Nutella leaves us

I'm sad to announce that Nutella left us today.  I went in for the evening feeding and found him curled up and not moving.  He was originally a shy little guy that really came to be very gregarious following his illness where I had to medicate him essentially four times a day.  Twice a day with probiotics and twice with antibiotics.  He came to need to be pet and played with.  He didn't enjoy extensive holding just interacting with your hands when you fed him.  He was well over 3 years old at his passing.  He will be greatly missed.

Rest in peace little Nutella.

Nutella is wrapped here because he's about to get his probiotics.  I love this picture because he looks like he is going to the spa.

Building a hamster or gerbil burrow at Vermin Village

Building a hamster or gerbil burrow at Vermin Village

In order to provide enrichment for the hamsters and gerbils of Vermin Village, I build “burrows” for them.

Supplies I typically use include:

• a refrigerator soda box (the long 12-pack version), but any box that will fit in your cage will do, however if you use a smaller box, you’ll want to have some cardboard to fold into a type of “tunnel” to get to the chamber.
• some type of hay or grass (today I’m using Kaytee Natural Bermuda Grass)
• Eco-Bedding or strip shredded newspaper
• Tissue, paper towels or a soft paper bedding like Kaytee Clean and Cozy
• Large fiddlesticks, made by SuperPet
• A zip tie

For gerbils, I provide toilet paper and paper towel tubes daily so that they can shred to their hearts content.  If you can’t seem to get enough tubes and you don’t have a lot of friends that can save them for you, buy the cheapest toilet paper rolls with the smallest amount of paper on them, you’ll go through them faster. :D

I have found that gerbils, at least the two boys I have here now, are particularly sensitive to aspen bedding (the only kind of wood shaving bedding appropriate for rodents), so I exclusively use Kaytee Clean and Cozy and Eco-bedding/shredded newspaper for them.

Let’s get started!

I attach my wheel to the cage.   

Then I put a layer of Clean and Cozy down.

Next I prepare the Fiddlesticks so they can be attached to the cage.

I bend the Fiddlesticks in half so they are at a 90 degree angle.  Then halfway through the side that will rest flat against the cage, I work a zip tie around one of the pieces.  This will secure the Fiddlesticks against the cage so it doesn't tip and block the wheel or worse hurt a critter.

Then I secure the Fiddlesticks to the cage with the zip tie.

Then I add a refrigerator box of soda along one end of the cage with the opening towards the front.  I fill the box with Eco Bedding and Clean and Cozy.

Then I go ahead and pile in the Bermuda grass (or other hay), Eco-Bedding.

 Finally I add the food dish and water bottles.

This cage belongs to gerbils Nutella and Reeses.

Silver passes

Sadly Silver passed today.  I found she had passed curled up in her burrow.  :(  Rest in peace little Silver.

Onyx Passed

Sadly, I walked in Christmas morning and Onyx had passed.  She was lying in the middle her cage all splayed out.  Her sister, Silver, was inside their burrow.  This was COMPLETELY unexpected.

Onyx was a gregarious little girl and loved to pop out of her cage and run around her tray while I filled their food dish.  She loved to be pet and didn't mind jumping into my hand.

She will be greatly missed.

Rest in peace little Onyx.

Silver and Onyx, Refugees from California's Gerbil Ban

A pair of female gerbils made their way to Oregon from California on Saturday.  They arrived at the Village about 8:30 pm.  They settled in by taking a sand bath.  They're pretty active little girls.  Hopefully they will enjoy it here.  Pictures to follow.

Reeses and Nutella and Their Digs!

This is the first version of their digs.  I will be making some changes for the next time, but this is pretty good for now.  They are really enjoying their "burrow."  I "built" a chamber with a tunnel to it just like an article I read about preventing them from digging in corners.

I was only able to get Nutella in this series.  Reeses took one look at the camera and ran back into the burrow and wouldn't come out.  I think he made Nutella come out and see.

As you can see I took cardboard and surrounded the part of the cage I was putting the burrow in.  I don't use tanks because I can't interact with the critters as well and they are too heavy for me to lift to clean.  Anyway, I made a square of soda boxes that connect together and put holes in them to the inner part that is open (kind of like a courtyard).  Then I buried it all under the crinkled paper.  I placed a wire balcony over that and they jump up there sometimes. The original intent was the pink bucket was to be their sand but it doesn't work as I'd like it to so I put another one in their cage.

