Thank goodness for stupid animal tricks!

18 years ago

From the time we brought Sparkle home, we made sure to use her name a lot. Especially when giving her food treats or scritches - things she really enjoys. I wanted her to imprint on her name and positive things. Plus I wanted her to associate people with good things. No chasing her around trying to catch her and put her back in her cage.

Well, it seems she HAS figured out how to open the top of her cage (the first little adventure we thought somebody forgot to close the top door). Three days/nights in a row she has escaped for a little adventure. The first time she stayed in DD's room. The second she ventured into our bedroom. Today? She was in the living room.

Each time, we called out to her and she came out to greet us. No chasing, no crawling under beds to find her, she just came out to see what was going on LOL. LOTS of positive reinforcement, treats, scritches, and so on.

I never expected having a hamster that knows it's name would be such a good time investment ROFL.

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Comments (9)

diane_sw_mich
18 years ago
LOL!!!
I thought you were talking about a pet dog!!!
Di
grammahony
18 years ago
I thought it was a parrot or bird.
Leslie
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liz
18 years ago
You've made me miss my "Homer"...Does Sparkles live in a mansion like my Homer did?..(he had two wings on each side of his cage..LOL)

good for you for teaching the name...cause they are the hardest little stinkers to find!! I swear they can make themselves FLAT if they want to!!
Happy_Go_Lucky_Gayle
18 years ago
Yep! And they can get loose and move into your walls.

This I know first hand.

Gayle
jemdandy
18 years ago
Yep. Those hamsters can fit under very tight spaces. Years ago, My daughter had 2 hamsters in her bedroom upstairs. They got free and disappeared. I got an inspriation and went looking in the basement and found them. We have a laundry chute in the floor of the bathroom closet. Those little rascals crawled under the closet door and fell down the chute! Its a 2 storey fall to the bag in the basement which we keep open. One little hamster must have gone through the bag opening and slammed onto the hard floor. (The laundry had been done recently and there was no pile to lessen the impact of the fall. The 2nd little guy managed to stay in the bag. The one that fell to the floor was not in good shape when I found him. He acted a bit dull, and he died a few months later while the other one lived one more year.

A note of caution: Hamsters originate from burrowing, desert animals and do not have a fear of falling. In the home, they must be protected from toppling off drop-offs. If you place one on a table top, it may saunter unconcernedly right off the edge and plop to the floor. The do not seem to have a sense of height.
FlamingO in AR
18 years ago
Sparkle, what a cute name! Good luck, Dances, I had a little houdini hampster once, she could get out of anything. Obviously she didn't have enough to do! lol

{{!gwi}}
more cat pictures
waddles
18 years ago
Samster also got in the broiler and got stuck in one of the holes and we called the vet and put vaseline around him and finally got him out. They are sneaky little things.
dirt_yfingernails
18 years ago
Is it the kind of cage you could secure with a clothespin or twist tie? My DD#3 once had a hamster that escaped and we never did find her.
FlamingO in AR
18 years ago
Oh, we had to spread vaseline along edges to keep my hampster from being able to hang on to the top of the Habitrail long enough to push the locking (ha!) clips over so she could push the top off. GOOD luck, Dances! And watch out for chewed electrical cords, I'm amazed my didn't electrocute herself or burn our apartment to the ground.

Thank goodness for stupid animal tricks!

Comments (9)

diane_sw_mich

grammahony

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