These two pictures were taken about a week and a half apart.  In the first picture, Zachie is a little shorter than my thumb, and in the second, he’s perched over my whole hand.  I love his big chubby baby stomach in the first picture.

I’m trying to decide who I want to stay with me–I’ve fallen in love with this hamster, Zach.  I would have to handpick a home for him, and even so I would miss him terribly.  He’s the best cuddler out of the litter, which is a trait that I value in my hamsters.  But I also love the cream-colored ones, who remind me of angora rabbits.  Maybe I could shear them and have my mom knit tiny sweaters from the fur.

Here’s a picture I took of him just last night.  He doesn’t look much different from the first picture, but he–ahem–hit hamster puberty since then, and his fur has grown out long, curly, and fluffy.   His whiskers are curly now, too, which proves my theory that most if not all of the babies are rex hamsters.

Here’s my new friend Chester. He’s going to be staying here at Chez Hamster after the other babies are adopted out….well, assuming that they do all get adopted out. The master album of hamsterbabies photos is here. I’ve taken a lot of pictures, because they grow so fast and I will miss them all when they’re gone.

Bye, Maggie Jr.! You are a very special and adorable little girl, and I named you after my best friend. You have nice new parents and I’m sure you’ll have a happy life. Here are my favorite pictures of you.

Can you resist these faces? CAN YOU?

Well, maybe you can. But they’re awfully cute, aren’t they? This picture has almost the whole litter, but I’m not sure who’s missing. I think it’s Violet Jr. Some of them have names based on personality traits or their markings. The names thus far are Chester, Cupcake, Frinkle, Violet, Maggie, and Marion. I’ll probably want to keep every one that I name. They’re starting to grow some serious fluff and some of them like being handled. Marion, who discovered the wheel first, ran around in a dwarf hamster-sized ball and pestered AJ earlier tonight.

I haven’t had much to write about–I go to work, I eat dinner or I immediately fall asleep, and if I don’t fall asleep, I play with the hamsters or watch TV.

Today I worked, went to the store to get milk and motor oil (not mixed together), voted, ate dinner, watched last night’s Daily and Colbert, went to my other job, and then came home and took hamster pictures. I love spending time with the babies, and I hope that this is the only litter I’ll ever raise, so I’m trying to get all of the time, snuggles, and pictures in that I can.

I have a whole album of baby hamster photos that I’m prepping for the Web. Here is a small preview of the GRADE A ADORABLE coming your way.