Last Post

Sadly, I will not be updating any longer. I kept holding out to see if I would get motivated once again. After the major move and all the eventual passing of all my original zoo (the crew of hammy’s and gerbils I began this blog for/about) I just lost steam. I’ve become busy with a new hobby/learning a new skill: Horse riding. Also, we have mountains here so I hike often. I also feel I’ve covered everything to my knowledge really. I only hope that leaving this blog here the older entries will continue to help those doing web searches for caging and accessory ideas. The original purpose for this blog was about housing critters. Ideas to be efficient, affordable, and the best for hamster/gerbil welfare. I cannot really add anymore to that!

For anyone that is still hanging around to read this thank you so much for helping make me feel as though I was accomplishing something good for hamsters and gerbils. When I did receive comments it was absolutely wonderful to know I reached people and in that – helped the little furry kids in their care.

Give all your fuzz butts a cuddle for me!

Meadows Buns

I decided to make a blog separate for the bunnies and keep it all about rodents here on Hammy Happenings. I will probably update more often about bunnies for awhile. If you care to follow that journey here is the link: https://meadowsbunnies.wordpress.com/

I only have a couple posts up at this time as I just created it. I’m still trying to come up with a different title for it. I went with our last name and bunnies for a working title. Since it works and gives a nice visual.

More embellishments to Beatrix’s cage

I made the woven mats out of cardboard as 101Rabbits instructed! My boys helped and it was fun actually. We made 4. And then I got an idea from StormyRabbits for the heart string banner for the outside of the cage. We bring Beatrix home on Valentines Day so it was very appropriate.

I got several ideas in the late hours of the night last night for DIY rabbit toys. Mostly cardboard activities. I have a couple hanging in the back. One with a toilet paper roll to stuff some hay in.

I decided to put down fleece. Pretty pink fleece I might add. I will see how she does with that. I see fleece in so many house rabbit cages online that I feel I have a good chance at having a non-fabric eating bunny. 

Then I have nail scissors and a brush and extra fleece blankets in purple and teal. Plenty of toys. I bought some plastic jingle balls marketed for cats today. Just a little more of something. I also Rabbit proofed the home today. I won’t leave the borders around the couch like that all the time (only when Beatrix is out of her cage) I just was exhibiting it for a picture. Until our bunny is confident around us and very tame I want to eliminate the couch as a place for her to hide. I don’t want it to be a struggle to get her out from under there. I also am not sure but she might be able to get up in inside the couch if she wanted to. So, when she is out we’ll just pull these out. They are NIC cube pieces (both metal grid and plastic version) that I ziptied together so they fold like an accordian pretty much when I put them away. Nice for storage and easy to pull out and spread out. I also have others to go around areas with electrical outlets.

Bunny proofing your home is much easier than Child proofing the home. I’ve got this. I also used to have ferrets who also would have free roam of my home when they were out. And those little guys can get into super tiny spaces. So, rabbit proofing is definitely much easier for me.

I ordered Oxbow young rabbit formula pellets today from Amazon. I have had NO luck finding them anywhere else locally. Everything is for adult rabbits and mostly the Oxbow brand is out of stock in those places. I’m left with Kaytee and crap like that which has a 14 percent or less Fiber percentage. NO GOOD. It needs to be at least 18 percent for fiber. Also I have come to understand most certainly growing rabbits MUST be on a formula specific to them and not adults. I was glad to see they had a 25 pound bag of the stuff for much cheaper by the pound than if I were to buy smaller bags. I’ll section it off in Ziplock freezer bags and store them properly to maintain freshness for a long time.  I imagine that will last me a good while. Can I freeze those bags?

After we get the swing of bunny ownership I’ll consider having her spayed and adopting a neutered male friend. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself right now. I know that rabbits do better with a rabbit friend. But she doesn’t have a litter mate left with her to go. So, it will have to be done this way anyway.

As much as I’ve read and as much as I’ve asked knowledgeable folks there is still so much for me to learn. As I learn along the way I will update. I’ll probably make a mistake here and there. Patience with me please! I hope I can become a safe authority on house rabbits after awhile and to confidently post with certainty on all things Rabbit in the future.

DIY Rabbit Cage : A hybrid between the NIC Condo and the X-Pen idea.

So, I worked on Beatrix’s new home today! I can hardly stand the wait for her! My kids are equally impatient. She is already so loved!

I used what I already had around the house. I bought two Midwest Exercise Pens a couple years back for a makeshift fence for my small dog when we were living in Maryland. Now that we don’t need it for that purpose they were gathering dust in the garage. I plan to use the other one to make an outside rabbit run.

I also had Whitmor “6070-1723” storage cubes which I have used for various things for the couple years I’ve had those. But at this point I had them stored away as well.

I simply made the x-pen and zip tied some of the cube shelf grids to the x-pen to make a 2nd level and to block off the top where she might make a jump for it. I didn’t think she would be able to jump out of the middle portion of the cage. But I’ll keep an eye on that.

For my kids, when they were babies, I had those foam flooring mats. Again, something I was not using anymore. So I made that the floor. If she is a foam chewer I’ll get those adhesive backed vinyl squares and stick them on top of the foam mats.

And then the obvious baby toys I saved. My children have outgrown them but they make perfect rabbit toys. Plastic keys and links and such! Stackers. I have most of the toy collection in the bin on top of the cage so I can switch them out to keep life interesting.

