Hello everyone, I thought rather than add the same thing to each of the hams threads I'd do one update on them all as its been a while. We've all had a holiday! I went a holiday a few weeks ago so had to work out the best thing for the hams logistic wise.
As Cleo, my Syrian, is in a glass tank it was easiest to get someone to pop in to feed her. As she's quite happy keeping herself to herself that solution was fine. And taking her somewhere would have meant putting Lewis in the spare mini duna so Cleo could have his duna multy... Too much faffing, someone coming to the house was the best solution for her. So a friend came in a every couple of days to check on Cleo - he was very honoured as the first night she was up and about and took a treat from him. Most unusual!
As Hector, my robo, is on the downward slope of old age, I wanted him to be with someone who could check on him more and wouldn't flap if harsh decisions had to be made if a vet trip was necessary so off he went to a hamster owning friend (who's own hamsters are also elderly). He came back well and truly fussed over. In fact, he was so popular I nearly didn't get him back! She's not had a robo before and was rather taken, particularly as those of you who know Hector will know he's quite a character, even in his old age.
And that just leaves Lewis, the chinesey. Well, he came with me
We were only a couple of hours down the road and he had a journey of nearly an hour when I first got him in February so he'd been in the car before. I didn't really want to leave him with someone else as he's doing really well but if I don't see him for a day (he has quite regular time keeping so if I'm about at the wrong time he's not up) it does set me back with him. If I see him every day he gets straight in his pouch so I can pick that up and he walks down in to my other hand for a treat, if I miss a day or two of that he gets more skittish again. So I decided he could come with me and we'd see how it went. I took his regular cage and deliberately didn't clean it much before we went so it was all the same. Unfortunately for my OH that meant his wheel was a little whiffy and he thought Lewis would be travelling in his cage so he'd put it on top of everything else in the car, wedged safety in, right behind his seat.... Oops. Lewis of course was in his carrier at my feet. He's never normally up in the day so I wasn't sure how it would go waking him up and catching him but it was straight forward. Thanks to some good advice on here, he had a couple of small hideouts from his cage (his little pouch and his little pear) and plenty of deep substrate I'd saved from a previous cage clean to bury into as that's where he'd rather be. I put him some cucumber in and some scattered food and he just hunkered down the duration. I put his carrier in a big flat bottomed fabric shopping bag for dark & shelter too and put him in the footwell. I was worried he'd been in his carrier too long when we got there so decided to whip him straight out when he wasn't ready and ended up chasing him a bit which may have been a mistake. He was actually quite happy in there so I could have left him to it and let him settle a bit. I'll know for next time. He took a a day or two to trust me again but it didn't upset his routine as he was out at his regular times that evening. He was a bit skittish but not so much he didn't want a sunflower seed
I did have to concede defeat and clean his wheel the next day though but that didn't bother him
The rest of the time was fine. Although, when it came to leaving he'd obviously wised up to the whole being caught thing and that took me a while. It wouldn't have been so bad but the owner of the holiday let turned up to clean a bit early and was watching me try to catch him in his pouch. I'd have left him for a bit to settle but it's a bit off putting with someone stood over you. She didn't mind, she was just curious but I felt under pressure! Anyway, I gave up with his pouch, squished up his extendable tunnel and he went in to that. I'd remembered Serendipity saying the small carrot cottages fit well in a carrier so when I saw one of those in a pet shop, I picked one up and popped that in, which seemed better too as a larger area of cover. We had more of a slow stop start journey back and I wasn't worried about the time he was in his carrier. It was a warmer day so I had put a bottle of water in the fridge, wrapped that in a piece of kitchen roll and put that in the bag against his carrier to keep him from getting too hot. It was much easier getting him out when I got home so I think leaving him to sleep for longer was the better thing to do rather than disturbing him. He was absolutely fine that evening no skittishness (well, beyond your normal chinesey behaviour
) and we've been back into routine since so I'm glad I took him with me. The expirement was a success! Although, I should mention for the journey back that, knowing the cage didn't need to be as secure, my OH did put the cage right at the back of the car away from his seat....
velma's hams holiday update
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