Say Hello to Russell the Pudding

Name : Russell
Age : 3 Months
Gender : Male
Weight : 31g
Breed : Winter White Pudding

This is Russell - our latest addition to the family. Ain't he a 'hamsome' fellow? It was love at first sight for me ...what first attracted me was his little mohawk. You can't really see from this photo, but he has a little tuff of dark brown fur on top of his head which reminds me so much of Teddy our last pudding hamster. So far, Russell is a real sweetie. He is very friendly and tamed. He is also a very quick learner (he already knows when is breakfast and dinner time). Like a typical baby hammy, he poops whenever we bring him out.

So what does the gang think of him? This is what Tiger looks like after the first night with Russell as his neighbour. As you can see, Tiger did not have a good night rest as Russell was quite noisy with his babyish activities. We have since relocated Russell nearer to Penelope and it seemed fine for now.

OMG! What does a ham ham have to do to get some peace around here? These eye bags does not make me look sexy at all!


This is the carrier that Russell came in. Looks like a cake box huh?

Happy Birthday Penelope! You are 1!

Happy Birthday Penelope - You are 1!! Yep, that's right - our little princess just turned 1 year old. Her birthday falls on 10-10-09. We had fun making tiny party hats and taking photos of her royal highness enjoying her little birthday party. She even licked the cream off the cake. Her real treat was cream cheese bun since the cake was obviously too rich for her.

Here is Tiger enjoying himself at the birthday party. He came as a personal guest of Penelope. He did not bring a present for her, but he did help himself to the cake by licking off the cream. Ain't he helpful?

Penelope and Tiger having a civilised birthday pinic together. Look - they even have their own plates to sit in. (P.S. Penelope is on the left and Tiger is on the right.) Right after this shot, Tiger lost interest in the healthy cream cheese bun and started licking the cake.

P.S. Here is the birthday cake before it was mauled by the little party animals. Anyway, it looks much better than it tasted (don't ask why).

Ok Ok .... I promise I won't look! How about a peep?

P.S. Penelope showing off her sexy back ... ha ha ha

Some of us sleep on our backs like Humans!

P.S. Tiger enjoys sleeping on his back & is totally
unperturbed by noise from the TV.



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A Tale of the Yellow Tail

Chippy is our first & only Pearl White hammy. As you can see he is quite a sparkling shade of white. There was however a mystery surrounding this snow white - he is white throughtout except for his backside area which has this odd yellowish tinge. We tried cleaning him with a special pet friendly solvent but it remained stubbornly. We even asked the vet about it, but he was no wiser. In desperation, I searched the internet for answers to this yellow tail mystery. I even went to forums and asked for help but nobody was able to give a satisfactory answer. So what was it? I was about to give up when one day while observing Chippy - to my horror, I saw him sitting on his wee wee after he has done his deed! The light bulb went off in my head when I realised that his yellow tail was caused by wee wee stain! Arrgh..... To solve this problem I bought a little hammy potty and tried to toilet train him. It wasn't successful, but Chippy got the idea and stop sitting on his wee wee (maybe coz I screamed NOOOOooo! everytime I catch him doing it). Eventually his fur colour returned to normal again. The morale of this tale is that .... white coloured hammies are like white cars which needs to be cleaned and polished more often than other colours, otherwise it will turn yellowish too.

Tiger's Before & After

Tiger is now almost 2-month old. This is how he currently looks like. He has progressed from a mere 21g to a solid 50g and his body shape somewhat resembles a rugby ball (he is very rounded in the middle and challenging for small fingers to wrap around). The good news is that he has stopped his squealing ways - the bad news is that it has been replaced with pooping whenever he comes out! He is a real Captain Poopy Pants and will leave a string of 'presents' for us. (I think in general hammies poop when they're nervous.) This greedy little bugger will dash out excitedly whenever I shake his food bin during feeding time. He also likes to lie on his back and expose his white under-belly when chilling out. We're getting to know this adorable boy much better as the days go by and I think the feeling is mutual.

P.S. I can still see the resemblance in his baby photo and now. Can you?

Here's LOOking at You!

Did these photos make your eyes pop out too? These photos are not 'special effects' by photoshop. This is really how Dale looks like whenever we take him out of his cage (no, he is not a Gremlin!) . Our 1st theory is that he has poor eyesight and was dilating his pupils to take a better look at things around him. The 2nd theory is that he is attempting to create the 'big eye' effect similar to babies and children to receive constant attention - much like most best-selling toys that have oversized pupils.

The table turned on him one day when the vet thought there was something wrong with him and tried to 'massage' his eyes back to normal. After the unfortunate ordeal, he was dazed by the time I picked him up from the vet. In fact the vet thought that she was doing him a 'big favour' - ha ha ha..... Dale must had been cursing and swearing in his hammy tongue. Anyway, not to be alarmed if your hammy has the habit of eye-popping. There is nothing wrong with their eyes - perhaps they just want to see the world around them a little better.

