2002-03-03 - 11:02 p.m.

Typical Male Problem

The baby hamsters are just a few days shy of being a month old, and are absolutely adorable. Their cage is sitting on the left hand side of my desk and it's fun to watch them running around bumping into each other. This litter of hamsters seems much more healthy and energetic than the last letter, which included the poor doomed Sweet Mo.

To continue the genetic weirdness of this bunch of hamsters, they seem to have beaten the odds again. Both parents are short haired hamsters with one recessive gene for long hair. The net result of that SHOULD be a litter that is 1/4 long haired, 1/2 with a recessive long haired gene (but looking short haired) and 1/4 purebred shorthaired. Therefore, the litter should be one-quarter longhaired and three-quarters short haired.

As it turns out, all nine of them are longhaired. I don't even want to try to figure what the odds are of that happening. 26,000 to one? Hey, this isn't a bad thing! I WANTED long haired hamsters!

While I sit here working on all those chess game scores (2/3 done now!), I occasionally take a break and just watch the hamsters running around, being hamsters. They like to sleep, and they like to eat. They are growing at a fantastic rate - they almost look different from day to day.

Just now while I was sitting here, one of the babies was trying to lick his balls. Hey - those who can, should. However this poor little guy was having trouble. He kept bending over to give it a try, then falling ass over teacup. He tried again, same result. Baby hamsters are not that well coordinated yet.

A typical male problem.