:: living in relative obscurity ::

poor oreo!

Oreo has bumblefoot! Poor little guy has been bleeding off and on for several days; I'd schedule a vet appointment a couple days in advance and put Neosporin on his feet daily. By the time the appointment rolled around, his foot appeared to heal, so I cancelled it. It opened up again Saturday morning (of course—so I couldn’t get him medical attention for 2 days); their cage looks like a crime scene there are so many bloody pawprints :( I need to sanitize and sand down everything in the cage.

The vet was surprised b/c most bumblefoot cases are usually overweight, have a poor diet and living conditions, etc. but otherwise he’s in perfect health. She wants him on soft bedding (Carefresh) for 6 weeks to allow his foot to heal; their current cage has a grating at the bottom. Sadly, Chewie’s old cage is perfect for this… it’s a little bittersweet since she just died. I have to keep both chins together, since Duster has short-term memory issues and attacks Oreo if they’re separated for a day.

I moved them last night, and they’ve been trying to escape ever since! Every time I walk by their faces are smushed against the bars. Duster sits on top of their wooden box and squeezes between its roof and the top of the cage… I suppose that’s the highest he can get!

Labels: pets

disturbing but clever

Egg Bank has decided to use guinea pigs to vouch for the quality of their product.

Labels: pets

score: Deb 1, Duster 0

Chinchillas, like most pets, love to escape. Mine are no exception. They're also fast as hell and near impossible to catch (Jamey once chased Duster around the apartment for two hours before he caught him).

On Sunday, I was "hand-training" Duster--basically, trying to get him more comfortable sitting in my hands (chinchillas are not huggable, they dislike sitting still and squirm if you hold them too long). Suddenly, he bounded up my arm and perched on my shoulder--where he stood for two full minutes. Duster has this "king of the hill" mentality where he'll sit on the highest thing he can and just gaze around at his little empire; either that or he was trying to watch the playoff game down the hallway. Since he was out of my line of sight, I was hesitant to move around much, b/c he'll startle, race down my back and into another adventure.

Eventually, after watching a Colts touchdown (glad one of us could see it), he hopped over to my right shoulder. I decided to crane my right hand up behind me to see if he would hop on. I hunched my back enough to slide him into my hand, and very sloooowly curled my arm back around my side... and back into the cage! He seemed stunned by the sudden shift of advantage, b/c he turned to face me and started squeaking. After I did a little victory dance, he still got a treat, to soothe his bruised ego ;)

Labels: pets

attack of the killah chinchillas

duster and oreo have been having some roommate scuffles as of late, so we decided to buy a second hideaway for them. at least this way if someone gets booted out of the igloo, they'll have someplace else to hide. they promptly hid from it until they discovered it was edible...