Day 16 - December 9

Sixteen days old—enjoying their hamster tunnel "playground."

The babies can drink from the water bottle now. Unfortunately, they are not very patient about waiting their turn. I see one baby drinking and another trying to get to the nozzle. The first baby holds his position by pushing the other one's nose away while he drinks. I give the babies some lettuce. They are very excited. However, I don't think I put in enough pieces. Uh oh! There are lettuce arguments. First one baby has a piece. Now another baby grabs it right out of its mouth. Then the first baby takes it back and hoards it in his pouch as fast as it can. The second baby tries to get it back but it is hidden away already. Lots of babies hoard their lettuce so no one else can steal it. A few minutes later, they sneak it out of their pouch and start to eat it. Oh, no! Another baby smells it and comes over to steal it. Back in the pouch it goes! The baby has to wait until later to eat it when no one else is looking.

Two babies enter the tunnels from opposite sides. They run towards each other, bump heads, turn around, and run back out. Then two more run in the tunnel. They also bump into each other, but these two decide to keep going past each other to the other end. Pikachu sees a baby in the tunnel, and picks it up. She puts it over by the corner. The baby crawls into the food dispenser and starts to eat. A minute later, Pikachu picks it up again and plops it in the corner. The baby does not know why it was interrupted again, but decides to get a drink of milk from mom as long as she is there. Pikachu stays still for a minute and then leaves again to do something else. She seems to have a lot of work to do.

I notice that Pikachu takes more breaks from the babies. She nurses them for a while and then goes to a private spot to get some rest. They seem content and happy snuggled up together after she leaves. Even when Pikachu is sleeping with some babies, others are in a separate pile across the cage in their "baby cave" of bedding. There are often a couple out eating seeds too.