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:

Cowboyknerten

I bet ya'all didn't know Clint had a trainee!

Fjerten again...

Today I had my camera handy from the get-go and caught Fjerten on film climbing up her cage to get at her morning snack! You hardly ever see her climb, but lately she's been doing this when I approach her cage in the morning. Good old Pearl used to climb (and fall down) all the time.

Oh well. How about this:


She still has a tendency to nibble my fingers, but I suppose she'll stop eventually, like Knerten did. Fjerten is just... a little slower on the uptake. ;-)

Lovely Knerten

Of course I've not forgot about Knerten! She's her usual lovely self as this little video from last night shows. Sorry it's so dark, poor Knerten, living in a dark little corner of the house... Anyway, she sat in my hand like this for ages, I just couldn't film it all:



I'm glad she's well. She gave me a bit of a scare last week. I was cleaning her cage and suddenly noticed bloody footprints in her running wheel!! She never looked sick or anything, was eating as normal, no injuries to be seen, etc. So I Googled. And according to various sources, female dwarf hamsters can be prone to have vaginal bleeding for no apparent reason. Normally it's not necessary to take the animal to the wet and the bleeding will just stop on its own. There were some more bloody footprints the day after I'd cleaned her cage, but there's been nothing after that and she's still acting all normal. So I'll put it down to one of those inexplicable and harmless bleedings I read about.

Land of the brave!

Fjerten this morning. Watch in awe! ;-)

Progress, part III

This is Fjerten having her morning snack today:



She's all kinds of brave these days. :-) The camera spooked her at one point, but that's to be expected.

She approaches when I walk into the living room in the morning. Wanting her snack. Aw, she's so cute! Not quite as calm as Knerten yet, but better. Ever better.

Guest critter

This is my friend Leisha's pet turtle Henrik at feeding time last night: