Some new digs

After starting to spend a lot more time at my boyfriend's place, I felt really bad leaving the hammy behind to fend for herself. But after some shopping (and negotiating with the bf), BEHOLD: Victoria's new weekend getaway! It's about 4 times bigger than her other cage, so we've taken to calling it the Summer Palace. We have a sensor up on the new wheel that's been recording her running, but it isn't uploading data yet to the website. But the hammy has been having the time of her life running through the tubes, and that's what's most important. :)

A New State

Tommy was totally awesome and fixed the server. It looks like while we were moving some things around with her setup we made a very silly wiring mistake. Oops. Ah well, it's all fixed now and Victoria's hard work is finally being recorded and uploaded again. And guess what! She's made it all the way to the Texas border now! Hopefully she won't run into too many native Texan hamsters packing heat like this one:

"git offa mai beddin!"

Data

Uh oh! Looks like the website hasn't been updating again with Victoria's running activities! And sooooo incredibly close to getting to a new state! Maybe this is Vic's way of saying she doesn't want to go to Texas (I kid, I kid)? I assure you though that she is still alive and well and we'll try to get things working again as soon as possible.

P.S. Potty training is complete! I know it may sound a little weird, but it's super cute the way she sticks her head out the top of her litter box, hahahahaha.

Victoria's Potty Training (part 1)

With all the new modifications and additions, Victoria's cage is getting increasingly difficult to clean. One evening she even decided to turn her observatory into a lavatory and I woke up to find 4 evenly-spaced puddles of hamster pee in each of the nodules. Eew. Ok, that was it. It was time to get Victoria potty trained again. Her previous owner claimed that she had potty-trained her as a wee baby ham, but hadn't provided me with any litter or a box.

Hamsters already have a tendency to pee in only one spot, so litter-box training them is supposedly very easy. So last week I went to PetSmart and bought her a hamster toilet and some litter, cleaned out her cage, put in some soiled bedding in the toilet, placed the toilet in her former potty corner and waited to see what happened. Unfortunately, the toilet doesn't quite cover the whole corner because it's rounded, so she kept peeing in the corner and ignored the toilet. In fact, she started kicking the litter out of the toilet into the corner to cover it up. Tricksie. Very Tricksie. Once I even saw her go into the toilet and carefully position herself so her butt was sticking out so she could pee straight into the corner. Hmmm. I will need to come up with a better solution. Will keep you guys posted on her progress!

Cage additions

For Valentine's day, my boyfriend gave me/Victoria a new den for her to play in. I designed her new roof to be able to take add-ons and I'd been eying some of the cool-looking Habitrail mazes as a good alternative to her current "observatory." As soon as I hooked it up and let her in, she immediately started to utterly butcher the cardboard insert, which is fantastic because I've been trying to find new chew toys she likes better than on the corners of her hutch. Yay for Valentine's Day! Thanks sweetie :)

"I don't care if these berries aren't real. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM...."

Wheel modifications

After many a night of waking up to the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) noise of "squeeeeeeek" from the wheel in Victoria's cage, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Vic uses the same type of wheel as Lizzie did (the Wodent Wheel, which is supposed to be one of the more quiet wheels out there and super safe for little hammy feet), but she runs faster for longer periods of time and I guess the cheap bearings on the wheel just couldn't take it. Temporary relief could be had by liberally applying vegetable oil to the axle, but that would often only last a few days at best. So finally, after a couple weeks of seeking relief at my boyfriend's place (much to the detriment of the hammy, who as a result wasn't let out as much to play), it was time to make some fixes.

The main causes for the squeaking were probably the following: 1) metal rubbing on metal and 2) loose tolerances in overall wheel design. So what is a MechE to do? I decided to replace the crappy bronze bearings with new PTFE (better known by its brand name, Teflon) ones. I figured going with a plastic would help reduce the squeaking and PTFE is super low in friction, which should hopefully reduce the amount of oil I'll need to put on and compensate for the increase surface contact with the shaft. These were flanged to replace the old plastic washers and much longer in length to get better coverage on the wheel shaft to compensate for the bad tolerancing. A hand drill, a hammer and a screwdriver later and it was good to go! Victoria seems to like her modified wheel and has been running happily at night.

1000 miles!

Victoria has passed the 1000 mile mark! Although Lizzie did most of the work getting there, it's still a great achievement for our project and certainly says something about the endurance and dedication of hamsters. Congrats!

Snowy days in the Santa Fe National Forest

My travels through New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest are pretty cold. I'm glad I'm here in the winter though, because the summer heat can be intense! The pinon pine trees still have some pine nuts not raided by the local red squirrels. Fortunately the squirrels are hibernating so I am not pestered with offers to stay for tea every mile! I am making really good time. I found some native pottery to sleep in at a museum one night!

Posted via email from Victoria - Hamster Across America

Lizzie's Life (In Summary)

Tommy crunched together all the data we recorded over Lizzie's lifetime and came up with some interesting conclusions about her running activities. For example, here's a graph he made of her running schedule over the course of the day:



You can see from the graph why I spent so much time and energy trying out multiple types of wheels, lubricant and padding to find the perfect combination to muffle her wheel, because her favorite running hour was 2:00 in the morning!

He has a bunch more data and graphs on Lizzie's behavior up on his personal blog if you want to see more.

Victoria has picked up the baton!

After Lizzie passed away in December 2009, an era came to an end. The courageous hamster travelled from California to New Mexico and had many exciting adventures! In January 2010, Victoria took on the mantle of HamsterAcrossAmerica and is off to a great start! Currently in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Victoria is battling extreme cold as she races through the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains.

Posted via email from Victoria - Hamster Across America

Cage modifications

Victoria absolutely loves climbing through tubes, but Lizzie's old tank just wasn't equipped to add any new fancy additions, so I designed and built a custom new roof and shelf to attach tube to, including a new door, penthouse lodging and observatory. The roof and hutch have a ton of vents cut out of them to provide fresh air, a large door for cleaning and maintenance and a "moon roof" on the hutch for extra access. The tubes come with attachment rings so the observatory can be removed and replaced with other fun hamster gizmos to help stave off boredom. Welcome home, Victoria!

Run run run run run

Tommy has finished putting together Victoria's new wheel and the data is streaming in! She'll be picking up where Lizzie left off in New Mexico and with her new super smooth wheel she should be zooming along the desert at quite a clip. Onwards! :)

Say hello to Victoria!

After spending some time searching, we've adopted a new hamster named Victoria. Like Lizzie, she's a female Syrian hamster and loves to run, so she'll be picking up where Lizzie left off on her trip across America. Tommy is working on setting up a new wheel for her so we can start recording her data, so hopefully we'll have the site up and working up again soon!