Hamlet's Page
In Loving Memory
Hamlet T. Hamster
April 1, 2004 - March 30, 2006
May 2004
The Arrival of Hamlet
He is a black teddy bear hamster named Hamlet. (I love Shakespeare, which is why I have a degree in English. What else was I going to name my hamster?) His extensive trail system, with rooms that vary in size, is called Denmark.
I picked him out of a group of three boys. One of them slept on his back through the selection process, while the other two stepped on his head. I didn't want a boring hamster. Hamlet was the one who sniffed my finger as I pointed at him, and then ran around. There was no question.
He has bedding, toys, food, more toys, treats, tubes, and even more stuff. Hamlet will be the spoiled-est hamster in the universe, as soon as he really starts exploring how much more room he has. He was sharing with two other guys in a small aquarium. We went to the store yesterday, and I saw the black male teddy bears, but they weren't old enough for sale until today, so we had to go back.
This pet store cares about the animals. I had to sign a form promising to feed him the kind of food they'd been giving him since he was little and to give him medicine to prevent him from getting wet tail, which kills most hamsters who get it. This store provides adoption services for people who decide they don't want the pets they bought, to save animals from abandonment or euthanasia. Since they care about their animals (and made me promise to care about my pet), I felt they would have healthier, happier animals for sale than a mall pet store.
I've had my hamster for 7 hours and I can already talk endlessly about my little Hamlet.
May 18, 2004
Today I watched him figure out how to get a large pellet out of the small room that is lined with chinchilla dust (for dry-bathing to keep him unmatted and clean). He picked it up and tried to back down the tube, but that didn't work, so he went back into the room, turned around, and dropped the pellet down the tube. The water bottles that came with the bigger cages kinda stunk, and the first other bottle I got leaked like a sieve, so I ran out today to get two more little bottles that seem to be working better. One of them is designed to go with a space-themed cage, so it has a sign on it that reads, "H2O Life Support."
May 19, 2004
Hamlet moved his bedroom today. He went from the large, square room with the lid at the top of the large cage to the little trapezoidal room. When I visited this afternoon he had moved in some bed fluff and his stash of food, but then I got home tonight and he had moved the food back to the bigger room.
That's why I set up his home to have several little rooms: I figured he'd choose a bedroom that was best for him. Either that or he was upset that I cleaned it this morning and is hoping I won't touch the new room. In that case, he's out of luck.
Hamlet in his second bedroom
May 20, 2004
My little Hamlet discovered his exercise wheel last night, but he also learned fear. It was all my fault. I decided to begin the taming process, so I put some timothy hay in my hand and held it out to him in the cage. He sniffed, but when he went to eat it he bit my finger. I yelped, started bleeding, dropped the hay, closed up the cage, and went to clean the wound and put on a Band-Aid.
He's been very shy ever since, hiding whenever I come into the room, but I have a plan. I'm going to sit beside the cage and read, to get him comfortable with having me around. Next time I try to actually make contact with him, I'll put the food down and just leave my hand there without trying to get him to eat out of my hand. Eventually I'll try the eat-out-of-my-hand training again, but this time the palm of my hand. And I'll make sure to wash my hands; maybe he smelled my dinner and decided it was yummier.
May 21, 2004
Last night I was driving home from Brighton along the Pike, and I found I could not drive through Framingham without stopping for more housing supplies. I bought a tube to finish off a loop-the-loop, which Hamlet seemed to enjoy. He would go around, then decide whether or not to go around again. At the top he would turn around and double back sometimes, for variety.
I tried again to give him treats from my hand, but now I was a little smarter about it. I dug out some leather gloves that I wear in the winter and put one on the hand I was going to put in the cage. Good thing, too, because Hamlet gave it an experimental nip to see if it was as yummy as the little cake he was nibbling. He hurt nothing but the glove, so I didn't have to yank my hand back out.
