Various odd bits of hamster-related mail have made their way to our mailbox since we first came online back in March of 1995. Excited reports of newborn hamsters, friendly words of encouragement regarding the pages, mystifying technical questions about hamsters, rude messages maligning hamsters as, well, vermin - they all end up here!
But we really had no clue what to do with it all. So here's a Hamster Mail page, containing - with the permission of the authors - some of the more interesting bits of mail that have come through. Read and enjoy!
Remember that the Hamster Page now has its own guest book! If you have any comments you'd like to make please use the guest book instead of sending email directly. This technological breakthrough lets you add your comments in real time instead of having to wait for a lowly Hamster Page volunteer to add the remark later. Thanks!
Date: Apr 19 1:39:20 1995 From: peter mckenna (rachyr@eden.rutgers.edu) Subject: hamster i have owned many hamsters in my days, and while they may appear as cute and cuddly as you and the others you have assembled here claim, i know firsthand that hamsters have another personality that they don't always show to the unelightened. my hamster Spencer chose to take me into his confidence, and i would be more than glad to pass my knowledge on to any interested parties.
Date: Fri, Apr 21 10:41:34 1995 From: Tracy Subject: hampster My name is Tracy McArthur. I'm eleven years old, I used to have a hampster named Ears(my first hampster) unfortunately she died, she had wettail and a cold in the eye, she died on her birthday. Now I have a new hamster named Bessy, I was worried she would get what Ears had so I got her vitemans. I have a question, why do some hampsters chew the bars more then others? I have 3 dogs, 1 cat ,2 fish, and Bessy
Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 01:04:15 -0400 From: Headc@aol.com Subject: Hamsterpage Poor capybaras! Discriminated against where 'ere they may roam! - Capybara1@aol.com
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 95 13:44:18 0000 From: Anonymous Subject: Hammy I am interested in getting a hamster but my mother tells me they are dirty little rodents that carry dissease. Is this true. Signed Hammy the Hamster Lover
Date: Jul 28 13:57:14 1995 From: c.m.campbell@ic.ac.uk (Colin Campbell) Subject: Re: hamster Hi I just thought I would drop you a line re the FAQ. The answer to the question on noises was inaccurate. My hamsters make numerous noises (all of which are definable). They have particular sounds when they want to come out ; when they want a treat; when they want some general attention; when they are ill; and when there is a general problem e.g. a leaky water bottle or something that may cause serious health risk. As you stated they do make certain noises when they are ill but these are in particular different from the other noises. One of my hamsters Minnie, for example, made a sort of braying noise similar to a noisy violin when she was dying and did not stop until I went to the cage, picked her up and calmed her down. George among others has a definitive "eh" noise repeated about 10 times in a row to signify that he wants to come out - it sounds pretty much like the coughing noise made by Lonely before he died 2 .5 years ago. Since George is only 17 months old I doubt that he picked it up from him, but from another great attention seeker of mine Maslen who died earlier this year at the grand old age of 29 months! Each of these animals know that by doing this they will grab my attention ( I worry about them persistantly). When they want a treat they just lengthen the "eh" to an "eeh". When there is something generally wrong they will "eek". For instance Squeeky has a habit of having bad nightmares and he will "eek" a few times while he`s asleep and wake himself up into a shock like state. At this point love and attention normally gets him better again. He is now fast approaching 21 months and has been doing this for most of his life. Another point to make is on the FAQ answer about loneliness. I believe hamsters do get lonely in a similar way to humans. I`ve mentioned Lonely the hamster already. When I first got him he had already sired a litter. I was just in the process of buying one of his brood (Mother, Father and babies were living happily in the same cage) when the breeder gave me Lonely to hold. I wasn`t really taking much notice of him until he crawled up my arm, on to my shoulder and sort of looked at me face to face. He could see I`d been admiring his babies and was acting the part of a proud parent!! This threw me totally. He was such a character that I bought him. Sadly now I realise it was a selfish thing to do - he did not want to be separated from his family so abruptly. He