tadpole

Exactly five months ago, I bought two dwarf hamsters named Nugget and Cotton. They have grown so much and have brought so much joy into our lives. On October 20th, Cotton even gave birth to four healthy pups! I am going to update you all on how well Nugget, Cotton and the little ones have been doing in point form.

Let’s start with the very fat daddy hammie, Nugget.

Nugget C.

^ Nugget sleeping and drinking at the same time. =_=”…

> He loves eating! Especially cheese. That explains why he is so fat. I know it’s my fault for feeding him so much, but it’s just too cute when he stands up on his back paws and starts chasing my hand for the piece of cheese or for the tiny fruit cube. But his health is more important, so I have decided to feed him cheese only once a week. And I am going to include more fresh vegies like spinach into his diet.

> He loves sleeping! Love for eating almost always goes hand-in-hand with love for sleeping. Unlike Cotton and the little ones, this mini panda bear (yes, he is so fat, I sometimes mistaken him as a panda bear!), doesn’t like coming out of his cage and runs about. Most of the time, he prefers sleeping on the running wheel. I say most of the time because when you have food outside, he will get up and ever so slowly climb up the ladder, feed the food off your hand, munch, lick his front paws clean, and climb back in to continue his job as the Sleeping Beauty.

> Talking about sleeping, Nugget has a weird habit. He doesn’t close his eyes sometimes when he sleeps. Even if he tries to close his eyes, one of them will open up eventually. I checked the Internet to make sure it’s normal, but on one of the forums that I encountered, hamsters are supposed to close their eyes and not open unless they are ill. I was horrified! But close observations over the past few months, I think Nugget is perfectly normal. I guess it’s just him?

> He “freezes” sometimes like the Statue of Liberty and oh God, it’s so damn cute. You can poke him, drag him gently by the front paws, push him, wave into his eyes, carry him and he won’t move a bit. Cotton and even the babies do the same sometimes, so I was curious and checked the Internet. Apparently, they have really sensitive hearing and they are trying to figure out what they are hearing and where is it coming from.

> When the babies were just born, I was so worried that Nugget would eat them. Most of the websites and forums that I went to say it’s a good idea to take the dad out of the cage because he will DEFINITELY eat his own babies. But from what I saw, Nugget was behaving really well. He was a caring, loving dad. He was picking up tissue bits and covering the babies. He was also cleaning them. I decided to leave him with his family and everything went well.

Cotton C.

^ Cotton after giving birth. Out playing and exploring.

> She is the total opposite of Nugget. She is extremely active. She is always running around, climbing this, climbing that, exploring. And she loves having me around. It’s a lot of fun, but a lot of work at the same time especially during school days. I will let them out in the evening, after school, and let them run around. I will build fences around the area they usually play around, but the difficult thing is that Cotton almost always finds the way out. And so I have to be there with them all the time. This cuts down on my TV time in the evening.

> She is not a big eater. She is a slim, sexy mom. Hahah! She used to eat very little cheese, but during her pregnancy, she took more in, and now after giving birth, she is eating more, which is a good thing because she needs the calcium especially now that she is breastfeeding four pups. She prefers tiny apple cubes and yogurt balls over cheese.

> She drinks a lot of water especially when she was pregnant.

> More about the pregnancy: I actually didn’t realize Cotton was pregnant till like two days before she gave birth. Her belly was kinda huge slowed her down and she wasn’t as active. I had to help her up the ladder and out of the cage. She was also eating a lot more and she was picking up tissue bits and building her own nest. On the 20th October, at night, I had a weird feeling. So I went downstairs to check out on her and that was when I saw red blobs underneath Cotton. I told everyone in the house and ran upstairs to spread the good news to my friends. I checked the Internet on how to take care of baby hamsters and I learned that the best thing to do was to leave them alone for the next two weeks. I followed the advice and after exactly 14 days, I let them out.  

The Little Ones

^ Five days after they were born. Still a bit pink, dark fur were growing. Eyes were still closed.

^ The babies at 11 days old. Three of them were feeding off Cotton mommy. One of them was sucking his/her paw just like how you used to suck your thumb.

^ First time out of their cage. They were 15 days old.

^ What you doing little one?

^ Three of them fell asleep during playtime outside their cage. Too cute at 16 days old.

^ The other one was hiding in the box.

^ They changed their sleeping position.

> From red, hairless blobs to chubby, fluffy little balls! All of them are doing really well! The mom has done an excellent job bringing them up. They were out of their cage for the first time on November 3rd. They are so adorable and cute!

> They look exactly like their dad. They have dark fur and all of them have this black stripe down their back.

> At 20 days old, they are very active. They walk around a lot and they love being out of the cage.  

> They can eat solid foods now, but they are still breastfeeding. I have also introduced cheese into their diet. They love it! They love feeding cheese off my fingertips. It’s all too cute.

> They are learning to drink water from the dripper.

> They still squeak.

> They bite. But it doesn’t hurt.

> They have really cute, tiny ears.

> They fall asleep very easily and it’s hard to wake them up. You can touch them or drag them and they will still be sleeping soundly.

> I haven’t named them yet as I haven’t determined their gender. But I am planning to give them Japanase middle names.

Their New House

More members, bigger house! It’s so much cheaper here in my hometown.

^ New cage on the left. Old cage on the right. We are planning to connect the two together.

^ One Big Happy Family!

And that’s the end of this post. Have a great weekend everyone!