My Adorable Syrian Hamsters

After helping my relatives look after their hamster while they went for overseas holiday, it renewed my interest in having one of my own. I had a hamster many years ago and his sudden death left me rather sad and unwilling to keep another one. But with the help of online hamster forums and careful consideration, I decided to have hamsters back in my life again.

My girlfriend got me my first hamster from House of Chinchilla on 2th Feb 2013. I was told that he is born on 25th of December 2012. I like his eye rings and he is rather tame (as compared to other hamsters who are biting their cage like they are trying to prison break (which I can understand as they were house in a terrible small cage)). He did jump of my hand when I try to handle him but I was assured that he (and most Syrian Hamsters) will be more docile as they grow older.

Inspired by the white stripe on his black body, we wanted to name him Sushi or Oreo. Then we thought of my fave Sushi Joint in Singapore ... Genki Sushi. Genki also means healthy in Japanese (or as far as I could remember).

and that's how Genki Hammie got his name ... but sadly, Maria (My Mom) started calling him Dengue!

There's a couple of things that we notice about Genki after a few days. He was rather antisocial shy. He didn't come out of his hideouts until the lights go off. Whenever I sneak up on him with red lights (supposedly hamsters can't see red lights), he could detect my presence and stopped what he was doing (ie running on his wheel or foraging food) and dash back to his hideout.

Another thing about him would be that he got huge balls (which in his case was kinda ironic).

I was also worried if he been drinking. So while forcing him to come out of his hideout and familiarizing with us, I brought his drinking bottle to him and the little boy was so thirsty that he nearly swallow the metal tube.

Kinda worrisome for me. I spent the next couple of nights in the dark, stalking him with red lights to make sure that this silly fellow knows how to drink and where the bottle is. But lucky as time goes by, he started drinking on his own. The only thing was that he was still very antisocial sky so we got him a "playmate"