2003-02-20 - 11:38 p.m.

Goodbye, Baby Hamsters

Today was a sad day - I took the majority of the baby hamsters to a local pet store to be sold.

I have to admit that it's been fun having them around the house. With sixteen hamsters living in one cage, it's been a source of practically nonstop hamster hilarity. It must be impossible to get any sleep when you have fifteen roommates who are constantly stepping on your face.

This was a litter of fifteen - just about the largest litter I've ever seen. There were so many hamsters in the cage that I had to clean it every two weeks or so - the cage would fill very rapidly with discarded seed husks and whatnot. These little guys can eat!

I sat the cage on the floor and took the hamsters out one at a time to see what sex and fur type they were. For the most part these seemed like a very mellow bunch of babies - they didn't wriggle and jump as much as I would have expected.

Something surprising - out of fifteen hamsters there were only four females. That is beating the hell out of the laws of probability. All of the gray babies were boys, which was annoying. Oh well, it's not like there's anything I can do about it. It just means that I am going to have to buy another female for breeding.

I decided to keep only one hamster out of the litter, so I actually sold two of the gray babies. As it is I am going to have eleven hamsters. I'm starting to run out of flat surfaces to put their cages on.

As is usual, the babies were at their cutest when they were at the pet store. It's always like that, but there is just no way I could keep them all. I'm just wondering what I am going to name the little boy I'm keeping. Usually a name will occur to me after I think about enough. Any suggestions out there?