never quite got settled into my home. Although me holding him would calm him down during the night time- God only knows what he was like during the day time. One day I came home from work to find him soaking and shivering from the cold in his cage. He had fallen into his water bowl. Whether this was accidental or on purpose I will never quite know. Although I dried him off and took him to the vets he never recovered and died the next morning at the vets. I constantly question my motives in buying him. I needed a fertile hamster to continue the lines and he was exactly the type I was looking for. Had I through some chance of fate created a suicidal hamster. I knew he was lonely ( he had made it perfectly clear - hence his name), but had I pushed him over the edge. The more I study these hamsters the more sure I am that they adopt certain human characteristics, but since suicide was not shown to him is it possible that this is not unique to humans?? Are lemmings also really commiting mass suicide after all and not following an old genetical area map?? Most of my hamsters are certainly intelligent but to what end? Their little lives are too short. I`m sure they could adapt and learn even more if it wasn`t for this problem. Maslen for instance wasn`t particularly bright when I got her but was inquisitive (after all isn`t this the quality which drives most humans??) and she soon learned to adapt new tasks and motor skills. With her prior knowledge she was generally able to adapt to new surroundings and tasks given to her fairly quickly. She had all her faculties till a few days before she died. I just pray that in the future a lot more can be done to promote the length and quality of their lives. Boredom has got a lot to do with the quality ( believe me if there is nothing there to interest these inquisitive little creatures they give up). I made the fatal mistake of leaving one hamster, Sarah, with only a wheel in her cage for a few weeks when she was used to having at least two tubes lying around her cage as well. She was interested in the wheel for a time, then she tired of it and went into her own little world. By the time I had discovered what had happened she had already given up. Physically there was nothing wrong with her. There was nothing I could do, the previous stimuli did not interest her. She would only eat drink and sleep. She died aged 6 months. So a word of warning to all you hamster lovers out there. It may be that when they are making a sound they just want attention but it may be because they are ill. Never ignore them. Always check on them. Keep their well being above yours. If you are ill ensure that someone else deals with the daily routine of fresh food and water - I cannot stress this enough. I had three lovely little baby boys Nigel, Zeus and Deka who were only 2 months old. I was paying a lot of attention to these three at the end of an illness. Because of this contact Nigel (my favourite at the time) was found dead from pneumonia. Zeus died the following day. We immediately put Deka on a course of antibiotics, since he was showing similar symptoms as his brothers. He survived five more days. I`ll never forget this for as long as I live. In a way, if you are not careful you can be your hamsters own worst enemy. Stay cool Col
Date: Sat, Aug 7 16:32:29 1995 From: bjhamm (bjhamm@dakota.net) Subject: Re: (no subject) Hi! We would love to hear more about hamsters. Our family has two hamsters, Cream Puff and Oreo. They are friendly little critters, who love to be cuddled. They are loved and cared for by a family of four kids and a mom and dad. They live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Date: Sat, Aug 12 01:20:29 1995 From: peterssm@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Gibby Hamster, aka Interstellar Mouse) Subject: Re: hamster Hi! I'm Gibby the Hamster. I've stared in five(or is it six?) movies about me as Interstellar mouse, but I am a hamster.Interstellar mouse sounds better than Interstellar Hamster, doesn't it.You can reach me at peterssm@fox.nstn.ns.ca.I would love a little fan mail sometime.
From: Andries Hamster (a.a.hamster@student.utwente.nl) Date: Thu, 17 Aug 95 17:40:57 -700 Subject: hamsters Dear maintainer of the Hamster page, Never knew there was so much interest in Hamsters. Nice internet site. Bye, Andries Hamster --------------------------------------- student electrical engineering University of Twente the Netherlands e-mail a.a.hamster@student.utwente.nl ---------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 95 18:20:07 -0700
From: surreal pagoda (ehrlich@mozart.inet.co.th)
Organization: bangkok, thailand
Subject: hamsters, Asian Medical News
Greetings,
I am the Bangkok-based correspondent for the monthly magazine, Asian
Medical News.
