I thought I'd update you on the latest happenings at Metallica...
Firstly, I made the decision to rehome the hamster formerly known as Louise as a pet as she didn't really have what I was looking for in a breeding hamster in terms of colour or type. As sweet as she is, I had always decided that I'd be keeping two of The Cormes on a more permanent basis and her brothers Jack and Alex are closer to where I want to be with my breeding plans. I felt that Louise would make someone a really nice pet so she'll be off to her lovely new home in a couple of weeks time.
Some of you that have been following Metallica Hamstery for a while may know about our struggles with skin splits and by the time she was PTS, Victoria had four. These skin splits also appeared in her son who was part of a litter that had several incidences with unexplained deaths. In fact Victoria outlived four of her children and I don't feel comfortable breeding from Matthew not knowing what is going on with the skin splits or the sudden deaths of his siblings. It's a shame because Matthew has a lovely face and before his skin split, had nice sleek fur that wasn't overly prone to moult lines.
My next planned pairing will be between Charlotte and either Jack or Alex.
James has made improvements since he gave me a scare at the beginning of April. I honestly thought I'd lose both my oldies in one week but some changes to his diet saw improvement. He is now given soft food every day in addition to having Burgess Dwarf available. Unfortunately one of his damaged bottom teeth has now fallen out entirely but since they never grew after the incident occurred, it doesn't seem to have made a huge amount of difference to him. His top teeth grow quickly and need trimming on a weekly basis but he is very accepting of having this done.
To finish off here's some photos:
Lovely Old Boy:
lord james by
Metallica Hamstery, on Flickr
Lazy Alex likes lots of nice places to sit:
alex shelf by
Metallica Hamstery, on Flickr
Those famous earsies:
those ears by
Metallica Hamstery, on Flickr
Charlotte is channelling her 'Inner Victoria':
charlotte cling by
Metallica Hamstery, on Flickr