Here is a photo of handsome Dale at his normal self :

Manicure or Pedicure?

This is Penelope - and this is how she looks like when she is perky. She is a happy little girl who likes to collect bedding and tissue paper as her hobby. Also seen here is an enlarged photo of her little claws as I've been trying to trim them for quite awhile but she won't sit still for the manicure / pedicure. So is it a manicure or pedicure for hamsters? For the clueless, hamsters can use their front paws like hands and can hold things with them. They mostly fall into 4 categories: grabbers, snatchers, droppers and holders. The greedy ones are normally grabbers, they'll stand erect in anticipation and expertly grab the food out of your hands. The timid & greedy ones are snatchers. Their strategy is snatch & run off with the food - often their greed overcomes their fear. The droppers are the really timid ones who are so fearful that they'll clumsily drop the food you give them followed by the most apologetic look. The holders are the relaxed ones who will just take the food from you and say "Thank You".

Back to the claws..... It is advisable to trim their overgrown claws with a baby scissors or nail clippers if they grow too long. Actually Penelope's claws is still considered acceptable. So what is considered too long? It is when their claws start curling inwards, making it painful for them especially when running the wheel. You should only trim off a little portion and leave some behind as they need to scratch themselves. If you're unsure please Ask a vet to do it for you as their paws are very intricate. So I leave you with the clawing question - Manicure or Pedicure for hamsters?

Tiger's One Month Celebration

Remember the little baby squealer? Well, this little squealer has already turned 1 month old ++ In the Chinese culture, we celebrate babies' 1-month aka 'full month' (direct translation) with red eggs. (This was the closest we could get to a red egg.) Thankfully he was a good boy and cooperated with the photo shoot.

P.S. He did not even squeal at Mr. Egg although he didn't get to eat any.

Food For Thought?

Q. What was your first thoughts when you saw the above photo?

a) Doraemon and hammies are friends hanging out.
b) Doraemon was bringing out a plate of food for his little friends.
c) The hammies are Doraemon's pets.
d) Doraemon was salivating at them as food?
e) Dunno what to think, too bizzare.

I recently bought a small display case to house my ceramic hamsters dust-free. As there was still some space, I decided to throw in the Doraemon figurine as well (he came from someone's birthday cake - a grown up, not kid's). I thought they look quite chummy together until my best friend commented that Doraemon looks like he is smacking his lips in anticipation to eat the 3 hamsters! Come to think of it, Doraemon is supposed to be a fat cat from outerspace, so she isn't that far off afterall.

Squeal Box Square Pants

Meet Tiger Ver. 2!

Breed: Winter White Sapphire Dwarf Hamster
Gender: Male
Weight: 21g
Age: 3 weeks
Hobby: Squealing

Tiger is sort of a Ver. 2 coz we used to call Penelope 'Tiger' when the shopkeeper mistakenly told us that she is a 'male'. It was almost 3 months later that it hit me that our little 'boy' is not growing any bigger and to check down there! Funny thing is that she will always pee when I let her out to roam around (we call her the free range chicken coz she doesn't like to walk around in an enclosure) - which only ceased after we acknowledged her as a girl and gave her an appropriate girlie name. I really believe that animals can communicate with us, if only we are sharp enough to catch it. Anyway, here is a very helpful link with picture to help those who are dazed & confused identify the sex of their hamster : How-to-tell-hamster-sex

Tiger is quite another story altogether. He has only been with us for 5 days. (And yes, he is confirmed a male.) He is the 5-star communicator type - extremely 'expressive', especially in telling us that he is not too happy with the level of service around here. Some of his 'feedbacks' include : 1) Please do not remove the roof top to peek at him. Even a pipsqueak needs some privacy. 2) Please refrain your big face from his beady view when he has just awoken up and doesn't recognise you coz it gives him a rude shock. Another clue that you are definitely not the 'Good Morning' face he is looking for - unless you happen to look like a giant sunflower seed with hair. 3) Resist 'accidentally' touching his little furry paws as he climbs the bars (no matter how cute and tempting they look). 4) Do not make fun of his bat-ham pointy ears. It is just that his little body has not caught up with them yet.

Here is an evidence of the squeal-box (hamster version of a boom box). Yup, he doesn't squeak but squeal! In fact, I have never heard a hamster squeal like him before. He is definitely the first. Anyway, enjoy the video and don't worry - no human was harmed in the making of this video.

P.S. If you have a hamster that squeals like this, please feel free to enlighten me about the squealing.

