Charlie's thread

[Pebbles82]

Charlie takes care of himself lol. But thank you. He is my baby after all! Three years and five months is an amazing age. As long as he is enjoying life is the important thing - he does seem to be slowing down a bit to me. Hugs back!

[Pebbles82]

Well our little man-ham is still his old self. After 2 or 3 days without soaked Science Selective which he licked clean each night, you would think he would be happy to see it back! No he is ignoring it completely. He is in a huff with it. It left him and now he doesn't want it.

Actually he's done things like that before - like treat sticks.. If something is removed he rejects it when it goes back. However he is now taking a lot more of his Harry Hamster and all his other extras, but I shall keep an eye on his weight.

I decided I'd like to try him on Metacam now as I'm really not sure how much his arthritis (and possibly teeth) are bothering him and have occasionally seen something in his eyes that makes him look very worn out. So I phoned the vet to ask if they could just prescribe some without me bringing him in. Unfortunately they said because it's more than six months since they've seen him they'd need to see him to be able to prescribe it. So I'm thinking about that for now, as I don't want to stress him out taking him to the vets to be examined again when he seems to want to be left alone quite a bit these days and is a bit fragile really at times.

The fact that he can still be picky about his food makes me think he is doing ok really - but still need to keep an eye on those teeth. That might be the deciding factor.

[Coco61]

Still his own self indeed. He does make me chuckle about about ignoring food if it returns after an absence he does not approve of. Quiet and gentle times sound right unless the intervention of a vet is necessary.

[RubyDG]

Oh dear, poor Charlie. He does sound like he's in a bit of a grump. I think if he's still eating it's a good sign though. Not sure about the Vet, I think it's going to depend how much pain you think he's in. Give him an extra cuddle from me!

[Pebbles82]

Thank you Ruby I will! Well he did have a bit of the Science Selective in the end, so I'll keep putting it out. I also put him out a new little wafer cup thing tonight with some boiled rice in, as we had rice for tea, so that should be a nice surprise. It's the last wafer cup of a stack I got from Rodipet. He tends to play with them a bit then destroy them and eat them, so it adds a bit of interest. He also has his favourite baby food tonight. The Ella's Kitchen Peas Peas Peas. He licks out every last bit of it. He doesn't get it too often because it's all veg and along with his usual piece of veg, might be a bit much but no issues to date.

[Hamsterita]

I was wondering, what do you do with the rest of the baby food? do you froze it?

Here baby food comes in little jars, something like this:
(the photo isn't mine, is from mamacontracorriente's blog)

And I suppose that they eat very little each time, so I was thinking that throwing away all the rest could be a waste, so.... what do you do with the left overs?

[cypher]

Charlie makes me smile with his attitude to food & treats that go AWOL! He sounds as though he's still doing really well & probably doesn't need the metacam, fingers crossed for you both it won't come to another vet visit & all the stress.

Hamsterita you can freeze the baby food, just put portion size amounts in ice cube trays & freeze it, once frozen you can put it in a bag then just take out one portion at a time & defrost it.

[Thin Lizzy]

Aww Charlie always makes me lol with his attitude and ways of doing things.
Harvey would never reject something like a hanging treat bar if I removed it then put it back, he would stuff his cheeks and make several trips to his house and then guard it lol!

[Pebbles82]

Thank you Cypher, Hamsterita and Thin Lizzy. At the moment Charlie seems to have his better nights and his not so good nights. He is looking particularly old because he now has some fur loss in various places and little bits of wrinkly skin showing. Which surprised me at first because he looked so different. The camera caught it. But he's still Charlie. He is a bit tired and fragile and is quite sweet but can also get a bit grumpy and snappy, like the night before last when he seemed quite cross with me and didn't want to be stroked. I'm just playing it by ear. Sometimes he very much seems to be want to left alone, and if out just wants to sit in a cosy hide. Other times he suddenly gets curious and tries to go exploring round the back of his cage (the one place I don't want him to go as there's a hole in the wall!) Of course as soon as you try and stop him he wants to go back there again.

I watched him eating a piece of chicken a few nights ago and a piece of cooked carrot last night, so he can eat, but maybe not as well as if he was a bit younger. Sort of nibbles really. But not that much different from how he always has. I think the grumpiness and snappy rejection is because I tried to look at his teeth last week.

The only thing that worries me slightly is his eyes don't look as open as they used to when he's awake - they look like tired eyes. Whether this is an age thing or he is in some pain I am not sure, hence thinking the metacam might be good now. Although it would be very hard to get it down him if last time is anything to go by. There's no disguising it from Charlie who is not stupid! It would be a case of squirting it in his mouth and he would be extremely cross about that. So I'll just keep an eye on him for now.

He had some scrambled egg this morning and porridge most mornings and definitely still enjoys food. But he really does stagger a bit on his legs sometimes.

Hamsterita - yes I am a bit wasteful with it. Although the jars I get are a bit smaller than those in your photo. The 4 month baby ones are quite small. But the contents need using within 24 hours of opening, so one small jar only does two nights. If it did 3 nights it would be better, as I put a fair bit out in an egg cup (like a heaped teaspoonful). Sometimes Charlie just has a few licks off the top, other times he'll eat most of it - his favourites change regularly. So I open it and put some out, put the jar in the fridge, use it the second night (24 hours later) and bin the rest. We didn't have a freezer for a while, but have now, but sometimes I just have too many things to do to freeze bits of baby food. But I should as it's getting a bit expensive! I stocked up last time with a deal if I got 10 in one go The Ella's kitchen ones come in a small plastic pouch and they are use within 48 hours of opening, so they do 3 nights when refrigerated which is a bit better. I only use those occasionally though because they're mostly just puree'd vegetables and a bit watery - the others are more like a mini meal.

This is the size (lol it looks enormous on the photo!) but quite a small jar. I do end up throwing about 1/4 of it away though. This is one of his favourite ones, but he gets sick of it and develops another favourite one - I try and give a different one every 2 or 3 nights.

The little lids are very useful - I save those and they do for putting little extras out in - eg a few soaked science selective biscuits or occasionally some seeds.

[BorisPasha]

I had to laugh hearing about Charlie and his missing science selective biscuits. It's good that despite his grand age his personality is still shining through (even if he is a bit cross somedays!)