Day 20 - All about Little Bec & Outdoor Adventures
This will be a big post today, hopefully it'll make up for the day I missed!
I thought I'd talk a bit more in depth about my hamsters, like I did with my cats. I'm sure most of you know about them, but I thought it'd be nice to explain their individualities.
The Ham of the day - Abe
Abe was produced from my first and last litter I had (so far, I do plan to have future ones with this guy being the sire to my next litter hopefully!) It was a very complicated litter due to the loss of 8 out of 10 pups through bloat and some unknown, but I think it was because Myrcella was a first time mum, she had a big litter and she didn't seem comfortable feeding them and shuffled around a lot. There was a lot of hunger squeaks in the nest. It's something I've learnt after the litter, so unfortunately I couldn't do anything and even if I tried the chance of them surviving would be very small. I was left with this little guy and his sister, Belle Aria. I didn't think Abe would make it quite a few times, during his last days with Myrcella she would trample over him, almost like she didn't know he was there. He looked very weak and fatigued, so I took them away from mum a couple days earlier and he stayed with Belle for a longer time than what should be - she gave him warmth and helped him become what he is today. I'm very proud of Myrcella to have produced Abe and Belle. Abe was a slow developer so being with his sister a while longer was fine as he wasn't mature enough to mate. You'd think he was the runt of the litter because he's so small (147g at 6 months old, Belle being 205g), but he wasn't.
If you've not already seen this thread, here's the thread about the litter -
Introducing you to The Melladdy's! - 04/11/15
Cute baby pictures, aww
A very fragile little Abe, which I called 'Little Bec' at the time
Look how little he was
Abe's grown so much and I'm so happy he's become a healthy little lad. He's got such a big character too! It's difficult to explain a personality of someone you find adorable and love so much without being repetitive! But I'll try my best to explain the ways of Abe!
Abe has quite a funny character. He absolutely loves being spider ham and monkey-bars all over the place. I'm surprised that I've actually never seen him fall. He's mastered the arts of being spider ham and I think he should actually have his own film saving some damsel in distress! He'd be amazing at it! haha. He's very smart, I honestly don't understand how he's got so clever at doing it!
He's very inquisitive and always wants to know what's going on. Along with this he has an expressive face which is so adorable. He will always pop his head up at the bars and move his ears and face to the sound of my voice, he's a brilliant listener. I think he actually thinks his name is 'hello' because I always repeatedly say hello when I enter the room and he comes running up onto his bendry bridge and stands against the bars with his paws on it like ''Hello? Hello!''. He's also up during early hours, maybe because he hears me go into the room? I'm not sure! but he seems to love my presence and I absolutely love that about him.
He can be a little skittish though, despite him being really interested in me being there it takes him a while to come to me. I never usually pick up my hams and always let them come to me when they want (maybe I do that because you have to do that with cats otherwise they get annoyed with you! haha) To be honest I think he likes playing hide and seek! haha. When he gets the confidence to come onto my hand he loves cuddles. I remember when I came back from holiday and saw him for the first time he just sat on my hand and I gave him head rubs and he closed his eyes a bit. It was a lovely moment we had. He can be a super hyper boy sometimes though! He definitely gets that from Myrcella
It's so funny to see something little go that fast!
Abe's colouring is black eyed cream, he has such a lovely thick coat, I wish you could feel it! He almost looks satin even though he isn't! He's so special to me, going through all that worry and all the TLC I gave him gives us a special bond. I'm just so proud of how he turned out, and even though he scores lowest in his class at shows he will always be the best to me!
I'm hoping that Abe will be the father to my next litter. It'd be great if he gained some grams but it's not that important because size is easily improved on, it's also a positive because the female will have less chance of a difficult birth. I just hope he stays healthy! I plan to get a female at the end of this year and have a litter at the early months of 2017. I'm on the waiting list for a Red eyed cream female (possibly longhaired & satin) from Tuftyfluff hamstery, I'm so excited about it!. Abe's phenotype is eePpLl (he carries cinnamon and longhaired, so hopefully I will get some red eyed creams and long hair in my next litter)
Also! Abe's named after a game 'Abe's Oddysee' which my brother used to play a lot when we were kids, we loved that game! and he definitely has been on a bit of an odyssey!
Outdoor Adventures
Abe has a lovely adventure in the outdoors today! I put my playpen on my neighbours grass (my mum puts feeder and stuff on our grass) and he loved it so much and foraged about! He would hop on my hand and leap off of my hand back onto the grass, it was so fun to watch him
I've got a lot of pictures of his little adventure, so I probably won't do captions for this one! haha. Maybe make up your own for him! It'd be funny to see what you think he's thinking
Re: The almost 30 days of June!
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