Incoming litter: Spinal's 2nd Try

  During our vacation, Spinal stayed at Houdini's tank and she is now well into the last stages of pregnancy.  This litter will be Syrian Houdini (M) x Black Syrian Hamster (F), so the children should be very dark and very interesting.  Here are some pictures of her healthy girth, as I am spoiling her with a wide variety of fatty foods and nuts:

The big fatty fat

What a gut, I think I see about 10 in there already.

Spinal has been trying to escape her new tote since I had her living with Priss and the two cinnamon babies for a good two weeks.  I had to lube up her water bottle with vegetable oil so she can't shimmy up and escape.  More to come when she gives birth in the next 3-4 days.

Post-Vacation Developments

   I was gone for full days and all my hamsters lasted through with ease.  Priss and her cinnamon babies did rip through a whole water bottle and were rather parched, but besides that there were no issues.  Bub got so furry from zero handling that his overcoat grew back in and he was fluffier than a mink.

As expected,  the babies blew up in size.  But most importantly, after this spurt Eraserhead's bump is gone.  The only trouble she has is when she is trying to run on the wheel, her head still wobbles back and forth a bit because she isn't 100% yet.  Here's how she has healed up:

Cheeks full of leftover noodles.  Eraserhead is healthy again (click to enlarge)

First look of the other sister right after arriving home (click to enlarge)

That's all for now.  I acquired a Chinese Dwarf Hamster (F) yesterday on sale and look forward to breeding prospects in her near future.  She is tussling with Bundy quite a bit, so I am going to let her mature on her own.

The Ballad of Eraserhead

As I was photographing the remaining 4 pups, there was an accident with the Champagne Male.  Someone decided to jump off my hand and hit his head on the radiator.  Now I have a tragic pet who resembles another tragic individual from a certain David Lynch film:

Eraserhead is doing well after his accident.  He wobbles around a tad but is able to stand and clean himself, eat all the food types I provide and has no problems with tank mates.  The only question is how long will his hemorrhage take to go down, if it does at all.  Either way I will be using a tote from now on to photograph.

Lean, Weaned, Fuzz Machines

Time to get up to speed on photos, since I have posted a couple of these critters on Craigslist for rehoming:

Tortoise Shell, listed for adoption today.

Self White, listed for adoption today.

So the children have all opened their eyes, without too many problems.  The Champagne Hamster (M) unfortunately fell out of my hands while shooting and conked his head.  He is still wobbly but I expect a full recovery in 2 weeks time.  Here are some pics of him, the best I could get because he likes to spin:

Eating with his sister (the ham on the left).

Best pic I could get without blur.  The scar comes from his mother during  his first days.

Now for the Tortoise Shell, who is rather photogenic.  We did a shoot on the bathroom sink :

"Facemeltingly" cute.

If only he'd perk his ears up...

Here's a few photos of the rest from the same shoot:

Runt

Whitey

That's all folks.  Thanks for reading.

Busy Babies

I am a bit behind on posts, so I'll just get to the goods.  Four babies have survived the weaning process and are now bounding around as true hamsters.  I spent all of 5 minutes teaching the two biggest ones how to use the small wheels and they are already adept at running in them all night.  Here are some pictures of them at about 14 days old:

5 babies are pictured here, the second lighter colored baby died of "Milk Sick" at day 16. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

The only female of the whole litter is also the runt. A Champagne Self pup.  

Champagne Self Hamster (M) that has a large scar from Priss on his left cheek.

Red Eyed Self White Hamster (M) who looks exactly like his father,  Bub.

Last but certainly not least, "Tortoise Shell" Syrian (M).  Truly the gem of my litter.

Planet Mars: Hamster in Space

     I have been having hellish allergic reactions to cedar bedding dander generated by all my rodents.  This has to be resolved and I don't want to rehome them all so I splurged on the good bedding.  Hopefully this will resolve my wheezing, hacking and "bruised" right eye from constant wiping throughout the workday.

I got some hyper-absorbent Kaytee brand that makes it look like they are on Mars.  Spinal was so confused by it that she started eating it for a good 2 minutes before spitting it all back out:

Spinal was exuberant after I changed her cage out with the new bedding.