Rest in Peace, Potato
Oct. 11th, 2009 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spottoSo a while back I talking about my new hamsters after the untimely passing of Solo, and I said I didn't know definitely if either hamster were male or female. I made a preliminary conclusion that they were male, but at that moment I really wasn't sure. It usually takes me a month or so to figure out if they are indeed male or female. Today I think I've figured it out.
Now let's start by saying there are no surprises, they are indeed both male, but it was much harder to tell on Koho then Iggy. First, the reason it takes a while to figure it out is because I don't normally handle them that often when they first get home, and secondly I don't handle them roughly either at all for quite a while. What I mean by roughly is basically not the normal way of the hamsters just sitting on your hand, but holding them in a way to see their stomachs, and thus seeing if they have male or female parts. When I first got them I examined if they were male or female by putting them on see-through things like glass cups or on top of tennis rackets, but that isn't the most effective way. And also, if there haven't been babies after a month it's pretty safe to say none are female, XD.
So after hearing four loud bangs from the neighbour, waking me up, and subsequently hearing squeaks from my bin in sync to those bangs, I think my hamsters were awoken by the bangs too, and quite scared. I started wondering whether my hamsters REALLY were male. Correction, if Koho was really male because it was quite obvious on Iggy. He had the same body shape as Otter and Hobo, and so it wasn't hard to tell from Iggy's rear. One reason why it was harder on Koho was how fat he is. You can't tell if he's truly round like a female or if there's so much fur and body everywhere that the balls on his rear are just hiding on you. P:
So I went and picked him up, today he was hungry...like usual because he went and bit my wrist. Usually I'm not very kind when bit, but for some reason I don't really give a damn when Koho does it. Maybe because he's just so cute! He's not much of a biter anyway...usually doesn't. He doesn't bite on instinct I mean. He only bit my wrist because he thought it was food, since the bite did not hurt. If their bites HURT though...then they are angry. So, I picked him up and held him in a way to see his butt, and hopefully, his penis, and from all those hamster sexing charts and guides out there, there should be a gap between those two. On a female, there would be very little gap, or even no gap at all.
Well, first I saw something pink....and I saw nothing else. He was squirming insanely so I put him down, let him roam around and chew on my shirt, and then tried again. I brushed off the fur around the area and finally found another pink thing. Well, there was indeed a gap. And if you looked closely on his rear end, it would be poking out slightly. The insane amount of fur and fat on Koho was just making it really hard to see. Another known fact is that males are usually larger than females, and Koho is huge.
Which brings us to another question, were all my other hamsters indeed what sex I thought they were? I can tell you now I don't have as much experience with female hamsters than male, Solo being only my third one. But Solo was an obvious female. She was tiny, very round and I could tell that she was female by looking on her underside. (It is much easier to tell if a female is a female than if a male is a male to me, annoyingly enough.) And a few of my other hamsters were probably obvious too. But now that I think about it...
Vulcan Max and Toto, my supposed other female hamsters...they weren't as small as Solo as far as I can remember. I can tell with Toto due to to photo evidence that she wasn't that small. VM on the other hand I have no photos of, so I can never really know for sure. Another thing is I don't recall that hamster store I get hamsters from now ever keeping their sexes separate. They might do NOW because I didn't ask, and maybe they did when Solo was there, but they kept Asako with two females for god's sake. How many children, grandchildren, GREAT-grandchildren does Asako have!? And Solo was supposedly in the tank full of males....the only reason she didn't come home pregnant? I'm guessing she was too young to mate because she was REAL small. Thank god I saved her. (Young mothers aren't the best idea for hamsters). But they did think she was male back then, so at least they started attempting to sex hamsters at that time.
I must admit sexing hamsters is hard ESPECIALLY when either young or fat thus the many mistakes through my experience. Even when I got my first hamsters, I apparently knew which were female or male. After having Hammy for a few weeks, we went to get Hobo. At first we got this tiny hamster, but then I noticed Hammy being VERY interested in this hamster....so I took a look, I believe we even had a magnifying glass. It looked like this hamster was a female. I actually feel quite sorry for this hamster....I sealed her fate when we went back to that house with many hamsters to find a male instead. They apparently bought a hamster because someone might have wanted one or five, since I saw lots of older hamsters [four male children in the house though and they didn't apparently care for them at all.] and they ended up getting much more than just five. We looked at all the young hamsters to see if it were male or female, and there was only one male: Hobo.
So, we put the female hamster back and got Hobo and went home. Thus ends the story of Spotto not ending up with lots of baby hamsters...and Spotto subsequently being told all those hamsters died because that family "forgot to feed them" a few weeks later. I hope other people came and took some hamsters too because if that female was one of them...