He was still up as I got ready for work this morning, so I tried again. He was much more okay with my presence, but still skittish. A book I borrowed from the library has some other suggestions for taming, which I might try. They recommend that everyone who is going to be close to the hamster (me) sit at a table wearing gloves. Place the hamster on the table, talk to it, and just let it wander around (but use your safely gloved hands to keep the little guy from going off the edge of the table).
I might also try this with one of those collapsible pens set up on the kitchen floor, since I'm alone and not sure I can keep him from running off all edges of a table.
More attempts to give Hamlet treats this evening, and that went slightly better. I was able to get him to take food out of the gloved hand while I stroked his back. I'm not sure if he was really in the mood, but at least there are no casualties this time.
I'm compiling my own hamster book, based on the stacks of resources I have at my disposal. If I centralize all of the information, there might be enough to give me a clue of how to show my hamster the proper respect.
May 22, 2004
My mother came to visit and help me out with my laundry. She also wanted to see Hamlet, whom she calls her "grand-hamster." We watched my hamster climb backwards up a curved tube while he was upside down, which we agreed was quite impressive.
While running errands, we stopped in a pet store to get some kind of protein supplement for Hamlet. I walked out with soy treats, cheese treats, a ceramic hamster-sized spaceship (Mom found that gem), and yet more habit trail tubes.
There are two areas in Denmark. One is the home: his bedroom burrow, the bathroom, the food cache, and the sand bath. The other area is the recreational/explorational area. This is where Hamet can just run around in circles, play with toys, and discover special snacks.
Today I built out the fun area of the trail, and the little fluffball spent some time discovering it. Mom got out a cat toy, one of those round plastic wiffle balls with a bell in it, and when Hamlet first tried to grab it the bell chimed and he bolted from the room. He went back later, after checking out the other new tunnels, and decided it was pretty nifty.
May 22, 1:30am—Breakthrough or Botch?
The hamstronaut exits his space rocket so that he can explore this new planet, "Linoleum"
May 25, 2004
Last night I went King Kong on Hamlet's fuzzy butt. It was somewhat disastrous. At first I went after him in his burrow, but he wiggled out of my hand and flipped onto his back in the square room, then ran away.
He started chewing on the walls of the tubes. I think that forcing him is the wrong way to go, it'll just make him timid and anxious. I want him to be happy and friendly. I'll just have to be patient, and let him like me on his schedule rather than mine. I can be patient. Really. Honest.
Eventually he went to his dust bath, however, and then he was trapped. That room comes with a sliding door, which is also used to lock the lower piece into place. When he was finished with his bath I slid the door shut and removed the sand-filled bowl. We went to the kitchen floor. He kept trying to run under the table, but I kept blocking him with my hand.
Then I let him run around me, just to see where he would go. He zipped down the hall and sniffed the vacuum cleaner. I took the top off one of my comic book boxes, put him in it, and returned to the kitchen. Shortly afterwards I put him in the square room and reattached the dust bath's bowl.
May 26, 2004
The "King Kong" method is clearly too risky. Hamlet didn't like it. After attacking him in his burrow and then cleaning it, he decided to move. He used the "bedroom" as a toilet and then started moving his bedding and food hoard to another burrow, at the far side of Denmark.
May 27, 2004
I bought more Hamster stuff yesterday, as well as a new filing cabinet and bookshelf. It was too easy! As I was restructuring Denmark so it would fit across the new furniture, I put Hamlet on the kitchen floor.
Since I surrounded him with his new Pet Playpen and gave him some toys, I thought he would be safe and out of trouble.
Boy, was I wrong.
Hamlet climbed over the cage wall, so I had to finish the cage really fast and then I spent half an hour trying to calmly catch him, moving furniture as he crawled behind the bookcase, behind the microwave cart, and under the kitchen table. I hadn't bothered to move these things for ages, so when I finally caught Hamlet he was covered in dust.