Here's the opening to the burrow.  When I put the kids in here they scrambled all around the open part and then shot into the burrow and up through the middle.  They were so excited!

So the food can't be buried as easily, balconies were laid down.  It also helps to keep the water bottle and wheel areas clear of paper.  All cages get two water bottles.  I use the Lixit Recycled Water Bottle Kit.

They get a giant silent spinner.

View of the burrow from the top.  (I was hoping Reeses would pop up.)

I'll try to get Reeses pics in the morning.  These little guys are really busy about 4 am.

I'm going to be setting up the hamster cages in a similar fashion with sand bath and a burrow.  I'm sure it will keep them really busy!

Mimzi Still Kickin' It

This is Mimzi's current set-up.  He lives in a Quality Cage RT-1824C.  The balcony has been removed and two SuperPet Look-outs have been added.  One below the wheel and one to the right with the ramp.  A refrigerator soda box stuffed with shredded paper provides him with the ability to make his burrow.  His wheel was upgraded from a 6.5" SuperPet Silent Spinner to a 12" Silent Spinner.  The first day he got it he was jumping up on the inside to the farthest possible point on the wheel and just flying!  An 8" wheel would be adequate but the Silent Spinner does not come in an 8" version.  The Comfort Wheel is too loud.

He popped out of his burrow to see who flashed the camera inside of it.  Of course that picture didn't come out.

He came over to say hello.  He is 3 years and 4 months old.  These pictures were taken 7/6/2012.

Mimzi the Gerbil!

Mimzi the gerbil has come to Vermin Village.  He was adopted from the Oregon Humane Society.  He is very skittish but so fun to watch.  He is about 6 months old.

Welcome Mimzi!

Photo credit: Oregon Humane Society

Cocoa the Gerbil Passes

Cocoa, the last non-rattie vermin in Vermin Village has passed. I was getting her new clean cage all ready. Just had fastened her sand bath in....went to go and get her and she had passed. :*( This ends the last of non-rats in Vermin Village. I had so hoped we had more time with her! She was a real hoot to watch and came when you called. (Most likely because I always had treats for her.)

She is awaiting private cremation.

Rest in peace little Cocoa.

Jack the Gerbil Left for the Bridge

Jack the Gerbil has passed. I don't always get to see him as he is very bad about coming out when I call him and he bites. So when I went to go and really stir him up, he didn't come out. I started take apart the cage and found he had passed. I wrapped him up and he is in the freezer awaiting cremation. Poor little guy. He was about to get moved to a really nice cage, although he probably preferred the one he was in because he had LOTS of tunneling.

At least he had a comfortable life. He was sorely neglected in his original home. He lived in one of those damn critter trails and was not carefully monitored. He had a section of his tail missing.

Goodbye Jack the Gerbil. Hopefully you are enjoying sand baths at the bridge.

Jack the Gerbil and Kashi GoLean Twigs

Jack the gerbil loves Kashi cereal. I get the GoLean kind with 13% protein. They actually have a piece in it they call "twigs". I look up as I am feeding the ratties right into Jack's big eyes. He is staring at me as he consumes a Kashi "twig." I should take a picture and send it to them and say they have an appreciative customer. :-)

Cheers!

Neutering, Pictures, Zeb, Tweek, and Cage Arrangements

It has been very busy here. The room will be completely done and photos taken by mid February. I'm so excited. I'm taking 3 rats to get neutered on 2/6/2008 so they can live with some of my ladies. Sherman who is already here and 2 boys I will be picking up on Friday. 1 already had a pass here because he is from the same family as Sherman and Nona. The other two get a pass because they are up on the list for pet/breeder or food and it is a 5 week old pair, 1 boy and 1 girl. It is this third boy that will be neutered so he can continue to live with his current cage mate with the larger groups of rats.

Zeb had surgery to remove lumps from his body. Turns out the lumps were lumps of infection, e. coli, and something else. He has to take 3 weeks of two different kinds of antibiotics. Poor little guys.

