S,
"Bottle sniffing hamster?"
When my boys were younger they had a
hamster as a pet. At times they would let
it out of the cage and play with it, let it
walk and run just a bit. They also purchased
one of those clear plastic balls; you place the
the hamster in the ball and it runs in the ball,
and the ball moves around the room, good
exercise for the rat.
One day I heard the plastic ball, repeatedly
hitting into some bottles I had just brought
into the house; this went on for some time
and I had an idea.
I started working with the hamster. I would
bring some uncleaned bottles into the house
and scatter the hamster food pellets around the
bottles. I would let the hamster run free, without
the ball; after a few days he learned that the
bottles had pellets near them.
Think anyone that digs bottles will tell you that
over and over they have smelled a certain smell
while they are digging, not offensive, best I can
say, to me, it smells like a shoe polish.
So.......................
I now started placing the hamster in the plastic ball,
took it outside with some uncleaned bottles
and put the bottles in different locations. If he went
to the bottles while he was in the ball, The hamster
would get a treat.
Now when I go out to a location bottle hunting, I take
the ball and hamster with me. (would escape without the
ball, if I took him in the woods). I sit back, smoke my pipe,
perhaps a beer; and let the hamster go to work. It has some
problems with logs and things laying on the forest floor, but
I let it check out an area, move it, let it check again. If I
notice the ball has stopped for a period of time, I dig. Sure
enough, I trained me a bottle sniffing hamster.
It was a good hamster but we had an accident with the
other pets.
have a good un.............
