Absurdity

This Christmas I decided to get my pets some gifts. A lot of the stuff they needed anyway, or I would of probably gotten anyway. I wrapped them today, or rather Diana wrapped them. They would of been wrapped sooner but time just didn't permit. In hindsight I would of liked to have taken pictures, I think I would like to put a lot more pictures on this site, at least in the blog section. This way when I talk about things I can help illustrate my point with pictures I have taken, plus it's always nice to have a visual. I am not sure if this will come to pass, but after today I will try to include pictures in my blog posts, when possible.

Now to start off we gave Peter his gifts. We tried to get him to open it, and at one point his claw did nudge the tape and pull it back a bit, but he wasn't too interested and wandered away. We ended up opening the gifts for him, and all of the hamsters as well. We got him a new cage, a lot more roomy than his current one, with new sand and rocks. We set him up and moved everything over, no longer having to squish everything in, there was plenty of room for anything. We had to take his hygrometer from his old cage, and the tape wouldn't come off so we couldn't put it on his new one; we plan on getting new tape for it soon though. His heater seems to have moved nicely though, and when he got in his new home he seemed excited. He walked around the cage a few times and ran on his wheel for a while. He eventually ended up sleeping in a corner again, still not sleeping in his house, but that's normal for him.

Next up Hamtaro got her gifts. At this time I would like to note Diana and I have determined we were wrong all this time, Hamtaro is a girl not a guy. We have figured this out because Remmy and Rommy are clearly males, as their balls are clearly visible, and Hamtaro is obviously lacking them. We always assumed that she was a guy because that's what the pet store attendant told us, and we just assumed hamster's balls weren't clearly visible. Now that we have Rommy and Remmy we know better. We tried to get her interested in unwrapping her gifts, but all she wanted to do was run around the bed. After unwrapping her gifts for her she started chewing on them, we had gotten her a little ramp and a couch that she could snack on and eat. We ended up having to take out one of the spare tubes we had lying around her cage to make room for the ramp. After putting her back in her cage she sat on her couch a little bit and chewed on it, but pretty much ignored it for the rest of the night. Time will tell how much she likes them.

Up next to get his gifts was Remmy. We had gotten him a ball and an outlook. At this point we didn't bother to get them interested in unwrapping their gifts and did it ourselves. We started off with the ball, so Remmy could run around the house a little. While he was running around we added the outlook to his cage, which accompanied a re-design of his tubes. During this time I came to the realization that I didn't put his lid on right when I saw the empty ball on the floor. After a quick search we found him, or rather he found us, right by my feet. Diana put him back in his ball, making sure the ball was closed properly, giving us time to finish his grand cage re-design. After putting him back he ran around his tubes a lot, he seemed to clearly enjoy the new design.

Last but not least was Rommy, who somehow managed to take the most time. We had gotten him a new wheel and an outhouse, the wheel was a lot smaller than his old one. We attached his outhouse with ease, no moving of tubes was required, we simply attached it to a dead end he had. His wheel was more of a problem, we couldn't determine which one he liked more, his bigger older wheel, or his smaller newer wheel. We put him in the playpen with both wheels, and watched him run for what must of been half a hour. He seemed to like going back and forth between both wheels, but I think he favoured the bigger wheel, Diana thinks he favoured the smaller wheel. I think he was able to run faster on the bigger wheel, and his back was arched a lot less, which I think is important, since I don't want him to develop back problems. He should be able to run as close to normal as possible, which the bigger wheel allowed. As wheel both wheels seemed easy to turn, though I think he is having problems with gripping the wheel. I would like to get him the same wheel all the others have, the mesh like one, but I know Diana would say I'm wasting more money on the hamster. I would like to get him a mesh wheel though, to see which one he prefers. The mesh wheels make more noise and seem harder to spin, and take up more room, but they grip better, which the hamsters seem to like. Though with the mesh wheels I'm worried when they get old they'll get their foot stuck in one of the holes and hurt themselves. When I compare the two the silent wheels come out on top in every area but grip, and I'm left to wonder how important grip is, not only to me but especially to the hamster.

One last note, Remmy and Rommy don't run nearly as much as Ebichu did or Hamtaro does, and I have come to the conclusion that males do not run nearly as much as females. Hamtaro will run almost all the time, while Remmy and Rommy seem to just kind of launder about, enjoying their surroundings. Now I've only had four hamsters so I'm not too sure about my findings, but this is simply what I have noticed so far.