Tweek, rejected snake food, has settled in with her two new roomies, Sprite and Ruthie. It is to this cage I will attempt to introduce Sherman, and the two new boys and the little girl to. The cage would then be expanded to a 4 level + a balcony cage. I will have 3 such cages set up. The freed up large deluxe cage will be used to house the 2 babies that have to live downstairs and the cage they are in will be sold to offset the cost of getting some of the babies fixed. (The cage is a different caging system I don't really care for.) The two baby ratties that are coming Friday also come in that same caging system, and that cage will be sold as it is unneeded and will be used to offset the cost of fixing the little boy.

Saturday I sold one of the "other" cages and used the proceeds to buy some supplies for the mice cages and the new gerbil cage. I made the mice real cages instead of that Critter Trail crap. They love it. I also made a more gerbil friendly one for the new gerbil we adopted at OHS. Poor little guy has had a hard life. So now he is having fun in his new home. Gerbils are VERY low maintenance pets and are fun to watch.

On Friday I hope to get a mini-fridge to keep medications in so that I don't have to keep going downstairs to get it and then bring it back down. I intend to bring one of my dressers in the room to use there as a place to weigh the little ones and sit the fridge on it.

Other than this, been busy at work and in class.

A brief update on the gang...

Well, I've been very bad about keeping up with this thing. Ruthie came through her surgery just fine. She is ready to be introduced to two other girls, Sprite and Tweek.

Right now, Sherman is on my shoulder, bruxing away. He is a single cage fellow. I've yet to find him a cage mate he will tolerate. I tried to introduce him and Tickle, but Tickle is too set in his ways. So they both live alone.

I found a lump on Zeb's abdomen. He has an appointment on Monday to get checked out. I'm hoping it is just a hernia and not a tumor. We shall find out.

Other than that, we might get a new gerbil tomorrow. Depends on if I can get around and make him a cage tonight. We do have room for a gerbil and he is NOT a socialized little guy so he would do okay here since I provide gerbils with sanctuary more than anything. I have a little girl named Cocoa. I provide lots of card board tubes, toys, a huge habitat, a sand bath, and fun stuff to dig through. Gerbils are low maintenance and very cool to watch.

I have to get back to cleaning, just wanted to pop a note on here.

Cheers!

Cocoa, Chester and Miscellaneous Updates

It's been a while and I have sooo much new happening. Vermin Village will open mid-November. Time has been taken up with some last minute classes. Precious and Shäst have bonded and share a cage. I did have them in a "bigger" cage that I made, but I decided it was too unwieldy and had some sharp edges. So I am going to have a "custom" addition made at Quality Cages. They have a wheel, but they don't use it as they are too busy keeping house.

I picked up a jumbo rat named Chester. He is under 6 months old, big, lovable guy. He is by himself right now. I'm hoping to see if he can join Knick and Knack and have some pals.

I clamped the 2 five story rat mansions together and it makes a wonderful 10-story cage for my 4 brothers, Rico, Baxter, Worth and Mosco.

Pepé, the mouse, kept having one of the three brothers escape from their habitat and into his habitat. The first time it happened, Pepé had the intruder pinned up the tube. The second time it happened, Curly had Pepé pinned up in the tube. I thought they were escaping outside of their habitats through the wheel open. Last night, I saw differently. They were escaping out the DOOR. The spaces were too wide on the door. So I've replaced with 1/2 x 1/2 inch wire.

While John was in Tennessee, I acquired Cocoa from the Oregon Humane Society. She was the last of a family of gerbils. She was the only black gerbil AND she was there several weeks longer. (Black animals stay in the shelter longer than other animals, that is why most shelters have "adopt a black dog" week.) John had mentioned he liked the rats, but they were asleep when he got home from work. Cocoa is awake during the day. We had a HUGE aquarium that we got for $5 at the Columbia Humane Society Rummage Sale. I got her a ceramic sand bath and put Chinchilla sand in it, a wheel, some tubes and about 4 inches of paper bedding and hay. She went to town! I know she hadn't had a sand bath in some time as she was at the shelter for over a month. She jumped right in. The next day, her coat was VERY nice. She rearranges her decor every day AND she LOVES the wheel. At first I had it on the 4 inches of bedding, but she kept tunneling underneath and eventually the wheel wouldn't move anymore. Now I tape the stand to the TOP of the aquarium (there is a lip) and she loves it even more there. (Sounds like the damn thing is about to carry the aquarium off!)