The Great Escape

Bummer that I didn't have a camera man on standby this morning!

Fjerten escaped. She was soooo eager to get her morning snack, she was practically jumping up and down. I opened the side door to her cage instead of the top door. This hasn't been a problem before, as she's been way too shy to get particularly close to my hand. This time, however, she more or less jumped up and suddenly she was outside on the floor. Oh noes!!

Freedom! But she only had it for like 2 seconds. I grabbed her so fast! :-) Lucky for me, she ran towards the wall and then to the right, which means she was aiming to get behind her cage. If she'd turned left, she would have been under the sofa before I'd even had time to blink. And then I don't think we would've ever seen her again.

True to form, she screeched when I caught her. Something tells me she'll be even more freaked out than usual over the next few days.

Food project: Sunday - final tally

So. It's 1pm Sunday Nov 15th. Since 1pm last Sunday, Knerten has eaten:

39 grams of broccoli
22 grams of hamster pellets
2 pieces of Kellogs AllBran
1 piece of regular bread
1 piece of white bread
1 piece of mango
4 pinches of rolled oats
2 pinches of cereal

Her food bowl right now:


So she hasn't actually finished all 22 grams of hamster pellets, but it's not far from it.

Also, there are two of these little beasts, so in a week they've eaten a whopping 78 grams of broccoli and 44 grams of pellets between them, plus heaps of rolled oats and some cereal!

Food project: Saturday

Oh I'msohungry I'msohungry gimmefoods! I don't even have the time to climb properly into your hand I'msohungry I'll almost fall off!




Food to Knerten today: one piece of AllBran (below).


In the evening, she got a small taste of trilltrall's dinner. This is the first time she's had white bread.

Food project: Friday

So, you all saw that sad little picture of Knerten's food bowl last night, right? Well, it didn't look much better this morning. In fact, it was time for a refill.

Food items provided to Knerten Friday morning:

10 grams of hamster pellets

10 grams of broccoli

a little oats

She was even more excited to see me this morning than she was last night. She was basically running around in circles. I tried to film a little of how excited she was, sorry the video is so dark - poor Knerten, living in dark little corners.... Anyhoo, two-legs approaches!:



And just so we won't forget her, I filmed Fjerten a little too! :-)

Food project: Thursday

Knerten's food bowl when I got home from work this evening:

I guess she can be forgiven for not being incredibly happy with it. She was totally excited to see me, as two-legs finally = bringer-of-food in her tiny little brain. The hamster pellets that I feed these guys are supposed to prevent selective feeding, but that doesn't really happen. They both like to leave the brownish pellets behind. Anyway, Knerten isn't getting a refill until tomorrow - she needs to learn to eat brownish pellets!

She did get a small dose of oats, though. Poor, ravenous little beast:

Food project: Wednesday

She eats like a horse. Yesterday's mango is long gone, and so is the little piece of bread from Monday!

This morning she got a little rolled oats again:

Food project: Tuesday

Knerten needed a broccoli refill today.

So, Tuesday: 21 grams of broccoli.

I knew the 8 grams from Sunday wouldn't last very long. Broccoli seems to be Knerten's main source of fluids. She drinks much less water than Fjerten, but also eats a lot more broccoli.

This evening she also got a little mango. I rarely feed the little ones fruit, because of the high sugar content, but occasionally they do get a small taste:

Food project: Monday

Food added to Knerten's bowl today, Monday:

A piece of trilltrall's breakfast. ;-) Should give her something to chew on for 3-4 days.

This evening she also got some of trilltrall's cereal:

Which she didn't hesitate about at all:

Fjerten being unfriendly

Fjerten wasn't in a friendly mood today, though. Here are a few videos of her. She wasn't having any 'climbing into two-legs' hands' or anything today, oh no!

Fjerten:


Again:


Scary two-legs:


*sigh* What can you do. It'll be a while yet before she's as tame as Knerten.

Knerten being friendly

Today was cage cleaning day. As usual the beasts spent some time in the digging box while their cages were being cleaned. Knerten was her usual, friendly self.

Here's Knerten having some rolled oats:


Knerten in my hands:


Knerten having cereal:


Knerten in trilltrall's hand (we had to bribe her with AllBran!):

How much does a dwarf hamster eat??

I've mentioned before that I'm amazed at how much Knerten and Fjerten actually manage to eat. These are two small hamsters that weigh in at around 40 grams, if that. And they eat incredible amounts of food.

I decided I would record for a week how much the two of them actually eat. However, that turned out to be a bit of a hassle, so I'll settle for just recording Knerten's meals. They eat about the same, so...

This project started at 1pm today, Sunday November 8th. I cleaned their cages and then refilled their food bowls.

Today, Knerten got the following food items:

12 grams of hamster pellets
8 grams of broccoli
a little rolled oats
a little cereal
1 piece of Kellog's AllBran

My kitchen weight isn't sensitive enough to be able to tell me the gram weight of the oats, cereal and AllBran, so I have to settle for photos there. The silly weight just told me 0 grams.

So. This is the food provided to Knerten today, Sunday Nov. 8th: