Nala and Gaz

[agnesthelion]

Oh gosh, they peed in your bed! They were probably like ohhhh, this bed is so soft and smells like mommy, I'm gonna pee right here

Cute pics of them in the hammock, btw.

 

[Imbrium]

thanks

 

[Imbrium]

you know what I hate? BIG things that require a lot of assembly... and even moreso, things requiring a lot of assembly that have NO diagrams in the instructions >.>

sometimes I hate my compulsion to spoil animals, lol.

I've gotta assemble this cage, which is currently in pieces on my dining room table: http://www.sugar-gliders.com/sugar-glider-cage.htm

 

[whitelop]

OMG! Did you get sugar gliders?!
That is super exciting!

Its like putting together IKEA furniture. You get pictures and an allen wrench.

 

[agnesthelion]

Saweet sugar glider cage!

Did you get one??! I was like this close to getting one a few years ago. I was nervous I wouldn't "like" them. Tell us about them!!

 

[Imbrium]

I don't have 'em yet, but am making the final preparations

the cage, starter kit (food dishes, vitamin and calcium supplements, bonding and sleeping pouches, etc.), stealth wheel, heat lamps (because to hell with keeping my house around 80F - bunnies and I wouldn't be able to stand that!) and a bunch of toys have already arrived and are waiting to be put together (had to clean house and make space for the cage in my dining room)... also waiting on some toymaking supplies to arrive in addition to what I've picked up at walmart and home depot. I think I'll see if I can rope my neighbor into helping me make toys - I think we'd have a lot of fun working on that together.

I've also got hammie babies on the way... my girl seems to be getting bigger by the hour! I cleaned her bin cage out thoroughly today and gave her lots of toilet paper and orchard grass and extra carefresh and she built a huge nest with it all

 

[whitelop]

Congrats on your sugar gliders and hammy babies! That's all so exciting! Keep us updated on all of it. It sounds like your house is going to really busy soon enough!

 

[Imbrium]

busy indeed! I plan to rehome the babies in bin cages so they don't get stuck in crappy store-bought ones, so I'm gonna have to spend a lot of time building bin cages, heh.

 

[agnesthelion]

Awww congrats on the new babies to come! I'm excited to hear about your sugar gliders. I did SO much research on them but their diet seemed overwhelming to me

But I thought they were fascinating little creatures and thought how cool it would be to carry them around in a pouch I guess they bond pretty tightly to their humans. So cute!

 

[littl3red]

agnesthelion wrote:

Awww congrats on the new babies to come! I'm excited to hear about your sugar gliders. I did SO much research on them but their diet seemed overwhelming to me

But I thought they were fascinating little creatures and thought how cool it would be to carry them around in a pouch I guess they bond pretty tightly to their humans. So cute!

If you want a little creature with a fairly simple diet and pouch-carrying capabilities, I would HIGHLY suggest a pair of rats. Before you go "EWWW RATS" hear me out! They're affectionate, intelligent, and playful. Like dogs but smaller and more acrobatic. They're pretty easy to care for, their diet is simple. I fed mine similarly to rabbits. (Pellets, cilantro, grapes and apples, this was their "stroke-free" diet after my sweet Beta died of a stroke and I got paranoid). They don't need hay. I used to do chores with a rat riding around on my shoulder. They can be litter box trained. They are highly social creatures, so they can bond closely with their human, but they also need to live in pairs minimum. I had a female rat that I was trying to get spayed so she could live with my boys. She was only alone for a month (she came from a psychology lab with other girls,) and she stopped eating and drinking and died. The vet said that there was no apparent physical cause of death. Given the evidence, it seems that she killed herself. Because she was alone. I feel so bad about that. Seriously, they HAVE to be kept with other rats, NO exceptions.

The ONLY reason that I stopped keeping them was because I had an allergy to them that got progressively worse, to the point where I ended up in the hospital twice. I still have two left, Pixel (who just had his first birthday about a month ago) and Kentucky, who are living at my boyfriend's house because I couldn't give them the care and attention they needed anymore. But if you're not allergic to them, I couldn't recommend them more. I mean, if you ever think about getting a pet other than bunnies, rats are REALLY awesome. :biggrin:

 

[Imbrium]

most rats, anyway... not all one of the two "female" rats my roommate in college got (the one who was actually female) was a total witch (apparently I can't type "expletive deleted" with little > brackets around it, wtf?) her babies were as sweet as could be, though.

I'm really worried about my hammy babies! I got mixed up and forgot today was her due date (thought I had another day or two) and was arguing with her because she built a HUGE nest in a good corner of the cage, then suddenly had a bare-bones nest on the opposite side (where I didn't want it because it's under the water bottle). I picked her up to move her back to the good nest again to try to get her to go back to using it and then realized I was touching babies (which is a huge no-no with hammies)!

 

[agnesthelion]

Oh yes I've heard great things about rats. I'm not girlie when it comes to rats at all. Even mice I'm cool with now, big hairy spiders I turn into a total girl! Lol

I'm not looking for another pet right now. Agnes and Archie and my 3 year old son are plenty of work. The sugar glider thing was before I got my buns. It will just be exciting to live vicariously through jennifer!!

 

[Imbrium]

pics! bunnies first...

tasting their very first blueberries:


sharing some kale:


crammed together in the back corner of their condo for some reason:

 

[Imbrium]

hammy pics...

full cheeks and tummy:

building a nest:

sneak peek at the babies (pics are small 'cause the bigger version is just pink blurs anyway - camera hates up-close shots of tiny things >.>


I can't tell if there's 5 or 6, but she was sitting on/nursing all of them so I don't think she's rejecting them because of me touching them I snapped a couple pics when she got up to see what I'd put in her food bowl.

 

[agnesthelion]

Cute!! I thunk it's cute they were crammed in the corner of their condo

Are those blueberries or blackberries? They look like weird blueberries to me! Lol

The hammies are SOOOO tiny. I don't think I've ever seen newborn hammies. How big are they....like can you compare them to an everyday object for an idea of just how tiny they are?

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, I totally meant blackberries, lol. definitely not blueberries.

length-wise, I think they're maybe about the size of a quarter? I'll see if I can't get a decent pic of them with an object the next time Misty (I just call her "little miss" though) is out of the nest.

 

[Imbrium]

holy crap! apparently she wasn't done... or even close she looked like she was finished after 5-6 - I was away for a good half an hour between when I discovered them and when I went back for pics. not so much. 11 now, if I counted right! not sure they'll all make it, with her being a first time mom.

they're a little bit bigger than a quarter, or at least the one I grabbed was, but not by much. didn't have any disposable latex gloves on hand so I had to use a fresh pair of thick house-cleaning gloves to avoid leaving my scent on it, lol...

oh, and so he doesn't feel left out, here's a pic of dad:

 

[katherine at sacred stories]

AWW... congratulations on your hammie babies. How sweet. Takes me back to when I had them as a little girl. Tiny baby brings tears to my eyes, for some reason So vulnerable. So lucky to be born in your house!!!

And, of course, your bunnies are STILL GORGEOUS!

 

[agnesthelion]

Oh my GOSH! They are SOOOO tiny!! I'd be afraid I'd hurt one picking it up!! Amazing!!

 

[Imbrium]

hehe, yeah, I'd probably be afraid too if I hadn't dealt with hamster babies before (granted, like 15 years ago). they're SO teeny-tiny! rather than picking one up, I basically just carefully nudged/rolled it onto the fingers of my other hand. they squirm around a lot and "popcorn" a bit, hehe. they make little squeaky noises to cry for their mom when she's away from the nest sometimes, too.