Archive for December, 2008

Pre-holiday Upgrade 3

December 30th, 2008

For Dee Dee, I exchanged her small cage with Daddy Hamster’s 2-story Crittertrail. I noticed that lately, Daddy Hamster has rarely used his wheel and he sleeps a lot more than Baby Hamster does. So I guess that he wouldn’t mind having a slightly smaller cage. After all, he already has a large bin cage connected to his Crittertrail.

Upgrade 3 DH & Dee

I gave Dee Dee the robo girlies’ Silent Spinner because the robos now have the flying saucer and Dee Dee’s small Spinner. I also had to move the second story a little higher so Dee Dee can reach the water bottle. I noticed that Dee Dee does this funny thing: when I give her tissue for her bedding, she would shred them and make little balls with them. She would then bring the balls of tissue to the observatory deck (on the very top of the cage). Dee Dee is funny.

Dee observatory deck

Dee Dee sleeping in her observatory deck.
I didn’t want to wake her, so I didn’t use a flash; hence the blurry picture.

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Pre-holiday Upgrade 2

December 30th, 2008

The next upgrade was for the robo hamsters’ cage. I didn’t make the cage bigger, but merely added more toys.

Upgrade 2 robos

Instead of 1 medium-sized Silent Spinner, I exchanged it with a smaller one (that was originally Dee Dee’s) plus a flying saucer. That way, the 3 robo girlies won’t have to fight for 1 wheel. They had to learn how to use the flying saucer. After awhile, they got the hang of it & really like it!

I also added a digging tower. At first, the digging tower wasn’t usable; the ladder steps are too widely spaced out for the small robos and the ladder was too steep. I weaved a piece of thin cardboard on the ladder so the robos won’t fall through the largely spaced out ladder steps and placed a plastic cylinder under the ladder so it won’t be too steep. Initially, the robos didn’t know the point in having a digging tower. I had to place the girlie in the tower one by one, close the top, so that they’ll dig to find their way to the bottom. After a couple of times doing that, they were hooked! They just wouldn’t stop digging!

I guess the new toys are certainly a hit with the girlies & hopefully they’ll keep them entertained while I’m gone :-)

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Traveling Day 4

December 28th, 2008

Went to a resort that also has its own coffee plantation.

traveling day4-Losari1

traveling day4-toad in Losari

Found a whole bunch of tadpoles and snails, big and small, in a fountain filled with algae. This wasn’t my hand, it was my cousin who dared to pick up a tadpole.

traveling day4-Losari bench

Beautiful architecture.

traveling day4-bird

A fearless bird who’s not scared of people. When I went inside the huge bird cage, it would follow me around.

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Traveling Day 3

December 28th, 2008

Day #3 was when I did touristy stuff.

traveling day3-Ullen Sentalu

A beautifully carved statue at a museum.

traveling day3-mushroom farm1

Visited a small mushroom farm. This picture shows rows and rows of damp wooden cylinders, wrapped in plastics. The mushrooms will eventually grow out of one of these damp wooden cylinders. The place stank (obviously), but it was very amusing :-)

traveling day3-mushroom farm2

The place has a restaurant that specializes in, none other than, mushroom dishes. This mushroom is served as mushroom satay, which tastes better than chicken skin satay (if you’ve tried it, that is) and it is yummy :-)

traveling day3-mushroom farm3

Long pieces of damp wooden cylinders hung from the ceiling (for larger mushrooms like the picture below).

traveling day3-mushroom farm4

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Traveling Day 2

December 28th, 2008

More random pictures!

traveling day2-restaurant decor

I’m not sure what this is called in English, but each of this was hung outside of one’s house back in the olden days. When the situation calls, e.g. a robbery, the owner of the house would alarm the whole village by clanging one of these things with the wooden stick that’s already attached inside.

traveling day2-escalator sign

I just had to take a picture of the signage; it was hung by an escalator in a mall. Too funny.

