Meet Cupcake

[Ria P]

Lol! I could just picture Cupcake lying there flat pretending that she had meant to come flying off her wheel.

Funny too when she got so carried away with her puzzle ball that she rolled over.

[cloudy]

Aww, she loves her puzzle ball. She is so cute!

[Stanza]

It’s so lovely that she makes little noises to communicate with you, she’s very clever especially trying to fix her own wheel, so cute!. 11pm is a bit late, I had this with Hams but was able to slowly bring his wake time forward by feeding him a bit earlier over the period of a few months and he now wakes to see me at 8:30pm. However, he’s a Syrian and I believe dwarfs are more shy and territorial, so disturbing her could set back all your hard work taming which you don’t want. Maybe as the evenings become darker she may naturally wake a little earlier?

[ilguy]

I tried something a bit different before reading this, I think your idea is a good one. I actually fed her later at 9 instead of filling it up hours earlier, but announced my presence. She seemed to like it, gave me some happy chirps and we talked a bit. No luck in getting her out, but maybe if I keep it up she will come out just a bit earlier. If it works, I'll try slowly moving it earlier.

Cupcake had dragged the puzzle ball into her castle, and solved it. She dug a little hole right to the center. I put a seed each in her willow balls, and will refill the homemade one.

Puzzle Ball Solved

[cloudy]

What a clever girl! She really enjoyed her puzzle ball.

[Stanza]

Yes you can definitely see she’s had a good go at retrieving the treats

[ilguy]

I have some bad news, I thought Cupcake has been avoiding me completely the past 2 days. But she has been talkative from her nest, with new noises I've never heard before. I wasn't sure, and was erring on the side of leaving her be just given her previous long term hiding.

I took a chance, and lifted up her nesting box. She did scream at that, but I was able to get a look at her. A pretty thick, milky white discharge was covering the entrance to her woman parts. At first I thought it might be a seed or something stuck in there, but then she walked over my hand and it flowed out. It was a lot, seemed like twice the volume of what should fit in there. The area around it was pretty raw, missing fur.

She's going to the vet tomorrow, but I'm worried

[Ria P]

That is bad news. I'm so sorry. Personally, i would get her seen today as an emergency. Hamsters can deteriorate very fast and this could be pyometra.

[cloudy]

I am so sorry to hear this. I hope all goes well at the vets. I will be thinking of you both.

[ilguy]

The one animal hospital in my small area isn't open 24 hours, and it kills me because it's literally a block away. I can walk there in 2 minutes, I wish they had an on-call tech.

And the worst happened, Cupcake is no longer with us. She passed overnight.