I found my webcam, so we all know what that means!
The present stars are Campbell’s dwarf roommates, Erica Cartman and Kylie Broflovski. Familiarly, Cartman and Kylie.
Peeking out
I love the focus and detail on this photo.
Useful, plentiful, odorless hamsters!
The new wonder animals. Everyone wants them. Take THAT, Zhu Zhu Pets!
Seen in Popular Science in 1950. Surely these “breeders” shipped out to people all over the country are some of the the ancestors of some of the cuddly beasts we know and love today. Now, of course, the rodents used in scientific research are carefully bred and genetically engineered. Not conceived, raised, and born in a suburban garage.
Gulf Hamstery of Alabama started when an engineer won a hamster on a bet. No, really.
Albert Marsh of Mobile, Alabama was not your typical highway engineer. He was also a businessman and saw an opportunity in hamsters. He won a Syrian hamster in a bet.
He became interested in this little animal and acquired more.
Marsh named his business the Gulf Hamstery and Marsh Enterprises. He began selling animals to individuals and laboratories. He even wrote and published a book on raising and breeding hamsters. By 1951 the book sold so well it was in its sixth edition. Marsh also did a little political work and convinced the state of California to recognize hamsters as domestic animals, thus opening up another market for his business.
Marsh’s pet market eventually dried up.
Oh hai!
Roborovski hamsters could take over the world with the force of pure cuteness if they wanted. But they’d rather spend their time running on their wheels.
Photo: Zach™
Baby hamsters snuggled up in a row
Tiny, tiny baby hammies. Baby dwarf hamsters have always looked like lima beans to me. Stripey, tiny lima beans with impossibly small, highly nom-able ears.
Photo: Keren_
Roborovski hamster fight
The Hamster Tails series over at Hamster Hideout makes me happy.
I find adopting pre-owned hamsters really gratifying. I’ve adopted a few older ones and owner surrenders from my favorite pet store, and I also have picked up a few from small local rescues and from Craigslist. Sometimes hamsters I adopt have never had things before, like fresh vegetables or a wheel to run in or even a lot of space to romp around. One hamster I adopted had mistakenly been housed with other Syrians and terrorized.
Pompadour’s story (and especially his “wife’s” story) shows the sort of banal horribleness of irresponsible animal breeders. We think of bad breeders mostly in the context of dogs, but it happens with smaller animals too. People breed for cuteness and profit, instead of actually making sure that the animals they want to breed are in good health. I’ve had to help with online hamster forum interventions to prevent people from buying two random animals from a chain petstore and breeding them for the sake of cuteness.
I guess it’s marginally better to be mistreated with a home owner than mistreated in a massive hamster mill, but not by much.
Somewhere in this world, there was an entire lab full of alcoholic hamsters. This shouldn’t be funny but, well, it is. It would be nice if they went to rehab after the study instead of being euthanized.