7.12.2013

Family Friday: Our Lazy Pet Hamsters

Second Friday of the month:  Pets / Kids


First, there was Sushi, then Red, then came Renee and Skyler, nameless hermit crabs, the "shark", and the nameless chicks and duckling.  Today, it's Shadow and Nibbles.  I just made a roll call of all our family pets, past and present.  The family "toys" of the moment are these lazy little hamsters.


We had no plans of have one anytime soon after Skyler went to pet heaven early this year.  We already have a small tank of gold fish and I don't want to add to the daily load and responsibilities of caring for more animals in the house.

The girl was counting down to her next birthday since it's her wish to have a new pet.  She's torn between having love birds or a pomeranian, and reasoned that "all of your friends have a pomeranian" when I asked her why the dog (since she checks my Instagram and sees many of this breed on my feed, heehee).  Then she changed her mind after our visit to Sta. Elena.

I guess I'm partly to blame 'coz our recent trip to The Fun Farm triggered her growing desire to own a pet much sooner.  I was the one who planned the field trip to begin with.  Remember this post with the guinea pigs?  When we got home from the farm, even the boy wanted to buy a pair a.s.a.p.

She kept on bugging us to shop for guinea pigs in the weekends that followed.  But after doing some research with daddy about caring for these cute rodents, she changed her mind and settled for its smaller brothers - the hamster.  On June 29, we came home with Nibbles (below left) and Shadow.

Father and daughter went to buy a pair of hamsters at Bio Research in Greenhills.  They also chose this pink and white cage with a running wheel, water dispenser, feeding dish, and play tunnel.

To complete the new housing for the hamsters, they threw in fresh wood shavings and mixed feeds, plus pet care supplements to the shopping basket.


For the first week, the girl has been too eager to play with them - over handling the poor hamsters.  I think they got stressed out and scared so whenever they see/smell the girl by their cage, they run away to hide! Hahaha....

When I was growing up, my cousins had a couple of hamsters and I remember playing with them during the day.  I never realized hamsters are nocturnal creatures!  That's why we rarely catch these two running on the wheel.  We thought they're just being lazy and wondered why we these two are often in deep sleep during the day.  There was one time both were curled up in a ball by the edge of the tunnel, not moving at all... J and I tried to move them thinking they were dead!

This 15-second Instagram video shows them out of their tunnel, taking a break and munching on some grains and pellets.


Last night, after putting the girl to bed, I finally saw Shadow doing the rounds on the wheel!  Of course I took the chance to record this exercise and show it to the kids.  They were so amused.


As of this writing, the hamsters are, again, in day-long hibernation. We'll try to catch them again tonight! =)

More Mom-Friday and Kids' Pet Tales, here:
http://www.mymomfriday.com/2010/05/pets-and-kids.html

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