I have heard that during human fertilization tests, a hamster's egg is
sometimes used as a test sample to be impregnated with a human sperm,
to see if the sperm is fertile. I am not an expert in any of this, so
I may have gotten it all a bit wrong. My question is: are hamsters'
eggs or other genetic material used in any way during any human
fertilization tests?
Please advise by e-mail: ehrlich@mozart.inet.co.th
Thanks
Richard S. Ehrlich Asia Correspondent phone (66 2) 286 2434
Bangkok, Thailand: *The Big Mango* ehrlich@mozart.inet.co.th
News from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 95 22:19:49 -0700 From: M C Hamster (mchamster@aol.com) Subject: Hamster WWW Page Just wanted to say Hi... I am M C Hamster, and for several years have cruised about AOL, wreaking havoc when possible... It is funny how this hamster thing has taken over my life. I have received many cards, jokes, references from my wide array of online friends who have grown comfortable with this persona. Many want to know when McDonald's is indeed going to come out with McHamster. (EWWWWW... I always picture them on little sticks, rotisserie-style...) I'll also say that, while some may find this not the most sexy and masculine of images... it has worked pretty well at getting female attention... take that, Claude Van Damme...
From: Cowboy9513@aol.com Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 15:00:57 -0400 Subject: Hamster Birth I have 2 hamsters: Maddux(male), and Baby(female). Baby just had a litter of 6 hamsters. The mother ate them all ,except for one. the one that lived is now 9 days old. I hope it lives. I will let you know about it later.
From: halld01@ibm.net Date: Sat, 07 Oct 95 22:38:05 Subject: Hammy Hamster's back on TV! Be sure to catch 'Once Upon A Hamster' on YTV in Canada and major networks in Scandinavia, The Netherlands, Africa and Singapore. Hammy's back with Martha Mouse, GP the Guinea Pig, Turtle, The Wise Old Frog and all his other friends along the Riverbank for fun and adventure in a brand new series. To find out more about Hammy, his friends and his adventures, call Hammytime in Canada at 416 778 4466 or YTV in Canada at 416 534 1191, or reply on e-mail to Hammytime c/o HALLD01@IBM.NET //----------------------------------------------------------
From: Michelle Campbell (lackacreek@ccinet.ab.ca) Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 23:21:27 -700 Subject: Hamster cages Hi Tela! I have a beef about those fancy hamster cages with all the tunnels and run arounds. The little plastic joints give out, and poor (lucky?) Hammy gets free. Nowhere can I find the address of the people who make these things. They also didn't design the cages very well, the dimensions are not right for the size of their tubes (ie. 2 tubes does not = the length of the cage when you have tubes coming up from each side) My (the kids) cage and tubes and and and... are all "Living World" by Hagen. Heard any other similar stories? Mich
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 95 03:41:05 EDT
From: Dougie Destruktion (DJS95007@UConnVM.UConn.Edu)
Subject: hamster
hello,
Thank you for putting out a hamster resource. I've own hamsters
since a little kid and this is really cool.
Thank you,
Dougie Destruktion
From: j.jankowski@student.anu.edu.au
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 20:40:58 +1000
Subject: hamster fun
Hi,
Love the hamster stuff, and I thought you might be interested in our own
contribution to hamster appreciation. Some months ago our student paper
ran a feature on Inward Bound (blindfold students, dump them in the
surrounding countryside, and make them run back to uni. Some say it's a
race, but I'm sure it has some profounder significance :) ). Anyway, we
jokingly claimed to set up a hamster version - the results are at
http://student.anu.edu.au:80/Woroni/Woroni47-4/IBHamsters.html
It is mildly amusing, and naturally comes with (a) a reference to the
testicular bruising of one of the [human] competitors and (b) a warning
not to use lovable little hamsters for one's own eccentric experiments.
Enjoy!
