It's going to be hard not having a roborovski, but we are not ready for another one so soon. Especially another agouti one. If we were to get any roborovskis, we would want two of those new "pied" babies. We cleaned out her cages yesterday and gave the Crittertrail Outlook to Periwinkle. We didn't have a way to attach a waterbottle to that cage, or a wheel with the Discovery Deluxe, so she has the original Crittertrail that we gave her, and the Outlook on the bottom, used mostly so she can dig around. We also gave her the 6.5" silent spinner Nano was using. Periwinkle already is bigger than Nano, and Nano was too small for the 4.5", so Peri really needed it. I hear her use the wheel, but she doesn't like us to watch her when she runs. Maybe she thinks she's invisible. Periwinkle is also using the pink Critter Castle that I got Nano and Micro back in 2009. It's my favorite hamster accessory, and all 3 of them seem to have enjoyed it so far. To be honest though, I can't help but feel guilty being happy to give these things to Periwinkle. I still feel bad about spending so much time focusing on Peri the week before Nano died. But I know it will get easier in time. Periwinkle was really upset that day, maybe she could sense it. 

Yesterday a friend came over, and we took Periwinkle out to introduce the two. She wasn't afraid to walk on his hands or anything. I am really proud of my little berryboo! Part of me is thinking about entering her in a hamster show, but I still need to see if she wouldn't mind being in a small cage, and if she will do alright in the ball. I have some more "exciting" news.. but I'll save that for a new entry. Here are the pictures I've been slacking on posting..

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Rest in Peace Nano & Micro.

On April 19th 2009, I purchased two little female roborovski hamsters named Nano & Micro. I had always wanted a hamster. Jim and I decided we wanted a pet, so I suggested robos. As soon as we went to see them at the store, we fell in love. Roborovskis are the smallest breed of hamster. They are about 2-3 inches long. Jim picked out Micro because she was the only one awake and running on her wheel like a little speed demon. I picked the tinest one in the cage and named her Nano.

Over the first three months, Their cage expanded rapidly. Despite their small size, robos require a lot of space to run around and play. Since Micro & Nano were our first little babies, we decided to spoil them. They truly lived in a hamsters paradise. Contrary to what most people think, They actually use every square inch of the cages. The set-up consisted of the following parts and accessories: CritterTrail one cage, CritterTrail outlook cage, CritterTrail discovery deluxe, CritterTrail x cage, CritterTrail school bus, habitrail ovo transport unit, 3 silent spinners, 1 CritterTrail treat dispensary, various little hideaways & tons of super pet tunnel tubes.

We were so excited to bring Micro & Nano home. I would spend lots of time just watching their cages and smiling at all the silly little things they would do. Like.. when we first got them the silent spinners, they would go into the wheels and run so fast. Due to the ball bearings that they would flip around the wheel & fly out. Don’t worry! It never seemed to phase them, as they always got right back on. Their favorite treat was sunflower seeds. They loved to take them from my hand, pouch them, and go stash them for later in their hideaways. I even joined the California Hamster Association and entered them in a hamster show! They won 1st & 2nd place for fastest in the ball for the dwarf class & 1st & 2nd place for roborovski dwarf breed female standards. They have their gold and silver medals hanging above their cages.

On the night of Monday April 5th 2010, Micro started showing signs of being ill. She wasn’t as active as she was in the morning, and I found her just sitting under her water bottle. She looked like she didn’t have much energy. I went to pick her up, and she didn’t try to run away at all like she usually did. I examined her all over, and all I noticed was a little mark by her lip. i thought she just had a booboo. I flipped her over onto her back, and that’s where I was absolutely shocked. I saw a tumor. It wasn’t that big, but it had to have popped up rather quickly because she was always showing me her belly. I put her back in her cage and kept checking on her.

On the morning of Tuesday April 6th 2010, she wasn’t doing much better. I woke up and checked on her and brought her out of her cage. The tumor was much larger than before. I called my boyfriend at work, and also the vet. I made an appointment for two hours later, the earliest I could. The vet examined her, and told me the news that I had been trying to deny to myself all day. She wasn’t doing well. She was dehydrated, and confirmed my suspicion on her illness. He told me she had 1-3 weeks left to live, & gave me some medicine for her lip. I went to the store and got her pedialyte & came home to rest with her. I held her and took some pictures with her for memories. i didn’t want to stress her out, so I put her back in her cage. About ten minutes later, I checked on her again.. and she had passed.

Though Jim and I were extremely heartbroken, Nano didn't seem to be bothered too much by her passing. She became really needy for awhile, though. She would do anything she could to get our attention, and beg for treats. We had to move in October 2010, so her cage had to be condensed down to just three CTs. It made her pretty mad, but she learned to live with it. She used every space that she could. She stayed active. She loved to run on her silent spinners, and took up chewing cardboard rolls.. but I think her favorite hobby was making her beds. She spent so much time perfecting them.

I was never able to tame Nano, but that didn't stop me from loving her with all of my heart, and then some. She would try to bite me anytime my hand was in the cage, even if it wasn't trying to touch her. She was a ninja. She loved sunflower seeds, the tiny sunflower seed looking seeds, and spinach. Apples made her extremely hyper.

