And Then There Were None...

Hamster Drama, Part 2

(RIP Izzy, Chips, Gentle, Fluffy, and Sunny)

So when we left off last time, May 2012, Goldie had passed on to Hamster Heaven. That left poor Izzy as the lone survivor.

Things went well for Izzy, until...

Part 9, July 30, 2013

Izzy died.

Oh. My. Goodness.

It was a wretched experience.

Did I mention it was my daughters' birthday? Not one daughter, but BOTH of them! Same birthday, two years apart. But that's another story.

This is how it went down -- my girls got cameras for their birthday. So they are running around the house taking pictures of EVERYTHING. Then one decides to take a picture of Izzy. They both run to her cage, excited about capturing the perfect Kodak moment. And that's when the screaming started...

So, we decided to take a hamster break. Which, of course, didn't last very long. A mere five days, to be exact.

I walked into the room and found her sitting in front of the empty cages.

Part 10, August 4, 2013

Meet Chips and Gentle.

I have to admit, they are pretty cute.

This is one of them. I don't know which one. The other one looks just like this one.

They are actually very interesting, as far as hamsters go. They are social, and when you walk up to the cage they come and greet you.

They like to escape too. This terrifies the cat. The hamsters will run clear across the house and fill their pouches with cat food, then run back to their cage. One day I'll have to tell you more about our cat.

Things went well for Chips and Gentle; that is, until things started to go bad. Very bad.

Part 11, January 14, 2014

Gentle died. Out of the blue. I couldn't bear to tell the girls. I made the hubs do it. Yes, I am a wimp.

I think it was less than 3 hours after Gentle was buried that we had a new friend. Seriously.

Apparently I am not the only wimp.

Meet Fluffy.

Very tiny. Very fluffy. Very cute. And very scared.

So...

Part 12, January 16, 2014

Meet Sunny. Fluffy's friend from Petco. Ugh.

Apparently I have no pictures of Sunny.

Part 13, January 22, 2014

Fluffy and Sunny are sick. Very sick. Since we're still within the 14 days of purchase, we take them back to Petco, and they send them to their vet. Fluffy and Sunny spend the night at the vet and come home to us with medicine that we have give twice a day.

I am not kidding.

Shout out to the hubs for taking charge of this task.

Fluffy bounces back quickly but Sunny struggles.

Fluffy taking her medicine like a good girl.

Part 14, January 27, 2014

Sunny died.

But on the bright side, Fluffy is healthy, happy, and no longer scared.

Part 15, February 4, 2014

Inexplicably, Fluffy died. She was fine in the morning, and then just up and died.

On the bright side, the kids are no longer shocked.

Part 16, mid-February, 2014

During the past few weeks, Chips has struggled. We used some of Fluffy and Sunny's leftover medicine and gave it to Chips. She perked up and seemed healthy, though wouldn't run in her wheel and seemed somewhat lethargic.

Or lazy.

Part 17, February 19, 2014

Chips died.

That's it -- there are no more hamsters living in this house. It marks an end of an era. Or the end of an error.

Hopefully the hamster break lasts longer than 5 days this time.

Conclusion

Lest you think we are terrible hamster parents (okay honestly yes I am -- I don't touch them or feed them or clean cages or anything), we eventually discovered the cause of the rapid demise of these last four hamsters.

Before Gentle died, the hubs tried out a new kind of bedding -- corn cob. It's supposed to work more like kitty litter and soak up the wet stuff. We didn't make a connection when Gentle died. And since Fluffy and Sunny got sick at the same time, we assumed they were sick before we brought them home. But then when Chips started getting sick, we realized it had to be the bedding. So we got rid of that, and Chips got better, but never fully recovered.

Moral of the story -- don't buy corn cob bedding.

Or better yet, don't buy hamsters.