Skuzzball can never be too clean.

Posted by Ned (Toronto, Canada) on 20 December 2006 in Animal & Insect.

Skuzzball is grooming one of his paws on the first day that he lived with me.
He is in his pet store box and may not have actually ever been out of it at all at this point. Mia took this picture.

I tried to find out how this works, but anyway I really like the ham pictures where the flash goes off just right and you can see the pupils in their beady little black eyes. You can tell that Skuzz is not looking at his paw, or his crotch, but at the scary new humans who are lavishing him with attention.

If anyone knows how to get more shots where I can see some rodent pupils please let me know. I have tried all sorts of flash settings with "red-eye" reducing features both on and off. It just turns that only very few of my pictures show this effect. Maybe the hamsters have some kind of choice about weather it happens or not?

UPDATE: Skuzzball seems to be rather tense today. I cleaned his house and within the matter of a few hours he had seriously STUNK the place up with his ham-scent-glands.

If you are able to think of hamster as having knees then that is about where you will find their scent glands. They are located strategically so when crawling through cramped little ham-tunnels they can mark their territory. Hamsters are solitary and get together ONLY to mate, and even then the (usually larger) females usually hurt the males, often seriously. I am unsure of the males and females are both capable of the same levels of rank stinkiness as I only have boys.

It is noteworthy that Booger does not have the same need to befoul the senses as Skuzz seems to. But Skuzz is also quite a bit older then Boog and has seemed to resent me ever since I brought young Booger home.

He also just peed on my crotch. Thanks-a-bunch Skuzzball.

I am unable to describe the ham-scent aside from saying that it is not pleasing to my nose.

It is noteworthy that Booger does not feel the need to be assaultive to any of my senses. But he is quite a bit younger then Skuzz is.

Also, ever since I brought young Booger home (about a month after Skuzz moved in), Skuzz seems to be acting actively resentful towards me. I would have thought he would be used to it by now, but whenever he is out of his house he sniffs around more then he used to and sort of meanders his way to where Booger lives (across the apartment from Skuzz). I believe that Skuzz may have declared some kind of jihad (this word is used sort of loosely here as Skuzzball has never demonstrated any clear religious preferences. In my head he operates simply as a Dualist. Things are either clearly good or clearly bad, yes/no. Though I may be over-simplifying his nature, so it is probably best just to say he has his own personal set of beliefs and values. He has never tried to get any type of religious texts from me, but I am sure he would taste them all if he could. If he does have a religion I am sure that it considers food to be the holiest of holy. Actually he may be a broccoli-worshiper, come to think of it). against Booger. Because he seems to have made it his personal mission to (at the very least) seek him out. And I think he also wants Boog destroyed. All of the pictures I have which feature both of them required their prompt separation immediately following the click of the shutter.

Anyhow, Skuzz's house smells terrible, he probably is grooving on it but I wish he could resist the urge to do anything which does not please me. Maybe it is time to mount a little portrait of myself in his house.....Big Ned is Watching.

......and I hate Billy Ocean, his "Caribbean Queen" is just some woman, not even a real monarch. Bah!

VFXY Photos