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hi everyone - I'm sorry that this is so long, please, please, bare with me.
I just rescued two Syrian long-haired hamsters from craigslist 6 days ago (last week on Saturday), one is about a month old (maybe a month and a half now) and the other is 5 months old. I had them both in 800 sq inches of floorspace each (two prolee 40" cages) and was planning on upgrading, at the very, very least, the female to a minimum of 1000 sq in when she had grown a little more since she is a little larger than a Russian Dwarf atm. The boy is quite a chill dude, I don't even think he has explored his second level yet. He seems to be content with a smaller amount of space, but I will upgrade him whenever possible. However, the girl tries to escape every night. She is not satisfied and I am happy to meet her needs. I am in between places at my parent's as a veterinary student, so I have a very small room and couldn't fit more than two of the bare minimum cages in there for the time being. It was much better than keeping them in the situation they were in, as they were both housed with a "bonded companion" syrian in a crittertrail. Clearly, their environments were deplorable - they came to me stinking and stained of urine - the owners were well-meaning and very nice but uneducated. Neither of the babies had been handled much, and both are very shy but in the past few days had been alright coming up to me for treats, and putting their two front feet on my hand if I was holding food in front of them. I have not pushed them any further than they had wanted to go themselves, except for today.
Now, for the bad part of the story - I live in the suburbs of NY and we have a large creek about 10 ft from our backdoor. As many of you may know, NY was in a state of emergency today with flooding and our house was top of the list. At 9 am, our creek had become a full-blown flowing river and there were branches, debris and garbage in 2 ft of water only a few feet away from our back door. In addition to the hamsters we have 6 cats, a dog, and a rabbit. Once we recognized the rate that the water was creeping up to our backdoor, we had only about 20-25 minutes to get everyone in the cars before we got out. The only road leading out in our neighborhood had over a foot of water covering it and I was afraid my car and my dog were going to be swept away while we caught and put everyone else in carriers to pack our cars. It was absolutely terrifying and it was the last thing I would have thought would happen after I acquired two very young, very fragile animals into my family. I've kept hamsters ethically for 7 years, and traveling is something that I have always been anxious about with them. My family and I left with nothing but the animals - no clothes for ourselves, no toiletries, no food for the animals, no houses/hides etc. We had to stop at several pet stores on the way to get the basics. There was simply not enough time because the cars were going to be swept away and we wouldn't have been able to escape with everyone safely.
That being said, I had to scoop the new babies and put them into carriers (didn't handle them, scooped them into a little house and placed them in a carrier), and traveled 3 hours away with them to our beach house - we had no where else to go. I had to stop and get two 40 gallon breeders, hides and wheels for them because we obviously didn't have time to bring their enclosures with us. Because of the stops and because of the time it took for me to set up their new enclosure as best I could, They didn't get out of their enclosures until about 5-6 hours after I put them in (they had food, water and a hide in each). At the moment, they are in their new enclosures in a dark, quiet room, alone with the door closed.
Sunday morning, in two days, is my uncle's headstone unveiling. I have to be there, and my mom has to go back to our house tomorrow morning (Saturday) to have maintenance workers pump the waist-deep water out of our living room. That being said, I think I have to go back tomorrow, and obviously bring my animals with me. But I am terrified of one of them contracting wet tail - especially the baby, at the young age she is. Thankfully, I have not experienced having to deal with it so far, but it has always been a massive fear of mine. I don't know what to do. Does it really sound like a terrible idea to bring them with me tomorrow? Does anyone have any advice they can give me to reduce their stress? I am so sorry for the long explanation, I just wanted you all to understand where I am coming from.
I just rescued two Syrian long-haired hamsters from craigslist 6 days ago (last week on Saturday), one is about a month old (maybe a month and a half now) and the other is 5 months old. I had them both in 800 sq inches of floorspace each (two prolee 40" cages) and was planning on upgrading, at the very, very least, the female to a minimum of 1000 sq in when she had grown a little more since she is a little larger than a Russian Dwarf atm. The boy is quite a chill dude, I don't even think he has explored his second level yet. He seems to be content with a smaller amount of space, but I will upgrade him whenever possible. However, the girl tries to escape every night. She is not satisfied and I am happy to meet her needs. I am in between places at my parent's as a veterinary student, so I have a very small room and couldn't fit more than two of the bare minimum cages in there for the time being. It was much better than keeping them in the situation they were in, as they were both housed with a "bonded companion" syrian in a crittertrail. Clearly, their environments were deplorable - they came to me stinking and stained of urine - the owners were well-meaning and very nice but uneducated. Neither of the babies had been handled much, and both are very shy but in the past few days had been alright coming up to me for treats, and putting their two front feet on my hand if I was holding food in front of them. I have not pushed them any further than they had wanted to go themselves, except for today.
Now, for the bad part of the story - I live in the suburbs of NY and we have a large creek about 10 ft from our backdoor. As many of you may know, NY was in a state of emergency today with flooding and our house was top of the list. At 9 am, our creek had become a full-blown flowing river and there were branches, debris and garbage in 2 ft of water only a few feet away from our back door. In addition to the hamsters we have 6 cats, a dog, and a rabbit. Once we recognized the rate that the water was creeping up to our backdoor, we had only about 20-25 minutes to get everyone in the cars before we got out. The only road leading out in our neighborhood had over a foot of water covering it and I was afraid my car and my dog were going to be swept away while we caught and put everyone else in carriers to pack our cars. It was absolutely terrifying and it was the last thing I would have thought would happen after I acquired two very young, very fragile animals into my family. I've kept hamsters ethically for 7 years, and traveling is something that I have always been anxious about with them. My family and I left with nothing but the animals - no clothes for ourselves, no toiletries, no food for the animals, no houses/hides etc. We had to stop at several pet stores on the way to get the basics. There was simply not enough time because the cars were going to be swept away and we wouldn't have been able to escape with everyone safely.
That being said, I had to scoop the new babies and put them into carriers (didn't handle them, scooped them into a little house and placed them in a carrier), and traveled 3 hours away with them to our beach house - we had no where else to go. I had to stop and get two 40 gallon breeders, hides and wheels for them because we obviously didn't have time to bring their enclosures with us. Because of the stops and because of the time it took for me to set up their new enclosure as best I could, They didn't get out of their enclosures until about 5-6 hours after I put them in (they had food, water and a hide in each). At the moment, they are in their new enclosures in a dark, quiet room, alone with the door closed.
Sunday morning, in two days, is my uncle's headstone unveiling. I have to be there, and my mom has to go back to our house tomorrow morning (Saturday) to have maintenance workers pump the waist-deep water out of our living room. That being said, I think I have to go back tomorrow, and obviously bring my animals with me. But I am terrified of one of them contracting wet tail - especially the baby, at the young age she is. Thankfully, I have not experienced having to deal with it so far, but it has always been a massive fear of mine. I don't know what to do. Does it really sound like a terrible idea to bring them with me tomorrow? Does anyone have any advice they can give me to reduce their stress? I am so sorry for the long explanation, I just wanted you all to understand where I am coming from.