- janina
___________________________________________________________________________
** ** ** oroni - The Australian National University Student Paper
** ** ** ** ph: 61 62487127 fax: 61 62493967
** ** ** ** e-mail: woroni_articles@student.anu.edu.au
** ** meet us on the web at http://student.anu.edu.au/Woroni
___________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 12:08:04 +0100 From: Julie_Butt@pparc.ac.uk (Julie Butt) Subject: HAMSTERS Hi there hammy lovers. I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you about myself and my hammies. I am a member of the British Hamster Association and I am also a breeder. I have only been keeping hammies for just over a year and I love every minute of it. They are such loving creatures and they have cute adorable faces. I love watching the young ones grow up and play. I found that toilet roll tubes are a cheap way of keeping them amused and it doesn't matter if they get chewed. I enjoyed reading all the letters on the new news page, what a wonderful way of communicating with fellow hamster lovers. I would love to hear from anyone who has any tips on hamster keeping and breeding and developing new colours etc and also anyone who has any amusing tales and would like to pass them on, I'm sure the Hamster Association would be happy to use some material, with authorisation from the author, for their monthly Hamster World journal, which is distributed to all us members. Hope to hear from you soon, happy surfing. Julie.
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 95 12:07:26 -0500 From: chriso@topix.com (Christian Ouellette) Subject: Hamsters? Hi everyone! This is my first visit to the Hamster Home Page and I must say I'm not only impressed but now I have this great forum to keep up on in the future. So I would like to bounce an idea off all of you. The Hammy Hamster Show was bar none the greatest show on T.V. when I was young. I think Hammy was a great example of positive Hamsterhood for all those Hamsters out there. I think the Homepage could use an icon of sorts and Hammy, to me, would be the obvious choice. Of course G.P. was pretty cool too, especially with that great diving bell that he had and all the crazy adventures... Well G.P. was a G.P. so never mind, I digress. I think there is alot of room for discussion on this topic so anyone is free to mail me and chat about this whole thing or any other subjects that nobody really cares about. Great page!! I'll be back. Christian Ouellette chriso@topix.com
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 22:56:21 -0600 (CST) From: Angela Hartanto (hart0224@maroon.tc.umn.edu) Subject: urgent!!!!!!my hamster has babies I have two siberian dwarf hamsters, one male and one female. THe female just had babies (I don't know when, maybe one or two hours ago). I need help, I don't know anything about this. Could somebody tell me what should I do? The male is jumping around, I'm afraid that he's gonna kill the babies. How do I know that the babies alive... because I'm afraid to touch the babies (I'm afraid that the mother will kill the babies). Please tell me anything that I need to know to keep the babies alive. Thanks a lot Please reply as soon as possible. Angela Hartanto
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 21:55:34 -0500
From: emillen@mcp.com (Erika Millen)
Subject: hamster-related questions (please post... thanks!)
Great page! I was wondering if anyone would know the answer to a couple
of hamster-related questions...
* Is there such a thing as a "purebred" hamster? (And if there are,
where can you get them?)
* Are there "hamster shows"? (I've seen bunnies, guinea pigs, and so
on at fairs or 4-H shows... are there shows for hamsters?)
I'd love to know!
