Happy Valentine's Day
I'm a day late but never mind hamsters don't have calendars!!
posted by Onion @ 10:45 PM
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Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
My favourite food
Onion really really really loves eating Pumpkin seeds.
posted by Onion @ 6:39 PM
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Sunday, May 29, 2005
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Everything you ever wanted to know about the hamster
Common hamster: Cricetus cricetus
Grey hamster: Cricetus triton
Dwarf hamster: Phodopus sungorus
Golden hamster: Mesocricetus auratus
Habitat: dry places, on steppes, sand dunes, borders of deserts. Common hamster also found on agricultural land and river banks.
Life-span: about 2 years.
Food: mainly seeds, grasses, root vegetables, fruits, corn and pulse crops. Common hamster also eats insects, lizards, frogs and small mammals.
Distribution: Common hamster: - Belgium to Lake Baikal in Siberia; Grey hamster:- Greece and Bulgaria to borders of Outer Mongolia; Dwarf hamster:- Siberia, Manchuria and northern China. Golden hamster:- not found in the wild since 1930 but originally ranged from Rumania and Bulgaria through the Caucasus and Asia Minor to Iran.
Description: common hamster:- guinea-pig size, reddish-brown above, black below, white bands on shoulders; very short tail. Golden hamster:- light reddish-brown above, white underneath. The seven species of grey hamster have mousey or reddish coloured fur and longer tails. The dwarf hamster is the smallest, with greyish or buff upperparts, white underparts and a short tail. The golden hamster is the most well-known hamster, having been kept as a popular pet for many years. However, there are about 14 species of hamster, ranging from the guinea-pig sized common hamster to the tiny dwarf hamster, 5 - 10cm in length. They are short-tailed rodents, similar in many ways to gerbils and voles.
Hamster Habits
Burrowing; most hamsters live in dry places such as the edges of deserts, but the common hamster lives among crops, in ploughed fields and along river banks, often swimming. When they are not busy searching for food, hamsters are in their underground burrows.
The common and grey hamsters have short shallow burrows for use during the summer and deeper ones for the winter. Each burrow is long and branching with several entrances and a number of compartments for nesting, storing food and for 'toilets' - hamsters being very clean animals. Dwarf hamsters live alongside pikas (small relatives of rabbits and hares), and use their burrows and paths.
Common and golden hamsters are mostly nocturnal; grey hamsters may be seen by day and night during the spring and summer, but are completely nocturnal in the winter.
Hoarding; hamsters are well-known for collecting and storing food in their burrows. Food is collected in the large cheek pouches and carried back to the burrow. A hamster can stuff an amazing amount of food into its pouches and when packed full, the pouches can extend back beyond the level of the shoulder blades. The winter food stores can be enormous; one common hamster's store was found to contain 90kg of cereals, pulses, seeds and root vegetables! Poorer Chinese peasants have been known to make a living by digging up the grain stores of grey hamsters.
Hibernating; in the winter, hamsters stay in their burrows, blocking up the entrances with soil. They are not true hibernators but sleep in a grass-lined nest, waking up every five to seven days to feed from the food they stored during the autumn. While hibernating, the pulse rate of the golden hamster drops from 400 per minute to 4, and it takes a breath only twice a minute.
Breeding; hamsters are solitary animals and only come together for mating. In the wild, male common and grey hamsters visit the burrows of females and are driven out after mating. In captivity, golden hamsters have to be separated after mating, otherwise the female may kill the male. The gestation period of the common hamster is 19 - 20 days, that of the golden hamster 15 days. Some four to twelve naked and blind young are born in a nest chamber in the burrow. Their eyes open at two weeks old and by this time they have a thick coat of fur. The young hamsters are weaned quickly, at 3 - 4 weeks, and leave their mother shortly after. A mother hamster is very maternal, and, if danger threatens, she will carry her babies away, either by putting them into her cheek pouches or laying them across the toothless area of her jaws. A female hamster may have two or three litters each year.
