All my life I have had fish, a few chicks, more fish, shrimps, plants (are they considered pets?), two dogs, a cat that came and went in 24 hours, and now HAMSTERS!
The above pictures are of my second pet dog. She is called Cameer (aka
Come Here). Had to be brought to the SPCA after
a while. Sigh, i found her in a void deck and she followed me home. =)
I shouldn't complain although I am thoroughly crazy about owning a dog of my own, or a cat is fine too. However, my Mum is absolutely adamant about haven't no large pets in the house as she considers it cruelty to the dog to not have a backyard to run around in and cats happen to love scratching. Oh well, not even a terrier...watever. And so the story goes, one fine day after deliberating about getting hamsters i finally got to really spending some serious money on them cute little things...had to do it b4 my mum changed her mind about it.
I started with my original to Dwarf Russian hamsters, Snowy and Hammie. One is albino (white and fluffy) and the other is black (with the stripes of a sunflower seed). Cute stuff i tell you. My parents got hooked to them really quick.
*btw, the story you are about to read is not a fib, and is the utter truth. Its got humour and tragedy, so if you are the type that winces at sad stuff...um, well, wince on.
I wanted to start breeding them. And so i got two Syrian females after having gullibly believed that the hamsters could cross breed. (Soon learnt the truth after some internet backgrd checks...arrgh!) The two females were Dot and Spot. So cute they were too! Curiously enough, Dot looked hyper and Spot the sleepy type...it got the worse, and then one morning, it happened. I checked the cage to find it soaking wet. The water bottle was leaking and the whole cage floor and the wood shavings were wet. Dot and Spot were both in the food tray. However upon closer inspection i noticed Dot to be hunching over Spot who wasn't moving...wasn't breathing....nothing.....i prodded her gently. No reaction. Fianlly i picked up Spot...she was dead. Died of Pneumonia probably...I was shocked...my pet had died. Its a strange and funny feeling, but fortunately i wasn't that attached to her as she wasn't with us for very long. still...
After recovering from the shock of it all, i went to buy another female to keep Dot company. Now this is where it gets complex. I bought Speck. Looked like a girl at the time...yah well, after a few weeks, i noticed that Speck would occasionally "chase" Dot. Strange behaviour. Then Dot started getting seemingly fat...put two and two together...
Okay for those who haven't gotten it yet...SPECK IS A MALE. Woohoo! And so the first batch of babies got born! They are so small....so cute!!! EEeeee!!! So many! But with the high mortality rate...sigh, if i remember correctly, we started off with about 8. Ended up with 4 or so...sad...its really sad to find dead baby hamsters.
Oh well, and so life goes on...the first batch, and soon (like REALLY soon) the second arrived! The first batch was given away; some to my cousins, some to a cousin of my friend. The second batch got given to a pet shop, except for the runt, Grace2. We just call her Grace now. She was kept alive due to the tender loving care of my mum. She looks just like her Dad, and behaves just like her mum. hee...
I have also decided to buy the bachelor male dwarf russians a female, so that they might breed. I found a really really really cute and pretty female at a pet store in Paragon...so, you guess it! Yupz, i bought the sweet thing. Her name is Swee because she is so pretty. =)
Good neighbours: Swee and Hammie (and Snowy)
Well, so much for the intro. I have sepearted the pix of the hamsters...so just click on whichever cute one you prefer and read on about their characters, whims and fancies and see their photos!
Snowy & Hammie Dot & Babies Speck Swee Grace
