Knerten - Phase 2

We are now ready for Phase 2 of the taming of Knerten. Things are progressing quite nicely. Food is always a nice incentive with these guys, and today's snack was a little bit of trilltrall's (non-sugary) cereal.

I'm currently working on getting Knerten to climb all the way into my hand and, the important bit, to stay there even though I move my hand. The long-term goal is to be able to lift her without her freaking out. Eventually, maybe, even out of her cage...

But that is some way off yet. This is Knerten in my hand today, I was able to deposit her on top of that little nest by my hand there, although perhaps it was her running off of my hand more than it was me actually putting her down. The video is a little dark because of the location of Knerten's cage - I end up getting in the way of the light whenever I reach into her cage. Next time I want to film her, maybe I should move the cage first so the light falls from a different angle. Anyway, behold:

Not bad, eh?? =)

Progress (alternative spelling: "progress")

Fjerten was a total wimp last night. I tried to give her some rolled oats, but she wasn't having any of it. In fact she freaked out enough to actually climb to the second level of her cage. She normally doesn't climb. She appears to prefer using the tunnel.

Today, however, is another day and just now she took a vegetable snack from my fingers. Ok, so she was "hiding" in her tunnel at the time and I held the snack in front of her little face, but it still counts! She didn't run away, after all.

(As it happens, both the little ones are big fans of this particular vegetable snack. I like to pretend that it's good for them, veggies and all... ;-) )

Home alone, take II

The beautiful beasties will have to spend another weekend home alone. I'm sure they'll miss us terribly. Knerten's water bottle has been secured (again, the wonders of electrical tape!) and they both have enough hamster pellets and broccoli to keep them happy until we're back Sunday night.

Fjerten was up this morning and got a tiny little taste of trilltrall's cereal. She wasn't brave enough to actually come get it from my hand, but she seems slightly less terrified these days. When she gets scared she tends to not hide for so long anymore. Baby steps, thy name is Fjerten.

Knerten exploring

Knerten also did some exploring in the dirt:

Awwww, she's a cutie! :-D

Fjerten exploring

While her cage got cleaned, Fjerten was transported to the "digging box" while still in her house. Less stressful for her that way. She was brave enough to go exploring a little bit. Food, great for bribing robs into the open!

Poor Fjerten is currently sulking in her tunnel again, but I'm sure she'll get used to the idea of a clean cage soon.

Cleaning time

Today it was time to clean cages again. As Leisha Camden has mentioned, the animals do indeed freak out whenever their cages get cleaned. So I don't clean their cages very often. It's also a bit of a project, what with two cages and this & that. Stuff necessary to clean cage and not necessarily necessary, but fun:

So it's a bit of a project. The box with dirt there was made for Pearl so she'd have something fun to dig in. Now Knerten and Fjerten have inherited it.

trilltrall assisted with the cleaning today, much appreciated of course. He took some nice shots to be posted later.

Unusually, the animals haven't freaked completely since the cleaning happened. Knerten doesn't seem perturbed at all. Fjerten spent some time sulking in her tunnel, but she seems ok again now. It would be good for them if they learned to accept that cage cleaning is necessary sometimes.

Cactus

trilltrall and I own a cactus. It's a lovely little plant which we got as a house warming gift from AudiX78 almost three years ago. It almost died, the poor thing, but to the left here you see what it looks like now. It's amazing that it has survived. If you look closely, you can see the withered remains of the other parts of it that used to be there when we got it...

A couple of months ago, we moved this poor plant into the daylight and started giving it water. Suddenly it grew and grew, and wouldn't you know - it even got a pretty little pink flower! And the point is that it's growing new little leaves (or what we should call them) again, which I hope means we'll soon see more flowers! :-D I think it's some variety of holiday cactus. The one flower we've had looked a lot like this Christmas cactus.

(If you were wondering, it's just that Knerten and Fjerten don't do very much, so I've decided this can be a part-time cactus blog.)

A little detail from June 7th:

The same little ones today, June 11th:

Maybe it's just me, but I think they've grown! ;-)

And in hamster news, Fjerten was bold enough to almost take a piece of AllBran from my hand this morning. She sat inside her little tunnel, but only just. Her nose was almost on the outside, and she nibbled the AllBran while I still held on to it. Of course, as soon as I moved even a fifth of an inch, she ran deeper into the tunnel to hide. What can you do. Baby steps.

Blog worthy?

Unsurprisingly the animals survived spending the weekend home alone. The water bottle was secure and Knerten apparently properly hydrated. trilltrall and I had a good weekend down in slightly more southern climes and everyone was happy.

The past week I've been waiting for the animals to do something blog worthy. That, and waiting for trilltrall to experiment with his new camera by taking pictures of the little critters. There have been no blog worthy acrobatics and no pics from trilltrall. What's a poor blogger to do?? Let's talk about flowers. :-)

Summer has reached the high north, at least where I work, and there are both white clover and red clover just by my bus stop out there now. Pearl was always such a sucker for white clover, so I figured maybe the little robs would appreciate it too. I think it was Tuesday I brought some home with me. It was a resounding success, wouldn't you know.... :

Me presenting white clover to Knerten:

Knerten approaching said flower:

Fjerten just completely ignored it. Silly two-legs, bringing flowers!

Tonight I didn't bring them any.

I have seen the animals tonight though. Knerten got up relatively early tonight (10pm) and started running in her wheel. She ran aroundfor the camera a little when I approached:

And even Fjerten was up for a snack:

Man, she needs to have her cage cleaned. Maybe that will be done tomorrow. I suppose I could clean their cages more often, but on the other hand... They are very small animals, their bodies can only produce so much waste. (Yeah, yeah... excuses, I know!)