2003-01-24 - 11:12 p.m.

Bubbling Cauldron of Hamsters

As of today Amanda Panda's litter of baby hamsters is 15 days old. It's been hard to count how many babies there are because there are an awful lot of them. Initially Lily counted eleven, but it seemed like there might be even more.

Today finally I got a look while they were all wandering around the cage, and I counted fifteen. Fifteen! That is a HUGE litter! Usually seven or eight is an average size littler, but the count seems to have been dwindling in recent years. Well, this certainly reverses THAT trend.

Amazingly enough, this is not the biggest litter I've ever had, but it's a close second. Back in the mid-1980s I had a litter of sixteen, and that was a cage full of hamsters. Since then I've had a couple of thirteens and a fourteen, but never a fifteen.

Whenever Amanda gets off the nest, they all start to squirm. It looks like nothing less than a boiling cauldron full of hamsters. When their eyes open in a day or two then the fun will REALLY begin - they'll begin running all over the cage like the circus was in town.

Already poor Amanda Panda is looking a bit bedraggled. In fact, she's already taken to hiding in a far corner of the cage and taking a nap. Of course this is utterly useless - they always find her again.