Frustrating little buggers!!

So. The taming project continues to bomb.

Yesterday it was time to clean cages again and I figured it would be another good opportunity to get some footage + get the dwarfs used to being handled.

Got off to a bad start: I mistakenly assumed Knerten was asleep in her house and so just placed her house in the digging box. Then proceeded the take her cage apart so I could clean it, only to discover that she wasn't in fact in her house. Turned out she had been asleep in the cage, in a little nest she'd made for herself. Of course she freaked out completely when my removing her roof woke her up. I had to make a grab for her before she leapt out on the floor. She wasn't happy. Then she came out of her house to find snacks only once while in the digging box. At that point I picked her up again and she shrieeeekkked. The way only Fjerten has done before. *sigh* I think this project is doomed!! And are dwarf hamsters really supposed to make that screeching sound??

I didn't get any footage of Knerten in the box yesterday at all. Here she is after I'd cleaned her cage, having a sand bath. She was acting so weird, just sitting there doing nothing for a while. Don't think it really shows in the video, though.



She also did a great deal of running last night.



Fjerten wasn't any better, but at least she made a little bit of an appearance while in the box:



I'm tempted to give up the taming project...

Taming of Fjerten

... going even worse, actually.

This is Fjerten just now, 10 minutes ago. She was up having a snack, so I decided to see if I could get her to take a piece of AllBran from my hand. No such luck!

Taming of Knerten

...not going so well, actually.

This is Knerten from last night, jumping off of my hand after gobbling up a few pieces of cereal.



On Saturday she was all nice & smiles & whatnot, and I even lifted her out of her cage and my friend Leisha Camden even got to pet her a tiny little bit. No such happy feelings yesterday, as you see.

Ah well. Things take time.

Home alone... again!

So, trilltrall and I are off to Dublin tomorrow morning and we'll be away for a whole week. It's a very good thing that we have low-maintenance pets who can take care of themselves! :-D

I fully expect them both to survive and thrive and not miss us one iota. Except that Knerten, being the intelligent one, probably will miss the occasional snack she gets when I try to tame her. She'll probably come running when we get home next Thursday. She did last time we were away and I assume a week isn't long enough for her to forget about us completely.

I'm very glad the heatwave we've been having is definitely over now, that way I don't have to worry about the little ones' water supply. I'm rather concerned about Knerten in that dept. Her water bottle stays where it should (thanks, again, to electrical tape), but I think she has a hard time actually reaching it. It's too close to the cage wall, I think. When I cleaned her cage here the other day, I didn't totally dry off the plastic bit that makes up the 2nd floor of her cage. She came running and licked the remaining drops of water off of the bottom of it. Instant angst!! I confiscated poor Fjerten's food bowl and turned it into a water bowl for Knerten. The problems with that solution are many and obvious, but at least she then had access to water. Thankfully it's now +17 C rather than +33, though, so I'm not that concerned.

Really need to find her another water bottle, though. Which is hard, what with the plasic cage that doesn't work with regular issue water bottles. Anyone got any ideas?

Fjerten being cute

Fjerten was also out and about while her cage was being cleaned by scary two-legs. A few videos of her:

Cleaning

I love the smell of hamster urine in the morning.

We've had a heatwave here in Oslo for two weeks. Yesterday we hit an all time high of +33 C. Officially. That's hot.

A consequence of which has been that the hamster cages have, well, stunk. Which they normally don't. It's not that long since last time I cleaned their cages, but I just had to get rid of the lovely scent of dwarf hamster pee.

As usual, the little ones got the chance to run aound a little in the digging box. Here is Knerten being her adorable self, eating rolled oats out of trilltrall's hand:


And here she is showing off how big she is!

Knerten - Phase 2

We are now ready for Phase 2 of the taming of Knerten. Things are progressing quite nicely. Food is always a nice incentive with these guys, and today's snack was a little bit of trilltrall's (non-sugary) cereal.

I'm currently working on getting Knerten to climb all the way into my hand and, the important bit, to stay there even though I move my hand. The long-term goal is to be able to lift her without her freaking out. Eventually, maybe, even out of her cage...

But that is some way off yet. This is Knerten in my hand today, I was able to deposit her on top of that little nest by my hand there, although perhaps it was her running off of my hand more than it was me actually putting her down. The video is a little dark because of the location of Knerten's cage - I end up getting in the way of the light whenever I reach into her cage. Next time I want to film her, maybe I should move the cage first so the light falls from a different angle. Anyway, behold:

Not bad, eh?? =)