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Organic Food for your Hamsters

Organic food means that the use of conventional non-organic pesticides, insecticides and herbicides is greatly restricted. Organic food is gaining more popularity over the years and even hamster food has gone organic. Currently, not many pet shops offer organic food for hamsters, and those that offer these are normally homemade. A few years ago, I got my first batch of organic hamster food through a hamster enthusiast (she has a hamstery in her office!). I have since progress to mixing my own organic hamster food since it also allows me to be more flexible with the ingredients. The receipe is very simple :

(1) Oats (protein, soluble fibre & cholesterol-lowering)
(2) Flax seeds / linseeds (Omega-3, good for their fur)
(3) Hulled millets (vitamin B, magnesium, antioxidants, fibre, calcium)
(4) Plain popcorn or brown rice crackers

Apart from the above, you can also add in other ingredients which you feel might be beneficial to your hamster. However, I do suggest that you do not add any sharp objects to their food as it might impact their delicate cheek pouch. As a precaution, I will also remove all sharp objects found in their commerical food as I once had the experience of having one of my hamsters with an inflammed cheek pouch (curable by a course of antibodies).

In addition to the organic mix, I also add in commercial hamster food to their diet to give them a more balanced diet.

Bon Appetit!

Guess who else is having Supper?

This is Penelope, the baby of the family. In this photo she has the just woken-up look but that doesn't deter her from enjoying her daily breakfast fare which consist of brocoli, baby corn and sweet peas (quite a heavy breakfast for a small gal). A few nights ago, I was checking on her before going to bed. To my horror, there was a cockroach in her food bin. For those of us who doesn't like manhandling creepy crawlies, I have an excellent method of capturing these offending creatures. Just use a plastic tub (another good reason to Recycle-Reduce-Reuse) to capture the bugger - but you must be quick enough. So what do you do after that? Simply, slide a piece of paper underneath, sticky tape carefully the entire circumference of the tub, put the whole thing into a plastic bag and dispose asap! Yeah, I know the bugger is trapped inside but it still never fails to give me that heart thumping rush like a horror movie. Yucks. For illustration purpose, refer to photo below. P.S. kindly note that the cockroach has been substituted by an eraser coz he was no longer available at the time of this photo shoot. P.S. If anyone else have another method of capturing these buggers, please feel free to share.

My Girl - Pebbles

The starlet in this photo is Pebbles - my 1st little girl for dwarf hamsters. She was named after the Flinstones' baby girl and quite rightfully too coz she does behaves like a little cave-girl sometimes (a polite term for barbaric). I adopted her along with a little boy Momo from their previous owner who was too busy to care for them. One of the first thing I realised is that female dwarf hamsters are noticeably smaller in size than the males. We also nicknamed her 'Peanut' because of her body shape and she never seemed to put on weight no matter how much we fed her. I think it was due to her fussy vegan diet (she was strictly vegan and ate only the freshest food! She would snub her nose at any processed food or what she deemed unhealthy snacks). For a hamster, she led a super busy schedule i.e. constantly revolving around her running wheel and doing home improvements. Her calling in life was really fengshui-mistress / interior-designer, coz she was constantly moving her furnitures to the oddest places. Although she was tiny, she had super strength and could move much larger objects like her house quite a distance away. One of her fave things was shredded tissue paper. Whenever I gave her a fresh supply, she would go into a frenzy and start adding them to her nest (it literally looks like a bird's nest). But wait, before the tissue could be added to her precious nest, they must go through the holy ritual of being sanctified - in her cheek pouch! She would then pull them out one-by-one and carefully line her nest. Well, you can imagine what her nest smell like! Hamster aroma therapy anyone? (Warning - Don't try this at home coz I almost fainted once). Once mission completed, she would reside in the middle of it like a contented mother hen. But don't let her demure appearance deceive you, coz she is really quite a rough & tough little girl who is extremely feisty. Another fave activity that I liked to do with her was to scatter organic flax seeds in her cage. She would stand up excitedly like the photo above, to what I imagined is the song - 'It's Raining Men'. She was singing "It's raining seeds! Hallelujiah! - It's raining seeds! Amen! I'm gonna go out to run and let myself get some seeds! It's raining seeds! Every sizes! Tall, fat, round and skinny!"

P.S. Here's a photo of her in one of her tissue nest. Happily nestled in and probably saying "Hey, whacha you looking at?"

P.S. Pebbles fell asleep today, after being here for 2.2 years. She is dearly missed by all at home and will always be our 1st little princess warrior.

Teddy vs Green Eyed Monster from Space!

The hero in question is Teddy the dwarf pudding. Well, he is not exactlly dwarf sized as you can see from the video. At his max he weighs 87g which is pretty heavyweight, since I read somewhere that the average weight for a dwarf winter white is supposed to be 57g. Well, I like to think that he was large because of his Dutch descent. We call him the Giant Dwarf Hamster which is kinda an oxymoron joke. Ok, back to the video - 'Teddy vs the Green Eyed Monster'. The poor monster doesn't stand a chance against him. Actually the monster is a harmless and unwilling opponent dragged out from my brother's display desk to entertain an overly eager and hyper adolescent. Tragically, he has already lost all 3 of his antennas and the last one was ingested by Teddy as seen in the video (gulped!). P.s. Monster has since retired from the DWF (Dwarf Wrestling Federation) and is about to publish his first book entitled 'How I survived the shame of losing my antennas'. I heard it is a very therapeutic read for hair-challenged folks.

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