Hello!!!!

27th March 2011

Just a quick update to let everyone know the chinchillas are doing alright:

Winnie gets hot easier than Tubby. You can see his ears are red in this picture, but he still loves his fleece tube that I brought from the US.

I purchased a new vase for Tubby and he loves chilling in it — he sleeps and has his dust bath in it

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Airlines Don’t Like Chinchillas

5th February 2011

Gong xi fa chai! I’ve been enjoying this Chinese New Year just because it’s the year of the golden rabbits and I see lots of cute rabbit paraphernalia everywhere!

Going back to 2 months ago, when I was planning to move from the US to SEA, I did not know that the logistics of moving the chinchillas would be so troublesome. Here are some of the things that I learned while trying to arrange travel plans for the chinchillas:

  • No US domestic airlines would allow chinchillas fly inside the cabin, but some do allow hamsters to fly inside the cabin.
  • No US domestic airlines would accept chinchillas as rodents (which hamsters are), so they would either have to be checked in or fly in a separate cargo plane.
  • No airlines would accept metal cages, only plastic cages.
  • Tubby can do some real damage to plastic cages when he’s super bored.
  • Chinchillas surprisingly do well in long-haul flights.
  • SQ only accept animals through pet agents.
  • Cathay is highly recommended for pet travel.
  • Animal travel is expensive, but worth it.

Here is a summary of all the traveling that the chinchillas did:

  • Because no US domestic airlines would allow chinchillas fly inside the cabin, I had no choice but to have the chinchillas fly separately in a cargo plane. Luckily I know someone in the destination city who was able to pick them up from the cargo area.
  • Considering that the chinchillas spent 6 hours (including 1 stopover) flying from MI to CA, once they arrived in CA they were surprisingly perky. I purposefully stayed the night in CA instead of flying to SEA on the same day so that the chinchillas at least had a night to settle down.
  • Once arriving in SEA, the cargo handlers didn’t know what they were doing, so the chinchillas sat out in a warehouse, with no AC, for 45 minutes!!! The instant I arrived at the cargo area, the chinchillas looked super hot, but they survived.

Now the chinchillas live in a shared 2-story cage, Tubby is upstairs & Winnie is downstairs. They stay in a room which has the AC turned on for about 12 hours a day. At first they were jetlagged (meaning that they would be awake during daytime and asleep during nightime), but now they’re back to being fully nocturnal.

Overall, I’m just glad they’re safe and adapting well :-)

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Good Night Pinky

23rd January 2011

Sorry for the hiatus. A lot has happened since December 2010 up until now. In short, I no longer have hamsters, packed up everything that I owned in the US (including the chinchillas), & moved to Southeast Asia.

First things first: the last of my hamster went over the rainbow bridge sometimes in December.

When I noticed that there were blood droplets in Pinky’s bedding, I brought her to the vet. Turned out that, it’s none other than the evil tumor. For awhile, I thought that Pinky was doing fine. I guess with her age and her past illness, the lump from before did return and that tumor or cancer was inevitable. The vet was honest to me and said that her chances were not good, considering that in December 2010, she was almost 2.5 years old (quite old for a dwarf).

With a heavy heart, I decided that it was time for her to go.

I managed to get her paw prints. She’ll always be remembered as the runt who didn’t let that bother her at all.

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I Could Never Get Past This Part

19th December 2010

Thanks to CuteOverload.com for featuring Winnie on their 17th of December 2010 blog post:

I really like the description that NTMTOM wrote for this post :-)

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Teacher’s Pest

16th December 2010

Thanks to CuteOverload.com for featuring Tubby on their 14th of December 2010 blog post:

Photo was taken from here.

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Wall is Down

15th December 2010

Since the CuteOverload.com posting on Tubby, more people have posted on the wall that was on the left-side bar of the blog page. But I guess either the wall was badly scripted or there were too many messages, my server suspended the wall script. I’ll try to fix it.

I prefer this wall feature because readers can post on the wall without having to register for the blog. I think what I’m going to do is not require registration to comment on the blog.

More updates coming soon. Thanks for stopping by!

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Crush Hour Traffic

14th December 2010

Thanks to CuteOverload.com for featuring my girlies on their 13th of December 2010 blog post:

In memory of my Robo girlies: Kat, Almond, and Joy.

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Happy Fall

10th November 2010

I really enjoy this time of the year: the morning air is crisp, the leaves are changing colour, the temperature is not too cold or too hot.

I’ve been busy because I’ll be moving at the end of this year and have been trying to sort out the details on how to bring the chinchillas with me.

In the meantime, I’ve had a chance to enjoy my last fall in the mitten state.

Visited a local apple orchard

The ground was so lush, it felt like carpet

Fall produce being sold at the farmers market

Granny Smiths

Acorn squash

The chinchillas are also loving this time of the year; as the temperature drops, they can play longer because they don’t get too hot as fast.

This is not a flattering photo of Tubby because he wouldn’t stop moving around & he managed to pee during the photoshoot

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Take Over the World

15th October 2010

Pinky: “Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?”

Winnie Brain

The Brain (Winnie): “The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world.”

Ok, maybe not. After all, Winnie is too cute to play the character Brain.

ps: I hope it’s not just me who still remembers Pinky & The Brain, otherwise I feel old 0_o

pps: aren’t those rolls so cute?

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No More Mazuri

30th September 2010

About 1.5 weeks ago, Tubby was having diarrhea for no particular reason! I was at a lost; I hadn’t changed his water, diet, or anything, couldn’t tell the vet what was the trigger of his diarrhea. When I brought him to the vet, it’s the usual stuff — his bacterial count was out of whack.

Tubby is a homebody, he doesn’t like to go out, especially to the vet’s office

Tubby’s wet poop, compare this to normal poop

The vet prescribed Tubby SMZ/TMP Ped Susp which was to be given twice a day for a week, and Bene-Bac for twice a day for 2 weeks.

I was still trying to figure out as to the cause of Tubby’s diarrhea. Then I remember that on a particular chinchilla blog that I’m a member of, I have read that some breeders do not like using Mazuri because it causes diarrhea. The instant they switch pellets to another brand, the diarrhea stops. But some breeders never had problems with Mazuri. I have always thought, “my chinchillas will never have problems with Mazuri.” Lo and behold, now Tubby is having problems with Mazuri. Good thing I had some Purina rabbit pellets on hand and I immediately changed Tubby’s pellets. Since then, I’m glad to report that he’s recovered completely :-D

ps: Winnie is still on Mazuri and I hope that he will never have problems with Mazuri.

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