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Traveling Day 1

December 28th, 2008

Been busy traveling. I’m easily amused, so I took the most random pictures.

traveling day1-hen & chicks

A mother hen with her chicks. It was real cute; not sure if you can see from the picture, but there’s a small hill behind the mother. The mother hen flew up the hill (yes, chickens can fly), leaving her chicks behind. All the chicks started chirping because their wings weren’t strong enough to carry them to the hill (notice some of the chicks’ wings are spanned open). So the mother hen came back for her chicks.

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Pre-holiday Upgrade 1

December 25th, 2008

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, despite a Christmas eve tragedy that happened in the Stateside. Mine was a day full of events, but it was relaxing.

I did a few updagres to the animals’ cages before I left for holiday. I wanted to make sure the animals won’t get bored while I’m gone for 3 weeks, so I added more toys, expanded the cage or even bought a new larger cage.

The first upgrade that I did was to Baby Hamster’s cage. His Ovo Habitrail was too small. He constantly wanted to go out & play. The thing I like about Habitrail is the smaller dens that connect to the larger suite. I remember that the instant I placed Baby Hamster in the Habitrail, he immediately made a hole under the food bowl his toilet! I’ve tried to toilet train him before without a success. But I just can’t believe that with the Habitrail, he’s instantly toilet trained!

Upgrade 1 BH

Even though BH normally used to sleep in the blue den, after the upgrade he now sleeps in the green den. I didn’t need to buy extra tubes for this upgrade; the configuration just needed a little planning. The first floor was a little bare because this picture was taken right after the bin was made. Now, it’s got cheweable cardboard maze and lots of hiding places.

ps: if you can see that little white dent on the right (above the green den), that’s Tubby’s doing (aka his destructible chewing habit).

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Chubbichins

December 24th, 2008

Before I left, I ordered some Chubbichin magnets for Christmas. This is the only Christmasy picture I have, shame on me.

I think the lady did a pretty good job making them look like Tubby & Winnie :-) What do you think?

Chubbichins

Wishing everyone a happy holiday!

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Pooped Pooch

December 22nd, 2008

Since I’ve come home, I’ve been walking my dog Joey, a cocker spaniel, at least for 30 minutes every day. 30 minutes doesn’t seem long, but it is long enough to tire an unfit 6-year-old doggie who is a bit overweight & has to carry a backpack full of weights. I bought a doggie backpack & have it filled with 4-6 water bottles to tire Joey faster & to  drain out his pent-up energy. And I must say the use of the backpack works! He’s less hyper during the day, and at the end of the night he looks like this:

Joey tired1

Joey tired2

He doesn’t even care anymore if his bum bum is not the bed, he just wants to lie down.
Look at that fat belly :-)

Sometimes, when it’s too hot outside or I’m just lazy to go outdoors, I walk him on the threadmill :-)

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Long Flight Home

December 20th, 2008

I haven’t posted anything these past few days because I’ve been flying & flying. I flew approximately 1 1/2 hours from the Midwest to East Coast (that doesn’t include transit & delay times) + 18 hours from East Coast to a tiny island in Southeast Asia (doesn’t include transit time). Because it is winter in the States, my flights were horribly bumpy. I hate domestic US flights; not only that I have to pay for checked-in luggages, they are always (without a fail) delayed.

The instant I left home for the airport, I already missed my animals. I’ve hired a petsitter to come once every 2 days to check & play with the animals.

Once I arrived in the tiny island in SEA, I went to a couple of petstores. They’ve got so many cute Japanese stuff!! Like the scented dust bath for hamsters (in all sorts of fruit scents) and all the wooden toys. I’m thinking about getting some. I can’t believe they also sell puddings and dried crickets and shrimps for hamsters? I’ve read that Syrians like crickets & worms, but I don’t think I’d dare to touch the food .. let alone see how their poops will look like after eating dried bugs. I went to this one petstore (not saying where) where I saw the storekeeper taking out some baby hamsters out of the community tank. I think the hamsters weren’t sexed in the first place & those babies were the result of inbreeding. The babies were then placed in this tiny tiny plastic container … On a positive note though, I’ve never seen any white-face robos & this store happened to carry a lot of them. Very cute!

Here’s a picture of a cab ride to the airport; I think this was going towards Outram Park. When I was in the tiny island, I was lucky enough that it didn’t rain.

cab by Outram Park

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