I'm going to name that nameless female. She's definitely not alive NOW because no Dwarf hamster lives that long, but I did get to hold her, if only for a few minutes. Rest in peace Potato, and I hope you left the world much later than those other unfortunate hamsters, but if you were one of them.... :'C On the bright side...I did save Hobo's life, but if you think about it now...
If I had that female, I'd have lots of baby hamsters. Hobo would not have lived very long, but maybe...maybe he could've if other people came and got some of the young hamsters? What would have been the best course of action if you think about it now? An inexperienced 11-year-old should not really be taking care of baby hamsters especially with parents who see hamsters more like fish and wouldn't care if they all dropped dead a few days later. Though I really can't blame myself for any of this because I wouldn't have known that weeks from then those hamsters I saw would not be alive. If I did I would INSIST on taking them all! It just feels more guilt-ridden because I at first HAD the female, and maybe if other people didn't come to get some hamsters from there themselves, she'd have lived longer if I had just kept her...
I don't quite know anymore, but as of today these thoughts would just end up being thoughts. It was a long time ago, and nothing can be done now. I mean, Hobo was very very fortunate. He had a great life, a great long life with Hammy, and I probably might not have been as interested in hamsters today if my first two hamsters weren't living together and subsequently being very awesome together. But that just brings us back to the original question...
Were my hamsters the sex I thought them to be? I'm pretty definite on Hammy, Hobo, Asako, Otter, Solo, Iggy, and finally Koho. Hedgehog? I'm not really sure...I believe he was male, but who knows? The same place I got him was the same place I got VM and they got her sex wrong. Granted there was a million young hamsters climbing EVERYWHERE in the cage, and my mom wanted a white one with red eyes because red is the colour of LUCK and white is just pretty to her, or perhaps it's the asian influence, but anyway...there were two of that colour, one was male and one was female. They gave us the wrong one. Unlike what happened with Hobo, I didn't go back and get the male instead, but it was less necessary since I only had one.
Some questions we'll never know...
Now let's start by saying there are no surprises, they are indeed both male, but it was much harder to tell on Koho then Iggy. First, the reason it takes a while to figure it out is because I don't normally handle them that often when they first get home, and secondly I don't handle them roughly either at all for quite a while. What I mean by roughly is basically not the normal way of the hamsters just sitting on your hand, but holding them in a way to see their stomachs, and thus seeing if they have male or female parts. When I first got them I examined if they were male or female by putting them on see-through things like glass cups or on top of tennis rackets, but that isn't the most effective way. And also, if there haven't been babies after a month it's pretty safe to say none are female, XD.
So after hearing four loud bangs from the neighbour, waking me up, and subsequently hearing squeaks from my bin in sync to those bangs, I think my hamsters were awoken by the bangs too, and quite scared. I started wondering whether my hamsters REALLY were male. Correction, if Koho was really male because it was quite obvious on Iggy. He had the same body shape as Otter and Hobo, and so it wasn't hard to tell from Iggy's rear. One reason why it was harder on Koho was how fat he is. You can't tell if he's truly round like a female or if there's so much fur and body everywhere that the balls on his rear are just hiding on you. P:
So I went and picked him up, today he was hungry...like usual because he went and bit my wrist. Usually I'm not very kind when bit, but for some reason I don't really give a damn when Koho does it. Maybe because he's just so cute! He's not much of a biter anyway...usually doesn't. He doesn't bite on instinct I mean. He only bit my wrist because he thought it was food, since the bite did not hurt. If their bites HURT though...then they are angry. So, I picked him up and held him in a way to see his butt, and hopefully, his penis, and from all those hamster sexing charts and guides out there, there should be a gap between those two. On a female, there would be very little gap, or even no gap at all.
Well, first I saw something pink....and I saw nothing else. He was squirming insanely so I put him down, let him roam around and chew on my shirt, and then tried again. I brushed off the fur around the area and finally found another pink thing. Well, there was indeed a gap. And if you looked closely on his rear end, it would be poking out slightly. The insane amount of fur and fat on Koho was just making it really hard to see. Another known fact is that males are usually larger than females, and Koho is huge.
Which brings us to another question, were all my other hamsters indeed what sex I thought they were? I can tell you now I don't have as much experience with female hamsters than male, Solo being only my third one. But Solo was an obvious female. She was tiny, very round and I could tell that she was female by looking on her underside. (It is much easier to tell if a female is a female than if a male is a male to me, annoyingly enough.) And a few of my other hamsters were probably obvious too. But now that I think about it...
