Hamster Death and Purchase

I had bought two female hamsters, Lactose and Cellobiose, after the death of a male hamster, Sucrose, in October, 2005.  Unfortunately, Cellobiose died during the holidays of 2005.  About three months later, my other male hamster, Maltose, also followed, so he was replaced with Trehalose, a male cream hamster.

Lactose was still pretty active as March, 2007 ended.  However, the next day, April Fool’s Day, 2007, I should have checked on my cream-bended female hamster more.  That evening, I noticed that her cold body wasn’t moving.  A few minutes later, she moved.  About two hours later, Lactose was still barely moving, so I knew she must have been near her end.  It was confirmed a few hours later when I found her cold and motionless.  I had probably killed Lactose since she was still active the night before.

Over the next two days, I cleaned and disinfected the cages.  On April 4,2007, after much shopping and searching, I finally bought a golden brown or cinnamon banded male hamster.  He was not very active on the drive back to my apartment, and didn’t seem to care when I touched or picked him up.  In the cage, he was still and moved slowly as he checked out his wheel, then hid, probably to go back to sleep.  Later, I took him out and introduced him to Trehalose.  The new hamster seemed to grip hard on the cage bars, and wanted to get back in.  He ignored the sunflower seeds I gave him, but did seem him nibble on yogurt drops.  His behaviors were strange, especially for a new hamster so I had hoped that nothing was wrong.  When I took him out again that night, he was more restless and resistent, and also jumped off the cage.  He then became more active, running in his wheel, eating, squeaking often, and making a lot of noise.  He is still very active now, and seems to be a big eater.