voxleo
Member
...that these little critters were so engaging!
I didn't realize that they are nocturnal (as am I!) and so intelligent because whenever you see them in pet stores all they do is sit there or sleep in the corner. My mom had told me that she used to have one as a child, but I never really thought much about them figuring they were about similar to the other rodents I'd experienced. While I used to have a golden hamster when I was young that was an absolute sweetheart, she was the only one with any personality at all out of 3 hamsters, 2 rabbits, and a number of gerbils. I had just assumed that Nibbles was the anomaly and that generally animals of that sort were simply not as interested in being socially engaged with people like cats and dogs.
But recently my mom brought home a pair that had been looking for a new home via craigslist and introduced me to "Peanut Butter" (champagne color) and "Max" (blue grey) one evening. They're quite comfortable with our other four-legged friends as they had come from a house with cats and dogs and children and had been well socialized already but had to be relocated though because their nocturnal activities were too disruptive to the people trying to sleep. After getting to observe them when they are actually awake, I really like them a lot! They are much more social than I had thought, and as everytime I came near the cage I was quite surprised to find them staring intently at me as if inviting me to interact with them or performing a Jedi mind trick. I think Peanut was trying to motivate me to bring him a treat by "using the force" XD
Since I am quite happy to be awake when they are, I finally got to see what they are like: very charming and much more desiring of interaction than I had expected. I think they like me quite a bit too and they were quick to jump up on my knee when I let them run around the bathroom a bit to let them stretch their legs out of the cage.
Who can tell this side of their personalities from what they observe in a pet store? So friendly and intelligent! Who knew? I can see after only a few interactions that these two are going to be very trainable and have taken to me enough that I might just end up liberating them from my mom's care so they can hang out with me at night instead of amusing themselves while she sleeps.
They are so adorable, though, now I'm hooked dammit! Gotten so that I have really begun to look forward to seeing them when I visit Mom. I can see myself becoming quite attached to these little buggers (but boy, they sure do POOP everywhere don't they?) I predict it won't be long before mom gets tired of dealing with cleaning up after them and then I'll have a couple of new friends in MY house!! (Now I just have to let them charm the hubby enough that HE thinks its a good idea...=] heheh! )
So anyway, to prepare for that eventuality, I found myself looking for things to get them to play with and reading about how to care for them since there seem to be some very specific issues that Mom will likely not know about despite having one so long ago. And so now I am here...
Hello, everyone!
They do seem to appreciate that I went through the trouble of pulling everything out of the bathroom so they could stretch their legs a bit more than on the exercise wheel, but keeping an eye on both at once is challenging enough to have made it a pretty brief recess break. What kind of setups do folks here use to keep them out of trouble and cleaned up after while outside the cage?
I didn't realize that they are nocturnal (as am I!) and so intelligent because whenever you see them in pet stores all they do is sit there or sleep in the corner. My mom had told me that she used to have one as a child, but I never really thought much about them figuring they were about similar to the other rodents I'd experienced. While I used to have a golden hamster when I was young that was an absolute sweetheart, she was the only one with any personality at all out of 3 hamsters, 2 rabbits, and a number of gerbils. I had just assumed that Nibbles was the anomaly and that generally animals of that sort were simply not as interested in being socially engaged with people like cats and dogs.
But recently my mom brought home a pair that had been looking for a new home via craigslist and introduced me to "Peanut Butter" (champagne color) and "Max" (blue grey) one evening. They're quite comfortable with our other four-legged friends as they had come from a house with cats and dogs and children and had been well socialized already but had to be relocated though because their nocturnal activities were too disruptive to the people trying to sleep. After getting to observe them when they are actually awake, I really like them a lot! They are much more social than I had thought, and as everytime I came near the cage I was quite surprised to find them staring intently at me as if inviting me to interact with them or performing a Jedi mind trick. I think Peanut was trying to motivate me to bring him a treat by "using the force" XD
Since I am quite happy to be awake when they are, I finally got to see what they are like: very charming and much more desiring of interaction than I had expected. I think they like me quite a bit too and they were quick to jump up on my knee when I let them run around the bathroom a bit to let them stretch their legs out of the cage.
Who can tell this side of their personalities from what they observe in a pet store? So friendly and intelligent! Who knew? I can see after only a few interactions that these two are going to be very trainable and have taken to me enough that I might just end up liberating them from my mom's care so they can hang out with me at night instead of amusing themselves while she sleeps.
They are so adorable, though, now I'm hooked dammit! Gotten so that I have really begun to look forward to seeing them when I visit Mom. I can see myself becoming quite attached to these little buggers (but boy, they sure do POOP everywhere don't they?) I predict it won't be long before mom gets tired of dealing with cleaning up after them and then I'll have a couple of new friends in MY house!! (Now I just have to let them charm the hubby enough that HE thinks its a good idea...=] heheh! )
So anyway, to prepare for that eventuality, I found myself looking for things to get them to play with and reading about how to care for them since there seem to be some very specific issues that Mom will likely not know about despite having one so long ago. And so now I am here...
Hello, everyone!
They do seem to appreciate that I went through the trouble of pulling everything out of the bathroom so they could stretch their legs a bit more than on the exercise wheel, but keeping an eye on both at once is challenging enough to have made it a pretty brief recess break. What kind of setups do folks here use to keep them out of trouble and cleaned up after while outside the cage?