Thanks--
Erika
email: emillen@mcp.com
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 1995 14:05:39 +0000 From: Solano Portela (fportela@amcham.com.br) Subject: Hamster thankyou note Thank you for your page. I have a lonely Hamster called Jenny, she is a piebold golden female hamster (I think). She is not friendly, we don't touch her, but she is a lot of fun. Darius Portela (9) From: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 95 11:09:40 EST From: Barbara Inerfeld (inerfeld@rci.rutgers.edu) Subject: Hamsters Hi! Just found your page loved it. I'm a six month old female Piebald/harlequin hamster living with a wonderful family who knows lots about hamsters. They rescued me from a day camp where the campers would interrupt my delicious sleep in the middle of the day. If that wasn't bad enough, had to sleep in a hot humid cabin. When I was rescued I moved to a roomy tank filled with clean pine shavings, fluff to make my bed, a food dish, a water bottle filled everyday with clean vitamined water, a tunnet, and a curiosity cube. My food dish is constantly filled with fresh clean food. My mommy gives me a fruit snack and a vegetable snack after our nighttime play time. I even get a peanut in the shell or a pecan. My favorite snacks are small pieces of apple, small sweet red grapes, clean spinach leaves (the size of a half dollar coin) and carrot pieces. Of course I don't get all of these everyday because I must be careful of my digestion. I also don't like to have the unused fruits and veggies decomposing in my cage. They are not good for me. My cage is cleaned every week with hot water and gentle liquid had soap. My family knows that all the soap must be rinsed well so that I don't get sick. They also know that everything must be kept dry. I love my new home. This is what I have been waiting for my whole life. I only hope that other hamsters have it as well. By the way, my family has had a lot of experience with hamsters. One of their previous males sired 7 at three years of age. I am interested in communicating with other hamsters, as you know we like to have our own cages, but we do like interaction-- on our terms of course! Best wishes and enjoy those nuts- Lizzie
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 95 21:50:48 -0800 From: womble@easynet.co.uk Subject: hamster Could any hamsters reading this please write to me at womble@easynet.co.uk. Thanks tela for letting everyone read this Womble"you can never have too much bedding" Hamster -- This message has been posted from the public cafe account at Cyberia, 88 Hanover Street, Edinburgh. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of CyberSurf Ltd. Please report inappropriate use to den@easynet.co.uk.
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 95 01:40:48 -0800 From: Abbing (hq203ab@uni-duisburg.de) Subject: hamster Hi, I'm Ralf from Germany and with me is my little friend, Goliath, although it is rather a she, she is called Goliath, as the two hamsters before her were called so, too. She likes to make herself a soup in her waterbowl. Obviously she likes to through all of her food into the water, every morning I have to give her fresh water. As she is currently living in a large fish bowl, it is difficult to stick a waterflask to the walls. I can even see her carry some pieces of food to her bowl right now. Anyone else seen this feature? By the way, she is almost 3 years now, getting a little tired and slow, but her teeth are pefectly alright,as I can see by several cracked nuts. Ralf
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 1995 18:03:20 -0800 From: emeryf@interserv.com Subject: hamsters Hello , I'm Emery I have a hamster named Echie who gets out of the cage a lot . How do I stop the hamster from eating the phone cord? Emery
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 13:55:34 -0600 From: dpilliar@internetland.net (Dan Pilliard) Subject: hamsters HI. I'M SARAH. I GOT NEWHAMSTERS TODAY. THEY ARE RUSSIAN DWARF HAMSTERS. HOW LONG WILL THEY LIVE.
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 16:36:41 GMT From: D. (email address withheld on request) Subject: Sex and Violence in the Hamster A Hamster Page! I let out an involuntary scream when it came up on the monitor. I have never recovered from a disturbing encounter with hamsters as an undergraduate when I was engaged on a research project on "sex and aggression in the hamster". Even today when people mention hamsters I get a little hysterical. How naive I was, when prompted to investigate why, given the appalling violence meted out by some females on males after mating, does the male hamster not get put off sex for life. I mean, you start out inspired by the scientific pursuit of knowledge and you wind up in a darkened room with a red light, watching hamsters mate. If only my mother could see me now, I thought, she'd be so proud... This whole seedy business also involved trying to decide whether the female hamster was sexually receptive before an experiment. Don't even ask. When you've got an adults-only section to the page, then you can ask, and even then I won't tell you. Scarred for life, I am, and no longer form normal relationships with rodents. Yeah, great web page, for those ignorant of the dark side of these vicious perverts. Look in the back of the Monty Python Papperbok. There's a man who knows the truth. Regards D. -- author: Sex and Aggression in the Hamster, Unpublished MS, University of Cambridge 1982. Ford knows, I wish I was joking.
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