Grey hamster: Cricetus triton
Dwarf hamster: Phodopus sungorus
Golden hamster: Mesocricetus auratus
Habitat: dry places, on steppes, sand dunes, borders of deserts. Common hamster also found on agricultural land and river banks.
Life-span: about 2 years.
Food: mainly seeds, grasses, root vegetables, fruits, corn and pulse crops. Common hamster also eats insects, lizards, frogs and small mammals.
Distribution: Common hamster: - Belgium to Lake Baikal in Siberia; Grey hamster:- Greece and Bulgaria to borders of Outer Mongolia; Dwarf hamster:- Siberia, Manchuria and northern China. Golden hamster:- not found in the wild since 1930 but originally ranged from Rumania and Bulgaria through the Caucasus and Asia Minor to Iran.
Description: common hamster:- guinea-pig size, reddish-brown above, black below, white bands on shoulders; very short tail. Golden hamster:- light reddish-brown above, white underneath. The seven species of grey hamster have mousey or reddish coloured fur and longer tails. The dwarf hamster is the smallest, with greyish or buff upperparts, white underparts and a short tail. The golden hamster is the most well-known hamster, having been kept as a popular pet for many years. However, there are about 14 species of hamster, ranging from the guinea-pig sized common hamster to the tiny dwarf hamster, 5 - 10cm in length. They are short-tailed rodents, similar in many ways to gerbils and voles.
Hamster Habits
Burrowing; most hamsters live in dry places such as the edges of deserts, but the common hamster lives among crops, in ploughed fields and along river banks, often swimming. When they are not busy searching for food, hamsters are in their underground burrows.
The common and grey hamsters have short shallow burrows for use during the summer and deeper ones for the winter. Each burrow is long and branching with several entrances and a number of compartments for nesting, storing food and for 'toilets' - hamsters being very clean animals. Dwarf hamsters live alongside pikas (small relatives of rabbits and hares), and use their burrows and paths.
Common and golden hamsters are mostly nocturnal; grey hamsters may be seen by day and night during the spring and summer, but are completely nocturnal in the winter.
Hoarding; hamsters are well-known for collecting and storing food in their burrows. Food is collected in the large cheek pouches and carried back to the burrow. A hamster can stuff an amazing amount of food into its pouches and when packed full, the pouches can extend back beyond the level of the shoulder blades. The winter food stores can be enormous; one common hamster's store was found to contain 90kg of cereals, pulses, seeds and root vegetables! Poorer Chinese peasants have been known to make a living by digging up the grain stores of grey hamsters.
Hibernating; in the winter, hamsters stay in their burrows, blocking up the entrances with soil. They are not true hibernators but sleep in a grass-lined nest, waking up every five to seven days to feed from the food they stored during the autumn. While hibernating, the pulse rate of the golden hamster drops from 400 per minute to 4, and it takes a breath only twice a minute.
Breeding; hamsters are solitary animals and only come together for mating. In the wild, male common and grey hamsters visit the burrows of females and are driven out after mating. In captivity, golden hamsters have to be separated after mating, otherwise the female may kill the male. The gestation period of the common hamster is 19 - 20 days, that of the golden hamster 15 days. Some four to twelve naked and blind young are born in a nest chamber in the burrow. Their eyes open at two weeks old and by this time they have a thick coat of fur. The young hamsters are weaned quickly, at 3 - 4 weeks, and leave their mother shortly after. A mother hamster is very maternal, and, if danger threatens, she will carry her babies away, either by putting them into her cheek pouches or laying them across the toothless area of her jaws. A female hamster may have two or three litters each year.
posted by Onion @ 3:18 PM
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Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Musical Hamsters
Intelligent MIDI Sequencing with Hamster Control
by Levy Lorenzo
Abstract:
This project was initially fueled by the desire to explore the MIDI protocol.
