Tag: pets

  • Mammary tumours in hamsters

    Mammary tumours in hamsters

    I can’t believe I’m writing another post about a sick hamster but unfortunately that is the case. We adopted Lucille just over a month ago from a hamster rescue in Fife. Unlike our previous rescue hamster, Lucille was young and we were hoping to have at least a year of healthy hamster with her. Lucille…

  • Animal friends and summer days

    Animal friends and summer days

    About a month ago our hamster Ruby died. She was slowing down and starting to struggle to walk. It was extra sad because we hadn’t had her for very long. I think she must have been quite old already when we adopted her from the SPCA. I guess this is one of the downsides of…

  • Elizabeth, litterers, chocolate, Easter

    Elizabeth, litterers, chocolate, Easter

    Elizabeth is an unusual girl. Up until last year she didn’t have a smart phone and vehemently opposed the idea of getting one. I eventually force one upon her for a school trip but since then it has sat with a flat battery, little used. She’s not on any social media sites and has no…

  • Meet Ruby

    Meet Ruby

    Rocket our hamster died last week. He had stopped running on his wheel and had several large tumours that had become so big they were starting to impair his mobility. We decided the kindest thing to do was to put him to sleep. We’ll miss him. He was a cool dude. It’s always really hard…

  • Rocket’s cage gets a makeover

    Rocket’s cage gets a makeover

    Rocket’s cage has been getting a clean this weekend so I took the opportunity to give it a makeover. I noticed that he’s been trying to dig in his sand baths and because they’re shallow all he ends up doing is kicking all the sand out of the container and making a mess. I decided…

  • The magpie and Rocket

    The magpie and Rocket

    I recently got a large bird-feeding house with a high capacity because I was having to refill the tube feeders so frequently I thought this would last longer. However a magpie with a discerning palate has discovered he can flick through the seed picking out the bits he likes. He empties it in less than…

  • Angus for a holiday and Rocket relaunched

    Angus for a holiday and Rocket relaunched

    We’ve come to Angus for a holiday that is three years overdue. We booked it originally for April 2020 but covid cancelled it so the holiday was rescheduled for 2021. Covid cancelled that too and it got rescheduled for 2022 but I made the mistake of booking a time that did not coincide with school…

  • Wallpapering and ants

    Wallpapering and ants

    I spent the day wallpapering our entranceway. Whenever I wallpaper I tell myself I’m never doing it again. But then a year or two later I’m back at it. I really struggled with this one. It seemed an easy wall but the end result is bubbly. I’ve never had wallpaper bubble before and the only…

  • Rocket with his broccoli

    Rocket with his broccoli

    Isn’t Rocket just the cutest thing even with his 1.5 ears? We love him!

  • The icy Deeside Way and an ant drowns in honey

    Last weekend when I took Elizabeth to highland dance I decided to cycle her in Hoss, our cargo bike, because the bike path was looking icy and I thought it would be safer. Big mistake. The bike path near our house wasn’t too bad but the further we got from the city centre the icier…

  • “This is for Granddad!”

    There was much excitement in the house this morning because the ants in Elizabeth’s ant colony took the moth she had given them over a week ago. She put a dead moth by the entrance to their test tube and it had been sitting there for over a week. This morning it disappeared and we…

  • Rocket the hamster pics and video

    Rocket the hamster pics and video

    We’re loving having Rocket. He’s such a cool little dude. He seems quite happy in his new home. At least he never tries to escape even when the door is open. He likes taking food from our hands but doesn’t like being held. He loves, loves, loves his wheel and is very fond of food…

  • Meet Rocket

    Meet Rocket

    We adopted another hamster from the SPCA. When Bella and Daisy died I looked on the SPCA website and saw Rocket there. He had been there since August and we decided he needed a home. We don’t know how old Rocket is or his history other than the SPCA taking him from his previous owner…

  • Another hamster death and the fox returns

    Another hamster death and the fox returns

    Daisy our hamster is dead. After Bella died earlier this month I decided I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Daisy and a few weeks ago I took her to the vet. It can be hard to tell when a hamster is unwell as they’re out at night when we’re asleep and both…

  • Sniffing for hamster piss

    When we first got hamsters I wasn’t expecting to spend my evenings and weekends sniffing hamster bedding for hamster piss but this is what we do now. For a while Bella was peeing in a sand bath which was great as I didn’t need to go searching for her toilet but she’s stopped doing that…

  • Hamster escapes!

    Hamster escapes!

    Bella (our hamster) escaped from her cage last night. Daniel was still partly awake when he heard a thud in the hall outside his bedroom. Eventually he dragged himself out of bed to check on his hamster and one of the tunnels had fallen off. She has three levels connected via tunnels, and one of…

  • Cat wheel

    Cat wheel

    We got Victoria a cat wheel for exercise because she’s turning into a fat fatty. At first, she was a bit scared of the wheel and wouldn’t go near it. But slowly we’ve been training her to use it using food as an incentive since she loves her food. Yesterday for the first time and…

  • Our animal friends

    Our animal friends

    Several months ago I bought a lemongrass plant which I thought would be nice in curry. However, Victoria has taken a liking to the plant and has absolutely shredded it. It’s the first thing she goes to in the morning when she wakes up, even before her food bowl. Last weekend we made some birdfeeders…

  • Hamster TV

    Hamster TV

    Victoria likes watching the hamsters. Unfortunately, Victoria’s taken to tapping the outside of Daisy’s home when she can see Daisy sleeping in her burrow so we’ve had to put the burrow against a wall or put something in front of it. We don’t see the hamsters very often because they’re always down in one of…

  • Hamster house

    Hamster house

    UPDATE: this is not an appropriate hamster home and we no longer use it other than as a travel cage or when the main cage is getting cleaned. It’s too small with insufficient floor space. We finally upgraded Daisy’s house. It’s surprisingly difficult to find good houses for hamsters. Pet shops don’t provide cages with…