Foo - Nibbles

"Nibbles."

That's the hamster-rodent in our domain. She is nocturnal, so you see absolutely no activity at all in her cage, unless you happen to be up late or early (like me.) When that happens, you are likely to see her engaged in one single activity: running on her wheel.

Heck, I can be in the kitchen eating in front of the boob-box, and what do I hear, but the, "squeak, squeak, squeak..." of Nibble's wheel going round and round eternally.

I think I'll take on a new nickname--"Nibbles." Why?

1) I admire the way she just keeps spinning that wheel (she has to be in great shape.)

2) I like to nibble.

(This forum is called, "Foo," isn't it?) ;)

You must have a health conscious hamster. The one hamster I had only:

1. Ate food
2. slept
3. bit me

You must have a health conscious hamster. The one hamster I had only:

1. Ate food
2. slept
3. bit me
The hamster got out once and disappeared. I hit the net to find out how to get her. According to certain web-sites, loose hamsters are very destructive to walls, insulation, electrical wiring, what-have-you. I was freakin' out.

We found her in a drawer, somehow. Whew.

You must have a health conscious hamster. The one hamster I had only:

1. Ate food
2. slept
3. bit me

4. Died

I found out hamsters were nocturnal the hard way. A friend gave me one in college and it woke me every night playing on that dang wheel, squeek, squeek, until I relocated him to another room. When he got fat I would let him out of the cage to walk around and my cat would chase him around the room. They both got lots of exercise that way. A couple of times my room mate let him out of his habitat by accident, but the cat would always find him and bring him back. They became big buddies.

I have holes chewed in the berber when "Speedy" our resident hamster escaped. Right about the wheel, he just keeps goind and going and going. Found a nice quite one at long last so we can sleep at night again. Problem is now we don't know if he has escaped because we don't hear his wheel. Little bugger was gone for almost a month at Christmas time, his most recent escape was only a day though, and that's when he got the carpet. Good thing he's so cute, otherwise he may have been cat food!!

I've always wondered what they're thinking when they run the night ragged on the wheel. Do they really just want the excercise? Maybe they should have little bicycles...

Here's an idea: hook up a spare bike computer to the wheel and log the distance travelled. It'd be neat to know. Then you could scale the distance travelled by your relative weight and you'd have a daily riding goal.

Am I overthinking this?