Less a small animal and pet, more a family member and our own personal dictator

Tam was purchased at Petsmart in Quakerbridge (Princeton, NJ) on Wednesday 11/18/2004
So far, he has explored almost all of his cage complex, developed an affinity for skydiving into his big wheel (pictured at the right) from the living quarters above, and has already come out of his cage and willingly let us hold and walk him in our hands [!]
For a new hamster, this is downright incredible. They are usually initially skittish with humans, especially when held. Tam 'vibrated' only slightly when we held him, and after about three minutes of walking in both Candy's and my hands, he relaxed. Speaking in a soft voice and giving him a gentle kiss on the back seemed to calm him down like it has done for our other hamsters.
He enjoys blueberry yogurt drops, and so far has ignored a single strawberry yogurt dip that we've offered him.
Tam's already climbed the horizontal bars in his tall cage with ease. In the future, we plan on lining the bowl-like area at the bottom of that cage with a thick layer of soft bedding, and also removing two of the three shelves up top. That should allow him to burrow, climb higher, and fall onto something soft whenever he decides against climbing back down.
When he was in it, he appeared to be fascinated by the view moving around him in the rotating wheel (at the left). He craned his neck as the wheel rotated around its central axis, apparently to get a better view of specific things in his surroundings. We eventually plan on relocating that wheel atop a tube coming from the top of the tall cage. Hopefully that'll give him a better view of the living room. =^.^=




Tam, pronounced "Tom", is a male Syrian hamster with an Agouti coat, an intelligent and strong personality, and is the owner of Paltiel and Chaya Goldstein.
His name means complete in Hebrew.