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| For more information as to why, visit my other blog |
Previous YearsThe good news is that I’ve got my first website commission.
It’s for the place where Amanda is now working, and although it won’t be a big money-spinner it’s good to have the opportunity to add something to my CV.
The bad news is that we lost our “Little Big Girl” this weekend. 
She hadn’t been quite right lately and she passed away on Saturday.
I’ll miss my little friend who kept me company while Amanda was at work.
Right, that’s it. Either that hamster starts paying rent or she goes !
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Sweetie, the Marathon Running Hamster, has helped to raise over £5,000 for Fife Headway.
Find out how by visiting her blog ! |
I’m getting a lot of hits on here from people asking questions on search engines such as “how far do hamsters run”, so I thought I’d whap that into google myself and see what happened….
There’s a reference to this blog at position seven out of 641,000.
“Ask” … position five of 91,900 (excluding sponsored links), “Altavista”… eight of 4,510,000.
Fame at last…. Thank you people !!!! 
Close by was a link to this, which had me in stitches…
(although you might want to turn the volume DOWN before you hit “play”)
 Sweetie on Amanda's hand |
 Sweetie in Amanda's flip-flop |
No batteries needed…
When Amanda was getting ready for bed last night at about 11:10pm Sweetie had already notched up nearly 2km, or 1.25 miles.
By the time Amanda got up this morning and checked her again, at 6:30am, she had done a further 12.8Km, or just under 8 miles.
If that was non-stop, which it wasn’t, it would have been an average speed of 1.75Km/Hr, or almost 1.1 MPH.
In total she set a yet another new record for 24 hour (overnight) endurance, 14.75Km, or 9.16 miles.
It must be something in the water !……
Well Sweetie is quite a surprise !
Her wheel has a “trip meter” on it so that we can see how far she runs, and the results are really surprising us.
Amanda’s previous hamsters, Mr & Mrs, were different breeds to Sweetie. In terms of mass, Mr was about three times her size, and Mrs was huge, about five times as big… the biggest hamster I have ever seen.
Sweetie is minute… but she has just set her own new record on the wheel for a 24 hour period….
Over 9.8 kilometers.. or just over 6 miles for those traditionalists among us !
Incredible that such a small creature can cover such a distance.
Scale that up into human terms and I can’t even begin to imagine what sort of distance that would mean.
How does she do it ?
Update: 3rd May
At 9pm last night the meter showed zero.
At 6:30am another new record ! … 10.06Km (or 6.25 Miles)
So if she were running constantly for all that time (which she wasn’t) it would have been at over 1Km an hour.
Amanda used to have two little white hamsters. One of them died suddenly about 18 months ago, but the other one had been happily carrying on, despite its age.
While I was over with Amanda for Christmas and New Year little old hamster was finally starting to suffer. The poor little thing had developed a huge tumour on one of its front legs and, although it was bravely carrying on doing little hammie things, it was obviously starting to get in distress. So we had to let the vet do the kindest thing. Sorry hammie. 
So Amanda, being Amanda, went out and got two more and a brand new cage for them.
 Mrs. Hammy 1 |
 Mrs. Hammy 2 |
 Mrs. Hammy 3 |
 Mrs. Hammy 4 |
As is normal for them only Mrs. Hammy was out and about when we got the camera to hand; Mr. was having a little nap (again !). 
The ball at the top of the cage has a really neat feature. (Every hamster owner should get one !) There is a digital counter built in to the cage, and each time a certain point on the surface of the ball goes past it, up goes the count.
Brilliant… Now you know how many times your hammies have been round on their wheel !
From that it is then primary grade mathematics to work out how far they have travelled since the last time you reset the counter.
Ok, so with two hammies sharing one ball one can’t say how far each of them has travelled, Mrs. definitely does a lot more running than Mr. that’s for sure, and they quite often run in tandem… oh yes, both side by side trundling away, haha ….. but what do you think ? What would you reckon is the longest distance these little critters have racked up over a 24 hour period ?
I’ve heard that they do travel quite a distance in the wild, but I mean they sleep most of the day and do most of their running at night, so it can’t be that far, can it ?
Can it ?
How about a fraction short of 11 miles !
….. just over 17.5km ! 
They must be crazy !!!!!
Mind you, that was when it was bit chilly at night. Now it’s started to get a bit hotter and steamier they’re only doing about a quarter of that, but Wow !
The things you learn.
Update: 20th July 2010
See here for further stories and information about how far hamsters run in a day.
This picture (which is deliberately grotty so that you won't copy it) is of two bald eagle chicks atop their "nest" in Labrador.
Actually, since meeting Amanda, there is probably more on here about her than Newfoundland, but times change, eh ?