I also had plenty of wicker toys. Wicker balls that jingle or rattle or roll. A woven grass mat my Syrian hamster Mocha didn’t care for is on the 2nd level as well a couple wooden bendy bridges that I flattened and secured to the grid shelf (they aren’t going to shift when she jumps up). And wood rolling toys that originally were made for rabbits and guinea pigs however I had been using them for my hamsters. I have yet to have a hamster that pays them any mind so I’m so happy such adorable little rollers will get some action now!

I made a hay loft out of one of my stackable metal shelves. A spare plastic bin for her litter box with Yesterday’s News wood pellet litter. I was going to use a water crock but decided to opt for a water bottle for now. It’s what she is currently accustomed to.

I made a little burrow area under the 2nd level shelf. I plan to put cardboard panels on the grid wall to make it more of a dark burrow. And a little wooden bed which I will put some fleece squares inside for more comfort.

All that is left are some cardboard items. I’m going to make DIY cardboard toys. Boredom busters that are chewable. This woven cardboard mat by 101Rabbits is one of my next projects. I have a ton of loo rolls I’ve saved for my gerbils. I am sure I can find some neat toys to make from those.

Tomorrow we make the outdoor rabbit run. I hope I will get that posted tomorrow evening!

Beatrix

For a long two years I’ve been playing with the idea of adopting a rabbit. I could not hold back any longer! Pictured below is the rabbit I will be adopting next weekend! She is a Netherland Dwarf mixed with a Mini-Satin. Her face – I fell in love when I was looking through these photos below from the Rabbitry’s website. I knew she was the one. It’s her face. Her eyes! Immediately, I knew I’d name her Beatrix. I can hardly be patient.

I will be making a NIC cage within an x-pen for indoors. And a rabbit run for outside. Though she would be primarily a house bun I will have a safe play area for her outside when we are outside ourselves. Pretty much I have everything I need for a rabbit except for fresh food and hay. A trip to the pet store tomorrow might help with the impatience.

3 wheels!

With all the fuss of two new wheels George – the gerbil who did not care for wheels- became a wheel addict as well! So that left Little Bear without a wheel again! So I dug up another of my old Wodent Wheels. I am so glad they have a huge living space. You should see the action of spinning when all 3 are in the wheels. It makes us dizzy!!!

I am so happy we have these active gerbils. They seem to hardly sleep. They are up all night like a hamster which is odd. I tried taking out the wheels to train them to sleep at night but it did not work. Instead they would make the worst angry racket!

They are up often during the day as well. I love these guys so much. They are so full of personality. I mean really spunky.

Put in the Wodent Wheels

2 of my trio are wheel addicts. This is new for me because my last two gerbils didn’t know what to do with a wheel and only chewed them. But this trio of gerbils are nothing like my last pair. In any way! It is like all I expected has been thrown out the window. Not in a bad way though. Just different!

These guys were a cinch to train. They are health foodies. They do not want “treats” like yogies. They eat up veggies and fresh fruit like their lives depend in it. Among other things my last pair were different about.

These fellas aren’t big chewers. Lennon and Mercury would go through so many toilet paper rolls i had to enlist family everywhere to save up and send me their stockpiles. Still was never enough to chew. These guys are less burrowers and more into their flat desert side of the tank. Anyway, so i decided to get rid of the metal wheel which i hate for so many reasons and put in two Wodent Wheels from past hamsters and they LOVE them. I mean absolutely love them. Even George the non-wheel gerbil sometimes gets in and does one lap here and there just to try it out. They love the game of hopping into the holes. And out of them. They make a game of choosing the higher holes to leap in. And Mr. Petty Paws my speed demon gerbil can go much faster and safer in these wheels. He and Little Bear both prefer the 8 inch as they can make it go faster. The 12 inch is a little slower as it is more to push. But i only have one 8 inch WW. But they will use the 12inch when one is occupying the 8 and so this is a good thing. They were beginning to not share the metal wheel and I knew I had to have at least 2 wheels in there.

So far they are not chewing the plastic. Not even George who is not a wheel fan really. But if I were to notice they were doing that I’d have to take them out. Keeping my fingers crossed.

David Tennant and Hamsters!

As a huge David Tennant fan I could not be more excited to watch this clip! David and Hamsters – it was too much. All I needed was to hear the TARDIS sound in the background of this clip for absolute perfection.

Here is another article showing other clips:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2015/01/watch-david-tennant-narrates-pets-wild-heart/

Westchester Rescued Hamster Haven

I have to plug this Hamster Rescue page I follow on Facebook. The owner of the rescue, Claudie, who also maintains the page, posts regularly. And I enjoy the daily adorable pictures, information, and adoption stories. This is a lady with a huge heart! Who gives previously unwanted hamsters a better life! Truly an inspiration. And must have on your Facebook feed! Please spread the word especially, if you live in New York and are interested in adopting or know someone there who is.

https://www.facebook.com/RescuedHamsterHaven

This is a wonderful write up about her Rescue as well:

http://www.smallanimalchannel.com/critter-exclusives/meet-claudie-the-hamster-whisperer.aspx

Mocha’s January 2015 Cage Tour

Mocha is in the Ferret Kit 100/ Mamble in the UK. He is not a climber but he does adore Ovo tubes. So, I wired the tubes around his cage. This deters him from climbing too high if her were to. The tubes would be in his way. If I start to see him scaling the bars I’ll put in hammocks. I did have hammocks in the last cage he was in but he doesn’t care for them. So far this set up makes him quite happy. And me too!