Her name has been chosen!

[PeterB]

Original post here: http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/947...#msg-94707

New pics of the little rascal in question (bandwidth warning):

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/7477/dscn23780zm.jpg
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/1460/dscn23828sj.jpg
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4900/dscn23869by.jpg
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/2918/dscn23891ic.jpg

(again, apologies for the somewhat out-of-focus pics, she was moving too quick)

There's good news, and bad news:

First, the good news: I finally decided I liked Scheherazade as the name ("Scher" for short)-- thanks to billb for the winning suggestion.

Now, the bad news: tonight I discovered why she's so hyper. At a couple of points when I was petting her and taking these shots, she assumed the classic lordosis posture. Now for those of you who know about rodent biology, you'll know what this is; but for those of you who don't, I refer you to the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lordosis_behavior -- no, I could not make this up, there is a wiki for this.
(For the females of the forum -- you think you have it bad? Her cycle is every 4-5 days! I kid you not! -- on the flip side, her gestation period is only 16-18 days, shortest for any mammal.)

... the question is, what is the single female hamster to do? Am I to start a hamster dating service? And do I really want the pitter-patter of little rodent feet?

These, and many other questions, I defer to the collective wisdom of the MR forum.

[Harbourmaster]

Picked...what a strange name for a frog!

[PeterB]

Ken, I've had lots of other pets besides frogs...

[Paul F.]

Well... you could always ship the, erm... "Spares" to a certain Miss Stephanie's Home For Wayward Reptiles.

Just a thought..

[Baby Tats]

http://www.ahsc.arizona.edu/uac/invest/r...rvices.htm

OR

http://www.apetdate.com/

[Phy]

Paul F. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > little rodent feet?
>
> Well... you could always ship the, erm... "Spares"
> to a certain Miss Stephanie's Home For Wayward
> Reptiles.


Oh, Paul!
I nearly spat coffee on my keyboard when I read that!

[OWC Jamie]

I hope the furry frog provides lots of stories to entertain you in the months and years ahead.

[PeterB]

Guys -- no way would I give the "spares" to Miss Stephanie's Home for Wayward Reptiles ! If I were to breed her, I'd definitely want to have homes ready for the pups... with a gestation period of only 16 days, and an estrus cycle of only four, you can end up with MANY hamsters very quickly. Just as with any animal, it's irresponsible to breed without having somewhere in mind for the babies... more detail here: http://www.hamsterific.com/BreedingSyrians.html

billb, unfortunately, their lifespans are only 2-3 years, and though I don't know exactly how old she is, I'd guess just based on visible appearance that she's maybe a year old already (the fact that she's gone into heat means she has to be at least 3-4 months old).