Hamster Love

You know if someone would have offered me a pregnant hamster I would have absolutely refused to take her and given you a 'what, are you crazy?!' look. But having been given one, seeing Amelia and her babies is just a pure delight.

The babies are huge now, no longer the tiny pink worms, barely bigger than the tip of my finger. They are now furry and scampering and lots of fun. Occasionally Amelia climbs to the top of the habitat, where they can't reach yet, and hides from them. (reminding me of the mothers who hide in the bathroom, where the toddlers can't get to them.) But they still sleep all on top of each other, cozy. We've named 2 of them, Hazelnut because s/he is all one colour and Ruby, because s/he has red eyes, but the other 2 stripy ones are harder to tell apart. We don't know what sex they are yet, but we have stroked them, and they are so very very soft, it's amazing.

I'm such a herd animal, that the thought that they grow up to separate and live in their own burrows, only connecting with other hamsters for sex, saddens me. They seem so content now. But even at this tender age (they are about 2 1/2 weeks now) the babies are starting to roll over, snarling at each other, and as they grow older, the fighting will get worse. Hamsters are apparently solitary and territorial.

But now, seeing them clasp the celery stalks in their tiny hands and nibble on it, seeing them try to climb the vertical tunnels that Amelia scampers up, and falling down, seeing them grow, it's just all good. At night, at about 11pm, it's party time in the Hamster suite and three babies at once get into the wheel and run together! And sometimes Amelia gets in and makes it go so fast that they just fly out. (there's lots of soft bedding, no one gets hurt)

We'll miss them when they go (we already spoke to the pet shop, and when they are weaned - between 3-4 weeks - we will return them.)

music of our childhood

When I was a child, my parents had an record by Esther Opharim, with Esther with a big floppy hat and her huge eyes on the cover, and on it was a cover version of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, which was my introduction to the song. I loved her sweet haunting voice. Now, I've looked for her version of it everywhere but haven't found it. I realize in my quest, I've got 5 versions of the song (1- Leonard Cohen himself, master song writer, awful singer, even though his intonation is great 2. Neil Diamond, who has a spectacular voice and surprisingly suited to the song. 3. Judy Collins, too sweet for my taste. 4. Nick Cave, Julie Christensen & Perla Batalla, which has 3 of them singing together, interesting but lacks the purity I want. and 5. the classic Roberta Flack version. But none of them match my memory of Esther Opharim. Of course it's many years since I heard the version I'm looking for, and even if I found it, it may not sound right... funny how memory is like that.

(and for those interested in a hamster update - no one's been eaten yet, and Amelia ate and ate appropriate hamster food and is now sleeping. And did you know one of the leading causes of death of baby hamsters is that they can't reach the water in the cages and die of thirst - how awful that sounds! We're going to get a low tiny basin (a lid?) and put water in that, so our babies get the water they need... And yet, if they hadn't warned me, that may well have happened to us, sometimes the obvious has to be pointed out.)

And then there were more

Photos to come -
Amelia had babies!
It was quite shocking, as the pet store had told us she was a baby herself, but she had been one week pregnant when we got her, and is now the proud mother of 4 tiny pink things, about as big as my finger tip. We've been reading up on baby hamsters, they can breed themselves when they are as young as 5 weeks (though the Internet assures us it's better to wait till they are 4 months) and their litters can be anything from 5 - 10 pups.

Because we weren't expecting this, we've done everything wrong (incl picking her up, just after the babies were born - but we didn't know there were any babies!) and my sincere hope is that she doesn't eat any of her young, a dire threat that they make if we irritate or agitate her (I can see mothers everywhere going, just leave me alone or I'll eat the baby!)

Still oddly exciting news.

My favorite line - remove the babies after 4 weeks, as the mother will be tired of them.