Wednesday 4 January 2006

This is Filkins. He is a Russian hamster - a winter white, to be precise, though the fact that he isn't living in Siberia means that he does not need to go white in winter. This is because there is a general lack of snow in his cage.

He is about 3" long from nose to (very short) tail. But his toenails need cutting - AND HE DOESN'T LIKE HAVING THEM CUT!!! You'd be impressed at the range of swear words he knows, how sharp his teeth are and how much he can WRIGGLE for such a rotund creature. Oh, and he can pull really manic faces. In the end I made a little harness for him. He bit into it savagely, but I managed to cut some of the offending talons, but not the really long ones which are preventing him from walking properly. You're trying to strike a balance between removing the excess nail growth, and removing one of his limbs. He doesn't seem to realise what a delicate operation this is ...

I'm going to leave it for a few days, and hope he forgets today's experience.

CAS

3 comments:

lorna said...

oh poor Filkins- I hope he's forgiven you.
:o)

Maya said...

He is adorable!!

I am sure he will get over it ;)

Gail said...

I know the experience well as I used to breed hamsters ... I'm sure he'll forgive you though.

I've finally got on top of things and have added a link to your blog from mine as promised.