It was decided that this would be accomplished by building a MIDI device. I
also aimed to make something novel that had never been done before. But to balance
out the unusual nature of its design, I wanted to also to create something that
was very musical.After much consideration of different technical design aspects
and contemplating various musical ideas, I was able to arrive at a project that
would fulfill all of my musical and engineering goals.An intelligent MIDI sequencer
was designed with hamster control. The MIDI sequencer intelligently produced
melodies by manipulating the musical elements of rhythm and note-choice. Guided
by inputs based on hamster movements, Markov chains were used to perform such
beat and note computations. In culmination, 3 simultaneous voices were produced
spanning 3 octaves and 3 rhythmic tiers. Each voice was controlled by two hamsters:
one that was responsible for adjusting the rhythmic qualities of the melody
and another that modified the note sequence. With all of these elements in combination,
an output was produced with very musical qualities.All of this was implemented
using an Atmel Mega32 microcontroller, distance sensors, a HamsterMIDI Controller,
and 6 hamsters. Embedded C programming implemented the algorithms and computations
within the sequencer.Overall, this project was successful. The control between
the hamsters and the musical intelligence turned out very well. The music sounds
as good as I imagined, and I am very satisfied with the outcome of my design
experience.
Full Report in PDF format (For reasons
I don't understand, you may need to save this file, then view it locally).
Video of hamsters controlling the system
Example of music in wav format
Example of music in MP3 format.
APPENDIX C - Hamster MIDI Controller Photographs:
Complete System with Hamsters
Hamster Sensing Unit
Sequencer with MIDI OUT
Controller Side Panel- Outside
Controller Side Panel- Inside
Mounted GP2D02 Sensors
Controller Prototype Board
posted by Onion @ 1:04 PM
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Monday, November 08, 2004
Shocked and horrified X-rated link
Imagine my horror when innocently searching for interesting hamster facts when I stumbled upon a hamster sex trafficing ring, I was relieved to discover they were stuffed!!! Tis not natural.
Below is an adult website only visit if you are one.
Realistic, lifesize and beautiful. Elastic flesh, luxurious fur, a cybernetic infrastructure and sexy features like no other back-door-loving hamster in the world. If you've had wet dreams over a hamster like this, you'll know exactly what we're on about.
Most buggering hamsters are made of cheap bits of sackcloth. They look pathetic and laughable not back-door-loving. Don't expect to see any of those goofy sandbags on this site. RealHamster is the REAL DEAL. If you hired an engineering company to craft a custom buggering hamster for you, with all the features and whizzy bits of RealHamster, you would most likely have to pay $20,000 or more. Even then it would probably turn out to be a retrofitted RealSheep. If anyone caught you back-door-loving a hamster with cloven hooves, you'd be giggled at for the rest of your life. Don't risk the embarrassment go for the REAL THING.
So, how do we do it? In four words: CHEAP NEW ZEALAND LABOUR!
Please feel free to browse our site, but email us with your serious inquiries only. Abysmal Derivations www.realhamster.com
posted by Onion @ 1:52 AM
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Sunday, October 31, 2004
Baby Hamsters!!!!
Q:
My 7-year old son has asked what the young of hamsters, rats and mice are called and neither I nor his teacher have any idea (we guessed at maybe "kittens" like rabbits and cats but can find no reference so far). Can you help ?Mrs Pearman
A:
I usually call them all babies, such as baby hamster, mouse, rat etc, or young, as that makes life a lot easier! The official terms are: Baby hamsters are called pups Baby rats or mice are called pups, pinkies or kittens. Hope this helps!
My 7-year old son has asked what the young of hamsters, rats and mice are called and neither I nor his teacher have any idea (we guessed at maybe "kittens" like rabbits and cats but can find no reference so far). Can you help ?Mrs Pearman
A:
I usually call them all babies, such as baby hamster, mouse, rat etc, or young, as that makes life a lot easier! The official terms are: Baby hamsters are called pups Baby rats or mice are called pups, pinkies or kittens. Hope this helps!
posted by Onion @ 10:08 PM
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