I Wanna Hold Your Hand

It's so exciting! I actually have Violet and Rosy trained to walk out of the cage and into my hand! I never thought that I could get them to do it! Unfortunately, Petunia and Hazel are not so willing and I usually have to get them to run into a toilet paper tube and pick it up quickly before they run back out. Then they will reluctantly come out into my hand.

I gave the girls a treat log that had nuts, seeds and grains all held together by honey. They loved it! They wouldn't leave it alone and ate on it until it was completely gone. It took them 3 days to finish it off, but they did it. Of course, then they had really runny poo and were pretty sick to their stomachs for a couple of days. Live and Learn! No more treat sticks like that. The only treats they get from now on is fresh fruits and veggies and the chew biscuits from Kaytee. I really like those because it helps wear down their teeth while they are getting a treat. Also, the green ones turn their little poos green! You can always tell who ate the green one!

Bath Time!

I gave the girls their first bath today. They didn’t want to get into the water at first, but then decided that they kind of liked it and swam around a little in the small square plastic container I had filled with water. I dried them all off with a towel and Rosy really liked being rubbed in the towel. Rosy has begun a little game with me. I cup my hands together and make two open holes by touching my thumbs to my forefingers. Rosy will go into my hands then will peek her head out through one hole, then through the other hole and then she out of the middle. Then sits and looks at me for a few minutes. When I smile at her and say, “How’s my good girl?” the game starts all over again –peek, peek, sit; peek, peek, sit. She seems to really like this game and will play for more than an hour every time. Violet hates to be inside of a towel. She would rather sit on my shoulder and lick herself dry. Petunia likes to be dried off, but it must be very gentle. Hazel doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. She is so skitterish, so I usually leave her alone.

Our Evening Routine...

Each night I say "Good Night" to each one of the girls. Rosy has decided that she likes my hair and we play a little game each night where I stick my hair through the bars of the cage and she grooms me. This usually takes about 10 minutes before she gets bored. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but there was no way to get both of us in the picture correctly. Then I put my finger against the bars and Petunia will smell it and Violet will try to bite it. Finally, the girls will go up into the removable petting zone to snuggle down and I run my finger across the top of the lid and Petunia and Violet will put their noses against the lid where my finger is touching. Lastly, it's lights out...and within a half an hour, you can hear the girls on their nightly mission to play and eat and drink and groom and chase each other...

Our Morning Routine...

Each morning when I get up, the girls get up and greet me by standing on their hind legs and grabbing the cage wires with their front legs and sticking their noses between the bars. They each take their turn, with either Rosy or Violet coming around first. I say "Good Morning" to each girl and spend a little time rubbing their noses through the bars. Then I sit down at the table next to their cage and eat my breakfast while they go get their nuggets and eat, too. After we eat together, the girls get a drink and groom themselves so they can go back to sleep full and clean. I say "Good-Bye"when I leave and the girls snugle back down for a nap. It's really interesting that the girls are trained to get up at the time I get up in the morning. Even when I don't get up at that time, the girls are up and waiting for me. :) When I don't get up on time, the girls make lots of noise. If I come out, they stop. If I don't come out, they keep on making the noise for about 30 minutes. After that, I think they finally give up or get tired out, but they are definintely used to my daily routine!

Home, Sweet, Home

After doing so much research on cages, I thought that I would post a pic of the cage I decided on. I have been very happy with it as it has lots of fun things for the girls to climb and lots of different ways to add on to it. Though sometimes it is a little bit of a pain to clean, only because there are so many pieces and I have 4 little mousies living in one cage. Overall, though, I am quite pleased with it and so are the girls!

As you can see, I added a second wheel, since the girls are always fighting to get on the one that came with the cage. I added one of the silent wheels. Boy, do I love it! It truly is silent! And not only that, it is super easy to clean! The girls love it too, because it turns very easily. It's fun to watch them stop running but see the wheel still rock side to side. I think that Violet and Rosy really love that feeling because both of them will run for about a minute, then stop and sit until the rocking stops, then they will run again! It is amazing the games mice will play and the ways they will entertain themselves. I never thought that mice could have so much personality!

Settling In Nicely!

The girls are settling in nicely and are very happy with their new home. I also bought hamster balls for them and let them run around the apartment at the same time – each in their own little ball. It is sooooo adorable! I wish I could get a good picture or some video, but I have been unsuccessful so far. If I can get some, I will definitely post it in this blog! I have some pics of the girls, but have been having a hard time uploading all of the pics. I am still working on that – hopefully I can get them all up soon. It has been easier to get Rosy and Violet out of the cage, but Petunia and especially Hazel are almost impossible to get out! In fact, I made a mistake the other day. I was trying to get the girls out so I could clean their cage and Petunia and Hazel stuffed themselves partway up a tube, so I thought that if I poked Petunia in the butt, that they would both move and I could grab one of them. What I didn’t know was that Petunia had flipped around and when I stuck my finger in the tube, she bit me! Luckily it didn’t break the skin, but it sure surprised me! Well, that’s what I get for trying to force them... I definitely won’t be doing that again!!