Vulcan Max and Toto, my supposed other female hamsters...they weren't as small as Solo as far as I can remember. I can tell with Toto due to to photo evidence that she wasn't that small. VM on the other hand I have no photos of, so I can never really know for sure. Another thing is I don't recall that hamster store I get hamsters from now ever keeping their sexes separate. They might do NOW because I didn't ask, and maybe they did when Solo was there, but they kept Asako with two females for god's sake. How many children, grandchildren, GREAT-grandchildren does Asako have!? And Solo was supposedly in the tank full of males....the only reason she didn't come home pregnant? I'm guessing she was too young to mate because she was REAL small. Thank god I saved her. (Young mothers aren't the best idea for hamsters). But they did think she was male back then, so at least they started attempting to sex hamsters at that time.
I must admit sexing hamsters is hard ESPECIALLY when either young or fat thus the many mistakes through my experience. Even when I got my first hamsters, I apparently knew which were female or male. After having Hammy for a few weeks, we went to get Hobo. At first we got this tiny hamster, but then I noticed Hammy being VERY interested in this hamster....so I took a look, I believe we even had a magnifying glass. It looked like this hamster was a female. I actually feel quite sorry for this hamster....I sealed her fate when we went back to that house with many hamsters to find a male instead. They apparently bought a hamster because someone might have wanted one or five, since I saw lots of older hamsters [four male children in the house though and they didn't apparently care for them at all.] and they ended up getting much more than just five. We looked at all the young hamsters to see if it were male or female, and there was only one male: Hobo.
So, we put the female hamster back and got Hobo and went home. Thus ends the story of Spotto not ending up with lots of baby hamsters...and Spotto subsequently being told all those hamsters died because that family "forgot to feed them" a few weeks later. I hope other people came and took some hamsters too because if that female was one of them...
I'm going to name that nameless female. She's definitely not alive NOW because no Dwarf hamster lives that long, but I did get to hold her, if only for a few minutes. Rest in peace Potato, and I hope you left the world much later than those other unfortunate hamsters, but if you were one of them.... :'C On the bright side...I did save Hobo's life, but if you think about it now...
If I had that female, I'd have lots of baby hamsters. Hobo would not have lived very long, but maybe...maybe he could've if other people came and got some of the young hamsters? What would have been the best course of action if you think about it now? An inexperienced 11-year-old should not really be taking care of baby hamsters especially with parents who see hamsters more like fish and wouldn't care if they all dropped dead a few days later. Though I really can't blame myself for any of this because I wouldn't have known that weeks from then those hamsters I saw would not be alive. If I did I would INSIST on taking them all! It just feels more guilt-ridden because I at first HAD the female, and maybe if other people didn't come to get some hamsters from there themselves, she'd have lived longer if I had just kept her...
I don't quite know anymore, but as of today these thoughts would just end up being thoughts. It was a long time ago, and nothing can be done now. I mean, Hobo was very very fortunate. He had a great life, a great long life with Hammy, and I probably might not have been as interested in hamsters today if my first two hamsters weren't living together and subsequently being very awesome together. But that just brings us back to the original question...
Were my hamsters the sex I thought them to be? I'm pretty definite on Hammy, Hobo, Asako, Otter, Solo, Iggy, and finally Koho. Hedgehog? I'm not really sure...I believe he was male, but who knows? The same place I got him was the same place I got VM and they got her sex wrong. Granted there was a million young hamsters climbing EVERYWHERE in the cage, and my mom wanted a white one with red eyes because red is the colour of LUCK and white is just pretty to her, or perhaps it's the asian influence, but anyway...there were two of that colour, one was male and one was female. They gave us the wrong one. Unlike what happened with Hobo, I didn't go back and get the male instead, but it was less necessary since I only had one.
I'm pretty sure all those other hamsters I saw didn't die a few weeks later. I'm sure they all got nice, reasonable owners who loved them....but from all those abuse stories you hear there are even more you don't hear...not all the animals you see in pet stores went to happy and caring families, especially small animals like hamsters or even fish which aren't taken as seriously as something like a cat or a dog. What about Toto? She was apparently in a tank with other females, and that was the only evidence I knew that she was a female, but was she really? She didn't live very long with me, and bite like hell..so I didn't get a chance to handle her enough to find out if she was truly male or female.
The track record these stores have aren't very good, and depending the sex of Toto on the store is the only thing I have...she wasn't very small...
Is Koho a male? Yes.
Did Potato live longer than I hoped?
Some questions we'll never know...