I figured since I got them at the pet shop in April, that they were about 2 months or so. Nano lived to be about 2 years old. Nano was active all the way up until Feb. 14th 2011. Late that night I found her laying under her water bottle looking exhausted. I was sent into shock mode right away, as that was the same way I found Micro. It was 3:30am. I noticed blood where she had been laying, and after examining her, I came to the conclusion that she was constipated. At this point, she was still walking around her cage. She was drinking water. My boyfriend and I stayed up all night with her, doing everything we could. We gave her olive oil. She hated it. The only time in her life she did not try to bite me was because of the olive oil on my fingers.

As the sun started to rise, and after I felt like I couldn't cry anymore.. My boyfriend and I came to the conclusion that it was her time to go. We knew this was going to be our last day with her, so he stayed home from work and class to be with me and her. I know people are probably going to hate me for this, but I am not going to lie. We did not end up taking her to the vet. We did not want to stress her out even more by taking her out of her cage, making her sit in her critter keeper for awhile (she always hated when we transported her in that) and being handled by strange people. We made her as comfortable as possible.

My little trooper even went to her favorite spot when she knew it was time for her to go. She fought hard and strong until the very end. It was the saddest thing I ever saw, up there with the passing of Micro. My boyfriend and I cried so hard, even though we had been crying all night and day. Since we live in an apartment complex, we wanted to bury her somewhere more permanent that we could visit. We chose to bury her in my moms garden next to her sister, Micro. We drove about 2 hours to get there during the worst traffic time, but she was worth it.

Micro and Nano taught me so much about hamsters, and I am so lucky to have had them in my life. While my little babies are gone in the physical sense, they will forever live on in our hearts. I was lucky enough to record a lot of their life through pictures and video, and blogs online. I also have their medals and ribbons from the hamster show on my wall near the bed as a constant reminder of just how special they were. My moonchkin moonchkies. My moonpies. My Nano-butt. My Micro-kins. I will love you forever. Meet me at the Rainbow Gates. 

Who would of figured that $15 could be so irreplaceable. 

     

(more photos in the gallery, and videos on my youtube channel ~jaybeestarr)

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Nano isn't doing so well.

Everyone, please keep my little OG baby moonchkie, Nano, in your thoughts. She isn't doing so hot tonight. She was fine earlier in the day, but when I checked on her tonight, she was looking very lethargic. I looked around her cage and saw some blood. She seems to be constipated. I can see fecal matter sticking out of her bottom about 1/8th-1/4th of an inch. She is very uncomfortable, I can tell. She just looks like she's upset, too. I saw her drink, so she is staying hydrated. I gave her some apple slices as well. I am going to call the vet as soon as I can.. but that won't be for atleast 3 more hours. I just wish someone could give me some advice on how to help her in the mean time. I feel so guilty and upset for spending so much time with Periwinkle lately. :( I am not ready to say goodbye. My boyfriend is not ready to say goodbye. I hope that she makes it through this. She is our baby girl.. I am not a religious person, but if you are, please pray for her. I know she is just an animal to most people, but she has always been more than that to me. Even when she was biting me and being unruly.. I never stopped loving her like a best friend. She was there for me when no one else was. I love you Nano..

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Princess Periwinkle & Sir Hamilton McFluffy

Periwinkle is doing well with our taming sessions. Sorry I haven't been updated, been a little busy offline. I still make sure to bring Periwinkle out every day to handle her. Sometimes she is a little bratty about wanting to come out of her cage, but once I get her up on my hands, she's happy just walking around. I think she will have a lot of fun in the playpen for freeruns. I can't just let her walk around on the floor yet because without my hands on her, she goes a little faster. Periwinkle is either molting or changing color. I can't tell. I just know her coat looks different. She is also growing up, so perhaps it is just molting. My little baby doesn't even look like a baby anymore except for her little baby ears. 

Hamilton McFluffy is doing well. He sleeps most of the day, but I can hear him in the middle of the night having a blast on his wodent wheel. He still has the same treatbar from two weeks ago because I have yet to let him finish it. He would of eaten the whole thing in one day if I left it in his cage. I want to work on taming him, too. While he's nice enough to pick up and hold, I don't think he really likes it. I'd like to make him not as scared. It probably just has to do with not having constant socialization for the better half of his life. He really likes to come out in his ball and run around.

Time for pictures!

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Princess Periwinkle

Periwinkle is doing SOO good with our taming sessions. I bring her out every single day so she can interact with us. I don't know why it just dawned on me yesterday to rub her bedding on my hands for her scent. It works like a charm! She would come into my hand and start crawling up my arm. One time I even tried to put her back, and she didn't want to get out of my hands.  Jim handled her, too. We let her walk around on our love-sac for a little bit. I think she had a good time. Her fur got a little greasy from our hands, but thats nothing a little sand can't fix. I can't believe just a week ago tomorrow morning, we were picking her up for adoption. She would squeak, and hide.. and now she's not nearly as skittish and she's very curious about the world around her. I've noticed that she's starting to look less like a baby, too. My little girl is growing up!

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