'Whole Foods'

It is normally an irritation, but under the circumstances, being woken up several times during the night and early morning to a spinning exercise wheel is a pleasant sound. Pudge is beginning to develop a distaste for the treatments and I can’t blame him, in its liquid form Phycotene does not taste very good. Nowadays he is beginning to learn a technique where he tucks his head under my fingers and deflects the syringe with his arms...adorable.

As Phycotene is essentially an antioxidant, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to instill a supplementary side diet, (side dish), to his normal hamster feed. Following Pudge’s surgery, I thought it may be difficult for him to gather enough strength to pull himself up to his water bottle, since then I have been making available to him a variety of fresh foods which naturally contain liquid. I don’t remember the source, but I once heard that it is beneficial to receive hydration from fresh foods as they carry vitamins more readily rather than its dried counterparts. In creating Pudge’s daily ‘side salad’, it is just a matter of looking through the refrigerator and picking out common things that we eat which are also appealing to hamsters. Pudge’s favorite fresh foods in descending order are: Tofu, blanched broccoli, soybeans, peas, spring lettuces. It seems the denser nutrient rich foods are preferred, the exception being tofu, which is his favorite, probably because of its high water content; it must be refreshing.