Mark's blog

I managed to get a larger photo of her while she was moving around as we cleaned out her cage. Unfortunately, she moves really quickly and my camera was on the wrong focus setting. So, it's somewhat blurred - but still : behold the cuteness !

Best impluse purchase EVER. Louise and I were just finishing the weekly shopping at Sainsburys - I was bored and started mooching around the pet food aisle, mentally calculating how much per month it would cost to feed a hamster. Louise obviously felt sorry for me (and was probably fed up with my constant whining about how much I wanted a pet), so agreed to go home via the pet shop in Ewell, "just to take a look and see what they've got". Turns out it was fate - there was only one hamster left, and she obviously wanted to come home with us.

Permit me to introduce "Pepper" - the latest addition to our family. She's jet black, and only 4 weeks old at the moment - which probably makes her birthday around Christmas. As we've only had her a few days, she's still really timid and only comes out at night. I didn't want to frighten her with a flash going off, so I only have a photo of her sleeping during the day :



That dark coloured furry blob at the back is her. She now occupies the space next to our TV set, and is now the main focus of attention in our living room. She's also aquired the hamster equivalent of a Beverly Hills manor - behold the majesty that is Hamster Towers :



I was really worried that a hamster would be a bit of a "boring" pet - I'm used to guinea pigs and other beasties that are very active. I was totally wrong though; I can't get over how busy and playful she is! She was tearing around last night, and she loves her new wheel. Puts me to shame - I give up on the Gym treadmill after 15-20 minutes, while she was trundling away for most of the evening.

It's getting to the point now where she's had long enough to "set up home" and work out which parts of her cage she wants to store food in, make her bed, and go to the toilet etc. So, next on the agenda is cleaning - when she's a little older and used to us, she can just go in an exercise ball, but the pet shop advised us that she's too young for that just yet. So we now have to work out how to catch her and keep her out of harms way for 10-15 minutes while we clean out her cage. I'm envisaging some sort of elaborate contraption to entice her in and hold her, possibly consisting of toilet roll tubes and a box of some sort containing raisins or other treat. I just don't want to cause her any unneccesary distress or panic her - I feel like a paranoid new father...

I'm looking forward to teaching her tricks as well - apparently, I should be able to teach her to sit up and beg amongst other tricks. So, in summary - hamsters (and tolerant partners!) ROCK. More rodent updates when they happen...