I feel like I haven't updated Jasper's thread in a long time (because I haven't
) but Jasper is doing very well. I do want to try and do small updates everyday, but this one will be quite long.
Last month I (FINALLY
!) entered him into the main show at Peterborough. He placed in all his classes, with Second in Small Hamstery, Fourth in Pearl Winter White and Fifth in Junior.
More details here as well as pictures of his certificates.
He will be 6 months old on Wednesday, which is a big milestone as he will officially be an adult ham (I think). At his last weigh, he was 56/57 grams (scale couldn't decide lol) so he is getting there, size wise. I've been feeding sunflower and pumpkin seeds every day (as treats) to help with his weight and sprinkled some flaxseed in his food a couple of times.
At the moment, he is staying at my mum's with me. I will post a photo later of his travel cage set up. It is a small cage, but it is for travel purposes and I do try to fit a lot of toys in and enrichment for him.
I have done a Halloween cage for him as well, but I don't have any photos of it. Today (since its half-term) I started some Halloween hamster DIYs for him as well. So far I have made a ghost hideaway and am in the process of making a Haunted House. I have plans for a few more projects, including some of Vanilla Ham Ham's DIYs (or just Vanilla on HC), especially the snake tube.
Vanilla's snake tube tutorial. ErinsAnimals Halloween playlist. I will post photos of my DIYs when they are done
.
Larry-Jasper's taming is almost to the level I think is good. He has stopped nipping me completely! Jasper is very happy to be out the cage and have playtime and cuddles. The only thing I am perfecting is him letting me look at his belly for health checks. By that, I mean gently picking him up and turning him over, but holding him securely. To associate it with positive things, I feed him a seed every time he gets turned over, and as a result, is much calmer than when he was younger. Most hamsters never reach very far with this, but I still try with him.
Tonight I gave him a small piece of nectarine, which he thoroughly enjoyed. I got to watch him sitting there eating it. We also had playtime earlier. He's getting much better at being handled by other people, but he is happiest with me. He will happily crawl all over me and my clothes lol
.
Oreo (my piggie) also had a larger chunk of nectarine, which I know he loves.
I think that's all for this update. At some point, I will mention what I got him from the US last week, but I don't have time right now.