Fjerten in hand (yes! Fjerten!)

Yeah, so, there's this taming project with these dwarf hamsters, right? And there's this one shy one, called Fjerten. Two-legs are so scaryscary and she generally runs and hides at the first hint of a two-legs nearby.

But NOT TODAY! Today Fjerten actually climbed all the way into my hand. Only for a second, but still. =) And she didn't bite. The little beast actually bit me the other day hard enough that it hurt. I suppose she wanted more cereal... But not today. Today she was all smiles and loveliness and whatnot. Watch:

Knerten is luvable!

Knerten is luvable! We've been away for a couple of days (spent a total of 3 hours in Germany on Thursday - no prizes for guessing where we've been!) and as usual I was wondering if the beasties had missed us at all.

Fjerten was nice and again almost climbed into my hand for her snacks. She didn't dare go all the way this time either, though, and I didn't have my camera handy, so...

Knerten has been asleep all day and didn't make an appearance until just now (9pm). When she did finally wake up, however, she was her usual friendly self as evidenced in video below:



There's hope for the little beasts yet! :-D

Progress: Fjerten being friendly (Yes! Fjerten!)

We're somewhat preoccupied with Knerten here at Knerten & Fjerten, for the simple reason that Knerten is the 'people person' (ehr... people hamster...) of the two.

Today however I managed to catch Fjerten on video while on her best behaviour. This is about as sociable as she gets. The trick is to make absolutely no sudden movements and offer plenty of trilltrall's cereal:

Dwarf hamster photography

trilltrall has been reading up on how to use his system camera, a Panasonic Lumix G1. He decided to test his new-found photography skills on the little beasties. They are notoroiously difficult to take pictures of, what with them never sitting still.

This is trilltrall's photo studio:
As you see, it's the "digging box" with an added white background for the occasion and a red rose in case the little beasts should decide that flowers are fun. Dear old Pearl quite enjoyed chewing on flowers. Turned out Knerten & Fjerten aren't much interested in flowers, though. Poor little ones, they don't know what they're missing.

The camera is on a tripod - a relatively new purchase, trilltrall got it when we were in Gothenburg. It's a Swedish tripod! Some extra light on the chair to the left and voila - neat little studio for dwarf hamster photography.

So, it turns out system cameras, unsurprisingly, are the right tools for taking pictures of Roborovkis. Crank up the ISO, fast shutter speed, apperture low... or so I'm told. ;-)

A few shots of the lovely Knerten:



There are also photos of the ever elusive Fjerten! Behold, Fjerten in all her glory:

She's a pretty little one, isn't she? Too bad she's so shy.

Knerten being friendly

Knerten is being a darling these days; very friendly and all. The last couple of days she has taken to climbing up my arm when she gets her evening snack. Of course I haven't filmed any of those occasions.... until today. :-D Obviously she didn't climb quite as much when I had my camera ready, but at least a little:



She's such a sweetie!

After Knerten & Fjerten

When Knerten and Fjerten's days are numbered, this is the pet I want:



Weeee! :-D So cute!