Pumpkin, Abby and Oscar

Thursday this week started out with a vet trip. Our older dwarf hamsters, Paprika and Spice, who have been retired from being adoptable since they are over 2 years old, needed a nail trimming. The newest guinea pig rescues, Claire and Juliette , had a wellness exam done. The girls are in excellent health, Dr.T checked their fur, skin, eyes, ears, heartbeat, etc, everything is great. He really loved their easy going nature too , he knows they'll be adopted quickly and be wonderful companions. Then, I also took in one of the albino hamsters from the group of 43 dwarf hamsters that were dropped off here many, many months ago. If you remember, Otto, a hamster from that same group had a mass of food impacted in his cheek that had to be surgically removed. Now this albino boy also had a mass of food stuck in his cheek. Thankfully this guy had the food wad closer upwards to his mouth. Dr.T had to sedate him and scoop out the mess, no surgery was necessary. It was a dried up hunk of food and what not, that was stuck to the skin lining of his pouch. I am baffled as to why this is happening. I told Dr.T that we have many hamsters here, MANY, they are eating all the same foods and on the same bedding,etc. Why is this only happening to the group of 43? Which is less now, some have been adopted or are in foster care ( I will be asking foster Mom's if they are noticing any lumps in cheek pouches right after this entry post) Dr.T does feel this is genetic, these hamsters are more than likely all inbred, sister and brothers mating and sons to Mom... that is how 43 resulted, the person couldn't tell boy from girl and kept them all together and they resumed having babies with each other. He also told me that the cheek pouch should be moist and keep food inside moist and moving. Everything is so dry for these hamsters ( for Otto and albino) that it dries up in the pouch and won't move when they try to push the food out. I have bad news too, as soon as I brought the albino home, he wedged food in his mouth again and I do believe it is stuck once more. He'll be going back in again to see Dr.T, we need to figure out what to do for these hamsters, food sitting in the pouch too long can result in a bad infection.
Good news! Pumpkin and Abby the guinea pigs and Oscar the gerbil found their loving homes yesterday:) They actually all went home to the same family. A Mom and two , adorable and smart sons choose Pumpkin and Abby , they were looking to adopt two girls , and really liked those two. I will miss pumpkin though, she was extraordinary , not only in looks but her personality shined. Of course, Abby is a sweetheart too. I really loved how gentle the sons were with the piggies and Oscar, you can tell they grew up with animals and were shown the proper way to handle and treat pets. It is so good to see.
Here is a picture of Abby and Pumpkin, Pumpkin has the crazy hair. I never took any pictures of Oscar, he was with us for barely a week.