Happy Little Hamsters (1979)

[Music] [Music] Once upon a time, there was a neat and attractive hamster named Naami with button bright eyes, delicate whiskers, and pretty pink paws, which he often used to keep her soft fur immaculately clean. Naami was beautiful, and I am sure she would look even more beautiful to you if you too were a golden hamster with whiskers and silky soft fur. But Naami was not happy. She was lonely and bored, just as you or I might be if there was never anyone else around. Then one day another hamster dropped into her life. His name was Abdullah. Naami and Abdullah are both Syrian names because all their ancestors originally came from Aleppo in Syria, as did those of all golden hamsters around the world. Abdullah, suddenly finding himself in strange surroundings, was reassured by the clean smell. The food seemed quite wholesome, and all in all, Naami's home promised to be a cozy, comfortable place in which to settle down. As to Naami, it was love at first sight, or rather, first smell, for hamsters rely a great deal on their sensitive noses. I wish I could say they lived happily ever after, but it just didn't work out that way. As time passed, Naami and Abdullah found it difficult to live together harmoniously. They had frequent spats and quarrels. Because Naami was larger and more determined, Abdullah usually got the worst of it and gradually became quite nervous and upset. He couldn't understand why, but he felt that Naami was picking on him as if she didn't want his company, which was true. Naami had no other way to tell him that there are certain times when a female hamster doesn't want the male hamster around. When Abdullah realized he should get away for a while, he couldn't find the door. Like all adult hamsters, he could have squeezed right through a hole no bigger than a quarter. If only he could have found one. After mating, male and female hamsters don't get along well and should be separated. So Abdullah finally got away, leaving Naami in peace. Several days passed by and Naami began to feel quite strange. She was heavy and there were funny jumping movements inside her tummy. She was about to become a mother. Hamsters reproduce themselves even faster than rabbits, having the shortest gestation period of any mammal, only 16 days from mating until birth. This is why they have immigrated from their native land where they live wild to laboratories all over the world where they are needed to help scientists with their work. One by one, as each baby was born, Naami carefully licked it clean and let it nestle down in the soft cedar chips of her nest. At birth, the baby's eyes and ears were not yet completely formed. They seem to be just squirmy little bodies twisting about inside a loose sack which was their skin. Hamster mothers may have from 2 to 15 babies in a litter. Naami had eight. All were healthy and each one weighed about 115th of an ounce. Naami's babies spent most of their first day of life under the shelter of her warm fur. Occasionally she left the nest to get food. Then they could be seen ftting for her to return with her warm protection and food. On the second day, you could notice, if you looked carefully, that they were growing. Their skin was beginning to darken, and their eyes and ears were gradually beginning to take shape. They were not quite an inch and a half long. What's that in millime? 38. By the third day, their ears had started to grow away from their heads, and their skin was starting to take on a dark and light pattern. And if you looked extremely close, you could see the first little hairs of their fur just starting to sprout. Their lungs were developing, too, so they could call their mama's attention to their needs. When the little hamsters were 4 days old, their fur was growing out rapidly. Now they were beginning to look like hamsters. Growing bolder, one adventurer went looking for his mother. Uh-oh. Mama hurried to put the little one back in the nest. The babies were much too small and defenseless to be out alone. During the next few days, the baby's fur thickened and their bodies grew stronger. By now, at nursing time, it was becoming difficult for all of them to fit under Mama. They kept Mama so busy that once in a while, one of them could wander away unnoticed. [Music] Being uncertain about walking and still unable to use their eyes, they didn't know how to go in one direction, so they seldom wandered far. [Music] By the time the little hamsters were one week old, they had become quite a handful for Mama. As they grew, their appetites also grew, and it seemed they were always hungry. Still unable to see, occasional mistakes were made. But by following their noses, these were soon corrected and everyone managed to get back to mama. For Naami, nursing her eight eager, scrambling children was hard work, but it was the afterds which really tired her out. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Just about the time mama was ready to drop from frantic exhaustion, the little ones became tired, too. and gradually settled down, allowing her to pile them back into the nest. Of course, all that exercise made them terribly hungry, so it was feeding time again. And so it went for several days with everyone having a wonderful time except Naami. When 12 days old, the little hamster's eyes were ready to open, and they were beginning to eat solid foods. Though the cedar chips were not for eating, as Mama had to remind them, the next day, when their dinner arrived, it seemed to be dropping from the sky, for their eyes were now wide open, and they could see it coming. There was wheat germ and bread soaked in milk and crisp, fresh lettuce leaves. Hamsters are good eaters. They like milk, grain, bread, fresh vegetables like carrots, cabbage, and celery, and many kinds of fruit such as apples and bananas. When meal time was over, the children washed their paws clean and settled down for a comfortable nap. During the week that followed, Naami guided her little hamsters into a healthy routine. They got plenty of rest and ate a balanced diet of wholesome food, which helped their bodies grow stronger while keeping them well and healthy. They learned to be neat, washing themselves thoroughly at each meal time and keeping so clean that no one got sick. They had plenty of exercise, though not always the kind their mother approved. Starting a fight was as simple as crying a challenge. If one otherwise willing taker wasn't quite ready, there were six more brothers and sisters, at least one of which was eager to join in. To Miami, it seemed that her children never let up. Here they were at it again. She waited in to break it up, hoping to tame them down before the situation got out of hand. But while she was busily engaged in stopping one fight, another was getting underway over in the corner, and still another was starting behind her. Trying to stop them all was more than one mama could handle, no matter how frantically she tried. Like the woman in the shoe, Naami had so many children, she didn't know what to do now that they all were fighting. But the little hamsters were just having boisterous fun. And soon, tired of the game, no one got hurt, and they all had a wonderful time. Tired and happy, they settled down for their naps. sweet little angels, after a busy day, allowing their mother a quiet interlude in which to try and steady her jangled nerves. By the time they were 2 and 1/2 weeks old, the little hamsters were becoming so large and ate so much that mama began to worry about getting enough to eat. The only safe place to hoard food was in her pouches. Hamsters can store up to half their own weight in food in their cheeks which puff out as they are filled. This food horde can be carried about with them until they are ready to eat it. The word hamster comes from the German word meaning to hoard and they were so named because of their pouches. As they became more sure-footed, the little hamsters began to take up a more dignified form of exercise than fighting. challenge racing. They didn't have a mountain, so they played king of the wheel. The ham in hamster is appropriate because they seem to enjoy showing off, especially in front of an audience. While the children watched, the happy little hamsters put on a show. [Music] [Music] [Music] The children came to see the little hamsters because now that they were 3 weeks old, they were ready to leave their mama and go out on their own. Hamsters make wonderful pets. They are clean and soft and friendly, and their antics are fun to watch. If they are handled gently, they don't mind being picked up. The children were very careful not to squeeze the little hamsters too tightly or make any sudden movements which might frighten them. The hamsters were so much fun to play with that each child wanted one for a pet. So, they were placed in neat new cages so they could travel comfortably with the children to their new homes. At the last little hamster left, Naami felt proud as well as sad because these happy little hamsters would make a lot of children happy, too. [Music]