He's white.
He's fluffy.
And he's scary cute.
He's...
[batman theme]
DANTE SANTANA.
Dante was brought home on April 20th, 2011. (Two days ago.) Today is his second day, and tonight will be his third. He seems to have calmed down quite a bit and become more cozy in his new home. We gave him a bit of a carrot and a small romaine leaf and he went crazy. whee He's the cutest little guy ever.
According to a fellow Gaian who's been raising and breeding dwarves for a long time, Dante might not even be a dwarf.
I bought him from Petland, which means that he probably wasn't properly taken care of and he might have gotten mixed in with the dwarves because of his small size; he might actually be a baby Syrian hamster and not a dwarf. I doubt that, though, just 'cause he's so tiny. The people at Petland told me that he's about a month and a week old.
The thing that gets me about his breed is his tail. Chinese dwarves are the only dwarves that have tails--or so I've read--and have rather bland colorings. Dante is very obviously white and black-patched, but he still has a tail... And the personalities described for Chinese dwarves just don't match up with Dante; he's the most darling sweetheart I have ever met. (Chinese dwarves are supposed to be very aggressive and hard to tame and Dante walks right into my or Julian's palm when we offer it to him.) Hence the reason why said fellow Gaian wonders if he's not a dwarf and, instead, a Syrian.
And also, I'm still not sure what little Dante's sex is.
I've been careful not to handle him too much lest it stress him out and give him diarrhea (...it sounds really funny, haha--but it totally isn't!) so I haven't really gotten the chance to fully sex him. The people at Petland, though, said that Dante looked like a girl when they had him flipped over, though.
Jim said that if Dante is a girl, we'll just have to call her 'Dantae.' Hahaha!
I'm wondering if I should get another to keep Dante company, and I'm also wondering if I should take him to the vet. He keeps scratching like mad, and though I was reading that they're really clean animals and just groom themselves a ton--and though I haven't seen any patches of fur missing or bloody spots--I'm worried that he might have mites. I'll just keep watch, though.
Today was the first day that I vicariously (through Jim) saw him eating out of his food bowl. Yay! This morning, when I was cleaning out his cage, I saw that he had pooped on the dehydrated carrot slice I'd offered him the night before. Lol.
Better pictures to come!
