Philomena

[Hope]

So this is my lovely Philomena. I have left the files as attachments as when I embed them they are massive and I can't work out how to resize them on my phone! But hopefully you get the idea!

She is from the adoption section in p@h and had been in there for several weeks. First time I saw her we had a bit of a 'moment' and her name litreally just popped into my head. She listened to me as i spoke to her through the glass and i told her I was sorry but i couldn't take her and someone would be along soon to give her a new home. I kept going in and she was always still there. She is such a cutie I thought she would have been snapped up in no time but no. No one came. I said to my oh that its such a shame because i have everything she needs but i just dont have the space. So some days passed and it suddenly dawned on me that no one was taking her because she was waiting for me. Oh said i could keep her at his as he has an unused spare room where she would be safe and quiet and i was more than welcome to use the room for her if its what i wanted so I went home and got everything ready for her high tailed it back to the store and got her!

So I brought her home last Tuesday and she has done absolutely nothing I expected her to do! She decided an excellent place for her nest was behind her house not in it, hamstered around her new cage like she had been in it for years, she refused all fruit in favour of veg and chewed a hole in the track of her irreplaceable wodent wheel...anything else I could replace but not the wheel!! I have attached a photo of the damage and that was on day 1!

Since then we have made progress and she is now properly nesting underneath a big edible leaf shelter and has burrowed right down and made a massive nest, she is peeing in her sand like a good girl and seems much more content with a big wooden trixie wheel. I haven't tried taming yet as I'm conscious that she has spent a long time 'institutionalised' and want her to feel comfortable before we progress. I have a feeling she might be a chewer... so I have a big glass tank on standby although the chew marks in the corner are courtesy of matilda so can't blame Phil for those although I'm worried they do look very tempting!

Would be interested on thoughts on her colouring. She is roan-y but in the light she is almost sparkly- tricky to capture on a photo.

[Pebbles82]

Ooh she is gorgeous! She looks cheeky and active. Lovely colouring! I'm not up on colourings but I'm sure someone else will be :-) Maybe she'd like a shoebox house if she's looking for nesting places? I tend to put large houses in with a bendy bridge over the door to mimic a burrow, as I got fed up with stinky underground burrows ha ha. They tend to use it if it's dark inside. But maybe she is happy with the leaf toy :-) It's very nice.

[Ria P]

Aaaw, she looks happy in her new home. I laughed at your story because i never heard the expression 'high tailed it' before. It's so funny and makes sense in the hamster world. What kind of hamster is Philomena? Love the name too.

[Charlie Dunn]

Aww she is gorgeous and clearly just waiting for you. I’m glad you have found each other x

[Shannonmcn]

Oh she's beautiful!

Not sure about markings, maybe a dove dominant spot? I'm sure someone who knows their genetics can pop in and give a real informed opinion tho lol

The pattern looks a bit like my Jin, who is also a house wrecker and also had me tied up in her paws withing two minutes of seeing her! So hard to say no to a pretty girl :)

[souffle]

aww what a lovely hamster. I'm not sure of her colour. My guess would be some sort of grey dominant spot. What age is she?

[Coco61]

Welcome back Hope and welcome to the gorgeous Philomena. She Is a beautiful colouring what ever it is officially!

[Hope]

Thank you all for all the lovely comments. Even though i hoped it wouldn't happen she has unfortunately begun to chew the little recesses in the cage and I know it won't take her long to get out. I think it's that they were partially chewed before as she has only attacked the ones that were already started. I've never caught her chewing at them but they are getting worse so I have blocked off the areas with bendy bridges and that seems to be keeping her at bay for now untill I can get the tank cleaned and try to fashion a lid. I will do a sepealrate post asking for help and advice with this!

We had our first taming session last night and she did very well (me not so!) We had her in the bath with a few toys and manged to get her to step out onto our hands but I wasn't brave enough to pick her up fully. She is quite skitty but know that will calm down with time. And so will I hopefully! I was stupidly nervous about it! Think I've lost my edge!!

Ooh she is gorgeous! She looks cheeky and active. Lovely colouring! I'm not up on colourings but I'm sure someone else will be :-) Maybe she'd like a shoebox house if she's looking for nesting places? I tend to put large houses in with a bendy bridge over the door to mimic a burrow, as I got fed up with stinky underground burrows ha ha. They tend to use it if it's dark inside. But maybe she is happy with the leaf toy :-) It's very nice.

Thank you. Yes she has fully moved in now under her leaf and has an almighty mound of bedding and substrate all around it it must have taken her hours so I think she is happy. I can lift the leaf up still to check on her so it's working ok for now. Why she doesn't want a proper house I don't know but each to their own I suppose!

Aaaw, she looks happy in her new home. I laughed at your story because i never heard the expression 'high tailed it' before. It's so funny and makes sense in the hamster world. What kind of hamster is Philomena? Love the name too.

Haha. Yes it was a rather appropriate expression!! Didn't realise when I wrote it!

aww what a lovely hamster. I'm not sure of her colour. My guess would be some sort of grey dominant spot. What age is she?

They couldnt give me an exact age but I don't think very old, between and 4 and 6 months. Maybe she was sold but then for some reason came back and was put in the adoption bit but they didn't give me much information about her at all.