The poor guy was terrified, and spent a lot of time grooming to get rid of the dust bunnies. I've really got to quit tormenting him, but I didn't want to leave him the hamster ball for too long.
May 28, 2004
The method of feeding my hamster a treat and then petting him seems to be very effective. Two nights in a row now I have been able to pet Hamlet and he has responded with positive body language.
The first night I was happy because he kept his ears upright (as opposed to laying them back, which is a big thing for most animals to do when they're pissed), and then last night he started grooming, which means that he's enjoying being petted. Petting a hamster is to them like mutual grooming, and when he washes his face while I pet him, Hamlet is saying that he's into the grooming thing.
November 17, 2004
Hamlet "Wild Man" Hamster spent a night out on the town...that is, various parts of my condo. After months of good behavior, Hamlet busted out through the same room that allowed him to escape twice in the past. I awoke at 6:00 AM to rustling sounds, and eventually caught the fluffball and returned him to his cage at ten-till-eight.
I'm done with those rooms. I probably won't throw them out, just use them inside cages rather than as attachments. I don't recommend that anyone use these as add-ons.
November 28, 2004
Hamlet got out again a week ago, but this time it was purely my fault. He was making his bedroom in the "space outpost" and I didn't attach it correctly, so it fell off and he ran away.
When I awoke at my normal time, I came into the living room and saw the bottom half of that room on the floor. Realizing he was on the loose again, I grabbed a flashlight and started looking.
Every previous time he has escaped, he has gone somewhere new, so I started looking in places he hadn't been yet. That's how I found him behind my two six-foot-tall bookcases, stashing food and having a grand old time.
Realizing that I was going to have to move the bookcases even if I managed to lure him out and catch him, I started moving the encyclopedia. There, in the back of the shelf, I found a hole and a lot of shredded cardboard. Hamlet had rent a hole in the cheap backing of the pressboard bookcase. Lovely.
It took several tries to get Hamlet out into the open; I finally used my pencil box to make sure he couldn't get back behind the bookcase...so he went under the desk. I used a scrapbook the next time I got him out to block off that escape route, so he was cornered. He jumped onto the bookshelf and then I carefully lowered his hamster ball over him. Sliding a piece of cardboard underneath, I trapped him inside.
I slowly rolled the hamster ball onto its side, then put the mouth against the open door of the cage. Reluctantly, Hamlet eventually returned home.
Today, Hamlet has decided to run in the "space orbiter" add-on wheel even though it has all his nesting material inside. He has paper fluff on his head and nose, and it pretty weird to watch him go with the pile on his butt. The next time he leaves the room I'm dumping it.
December 3, 2004
Hamlet's the spoiled-est hamster in the universe. I saw a big wheel, called the CritterTrail Revolution, and I wanted to get it because he's almost too big for his other wheels. It's a wheel that's just over one foot in diameter, and then has two levels and a little house with a food dish.
The little guy loves this new room. He ran and ran on the big wheel. But still, he went back to the wheel he has called his bedroom for weeks. He dropped off the latest food he's gotten and then ran. Apparently he didn't like the rattling any more than I did, because he stuffed it all back in his cheek pouches before running a little more. Then, the tired Hamlet curled up in the niche of the Space Orbiter and took a nap.
January 16, 2006
It's been a while since I've written; life's been hectic, what can I say? Hamlet is thriving in his home, although he does seem to be slowing down. He sleeps in later, and shortly after getting up he'll go take a nap in another part of Denmark.
He's still bright-eyed, however, and his fur doesn't seem to be thinning, so I expect he's got a lot of life left. He'll be two at the end of March.
January 22, 2006
I have reviewed my hamster books. Apparently, two years of age is very old for a hamster. It explains Hamlet's spending more time sleeping and less time on his wheels. I will need to do everything I can, using all I have learned, to help ease his aging.
March 30, 2006
Hamlet T. Hamster passed away, two days before his second birthday. Guess it goes to show...something.
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