New hamster Coco and Lulu's update

It's been too long we didn't update here.

On 26 Oct 2013, we welcome a new hamster named Coco into our family.

He is a Sapphire dwarf hamster and is still very nervous around us, won't let us touch him. He smells pretty bad from his scent gland as well.

He grows into a big fat hamster within a month and enjoys sitting on his balls (lol) in the corner of the cage.

Lulu is getting pretty frail lately. Her 'flu' has been on and off, and she's been on medication on and off as well. Yesterday she hurt herself by crossing over the Habitrail's house, getting her leg stuck, hung on the edge of the partition for we-don't-know-how-long. It's really heart-breaking when we checked her out before we went to bed. She didn't even make any sound.

Lulu becomes smaller in size, and her lower half is very skinny. She still fills her pouches with lots of food, we hope she really eats them and not just storing them for no reason.

Need to keep a very close eye on Lulu. She's now with us everywhere we do our work in the house.

Lulu with her dress.

May our little angels be well and happy.

Lulu loves mashed potato

Mama and mummy were busy, and Lulu seems to enjoy sleeping longer than usual... considering her age we take that as a sign of aging :(

Today we cooked mashed potato, and mummy couldn't finish it. Considering there are hamsters that love french fries (we don't give that to Lulu), we try to give her some mashed potato:

Lulu awaken almost immediately after she smells the food.

And she really loves the potato!

I tried to move the spoon away, and she stretched out her arms to hold the spoon XD

Finishing the last bit of mashed potato :)

The mashed potato is homemade healthier version so there is no butter, but it's really tasty, using this vegan recipe.

We all love potatoes <3

Feeding Lulu medicine

See description at the Youtube video :)

Lulu and her poor dress

We bought Lulu a mini dress because larger size is not available. As a result Lulu the fat fat couldn't squeeze through the dress, even after she removes all food from her pouches.



Longer edition of the video is cut into 3 parts:
Part 1: http://youtu.be/Zn5cY1x_Fts
Part 2: http://youtu.be/mP9CJuP8j4M
Part 3: http://youtu.be/GoanfmScUCI

Lulu is actually not a fat fat

For the past two days we suspected Lulu was having a wet tail, so we brought her to the vet expecting some quick diagnose and get medicine.

But the first thing the vet said was: "the first thing I notice here is that why Lulu's food pouch so big? That's abnormal". And then both of us were like "Really??? But we thought she's fat and she has been looking like this for a very long time!".

To our horror, the vet suspected Lulu's food pouch was infected because of constant storing of food.

I will post the video up after I have time to edit, it was like an endless loop of stored food "vomiting" out of Lulu's mouth as the vet pushed the food out from Lulu's cheek. Mummy got freaked out and anxious so me and the vet asked her to go outside. Looking back at the video Mummy still screamed.
When about 60% of the food were out, we could smell the foul rotten food :(

Greedy greedy Lulu!

Anyways, this is how Lulu looks like now:

Exhausted after being "squeezed"

Mummy says she looks like she has gotten a new haircut XD

Now she looks just like any other normal hamsters!!! Apparently her pouch was oversize with extravagant amount of food T_T We have no idea T_T

How she looks like when she had a humongous pouch:

What a huge difference!!!!

So Lulu is now on 0.1ml antibiotic once a day, and seems like she does not have any wet tail symptom, we have changed the wood-shred bedding and even cage for her.

Happy to have Lulu the cute greedy hamster as our daughter <3 We will watch her food intake from now on. Mimi was not this greedy so she never had the wide-face look :)

Mimi our lovely angel

This morning, after bringing Mimi to the vet, she passed away over the counter. We think it's approximately around 10:30-10:50am.

She received antibiotic dosage. I thought she'll be completely fine after that. But while making the payment we realised she wasn't moving at all. I touched her leg and called out "Mimi". She was still soft by then. The vet picked her up, and announced that she's gone.

We think it's her time, as she behaved weirdly for the past 2 or 3 days. I think I should have been able to give more attention, when she was sleeping non-stop for the whole day or more.

She was still able to eat and drink and ran about inside the pokeball until yesterday morning (2nd May). Last night when we returned home from work at night, we were freaked out as she panted and breathed heavily, unable to stand up at all, and struggled while lying on her back.

After reading online hamster forum, I was convinced that after taking antibiotic medication she would be fine. So that moment when she was pronounced dead after taking the medication, I was completely taken aback. I didn't expect her to leave us this way unexpectedly. I cried like mad. Wifey was strong, and managed to buy the tools and headed off to public park. We cremated her at the ground with a nice view facing the fountain.

I chanted medicine Buddha mantra along the way and Mummy played the Great Compassion mantra for Mimi.
Rest in peace Mimi, you were such a good girl, may you have a good rebirth in many lives to come, may be we will meet again soon. Be close to Buddha's path and be enlightened.

Om mani padme hum
Tadyanta Om Bedkanze Bedkanze Maha Bedkanze Randza Samung Gate Soha

Mimi and Lulu on mobile phones

The quality is really bad, but can't resist as they look cute no matter what! :D

Lulu on Mummy's lap. Look at her fingers XD

Mimi bite bite!

Lulu mediate in her bedroom.

Mimi meditate at her corner

Mimi sleeping with one leg stretched out.

Lulu bit the paper aggressively. We transferred her to the cage because Mummy is worried that  Lulu has become obese. The bar cage will give her more space to work out.

Continue bite bite.

When Mama tried to take the paper away, Lulu rushed and tried to grab the paper by mouth, LOL

They switched cage :) Mimi sleeping in Lulu's bedroom.

Lulu found a new favorite spot: sleeping under the House :)

When Mimi showed her frustration staying in the Pokeball, and we realised that she didn't know how to drink from water globe, finally we decided to buy her a new house on their 1 year anniversary with us (last month).

However, Mimi does not appreciate the two-tier house, and the wheel is so small, one of her leg would accidentally step into the air as she runs.

But she could finally know where to drink the water. So that's  a good thing about this cage.

Mimi awaken by cage opening noise (when Mama attempting to take this photo).

Wanted to take a photo of Lulu sleeping under the shredded papers that she created, but she was awaken by the cage opening noise as well, hehe. 

They don't run on the wheel

Especially Lulu the fat fat. We seldom see her run nowadays @_@

Below is the video of Lulu, realizing I was filming her, dashing out from the wheel and retreat to her favorite corner.

And here is Mimi, on rare occasion (she runs often), sitting inside the wheel and sort of washing her face.

And then trying to climb out of the pokeball!

Sleeping is our favorite activity

Opening the cage awaken Lulu.

Go back to sleep.

Curling up in fetus position.

Mimi is too cute!

We switch their cages, because Mimi's bite bite pandemic was getting worse. She felt a part of freedom was lost in a bar-less pokeball. So we had actually bought a new cage for Mimi.

It's been more than a month we didn't update here, and their anniversary is approaching!

We love Mimi and lulu <3

Broccoli again

Mimi munches on broccoli <3

Lulu was also very focused on the big clove of broccoli <3

Always their favorite food (asides from my breads and cakes <3)

Sleepy hammies

Sleepy Mimi :)
When the camera's shutter went off, she was woken up by surprised, ooops!

The Fat Fat glanced at Mama while lazying in her bedroom <3