Another Mouth to Feed

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Danielle got a hamster. Unfortunately, the hamster she picked out was apparently sick when she got it, and it died 4 or 5 days later. Oh my, you should have heard the wailing! The hamster had a guarantee, so we took the body back and wanted to pick out another. All of their dwarf hamsters looked sickly, though, so we went to a different store. Danielle picked out another winter white dwarf hamster. Although she held it in the store and it seemed fine, it has been evil since we brought it home. It does NOT want to be held AT ALL. So, we are going through the lengthy process of training it to be more tame. (It bites!) Isn't that crazy? Who knows if it will work. I feel bad for Danielle. Although she hasn't complained, I know she's disappointed Princess isn't very friendly. I have to give her credit for sticking with it. Danielle has such a heart for nature and animals. I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up working with animals in some capacity when she's older. That's one reason we're so willing to let her bring home frogs and turtles and hamsters. She's a nurturer.


This week a former coworker of Ron's wanted to find a new home for his son's gecko. It was his son's pet for 6 years but the kid recently got his license and lost interest in the gecko. Tyler has asked for a gecko many times but we never seriously considered it until this "free" one became available. (No pet is ever truly "free".) Tyler was SUPER excited. The gecko is very low maintenance, which is perfect for Tyler. He (the gecko) eats occasionally, goes to the bathroom even less frequently, and only needs his cage cleaned every month (or less if we "spot" clean).


It is a blizzard leopard gecko. He is 6-7" long and is fully grown. It is about 6 years old and could potentially live to be 15-20 years old. We told Tyler this guy will be moving to college with him. Tyler has chosen to name him Blizzard. Blizzard is very tame and rather slow. Geckos can drop their tails if they feel threatened, so I think Tyler is being extra cautious to prevent that from happening. They also clean their eyes with their tongues, and if you shine a light into one ear hole, it will shine through to the other ear hole.



Tyler spent a lot of time today scrubbing Blizzard's habitat and finally moved the gecko upstairs into his room. After doing our research we realized it's dangerous to keep a gecko in sand, so Tyler took all that out tonight, too. (These pictures are from last night.)


So, we now have 2 dogs, a turtle, a hamster, and a gecko. I'd like to say we're done, but as soon as I do, something else will find it's way into our home. I guess I'll just say I think that's more than enough mouths to feed for now. I think there's plenty of "life experiences" in the livestock we have.