They arrived via British Airways in Newark on Jume 14. They came from Martyn and Tracy -
http://www.cheekychipmunksse.webs.com/Tracy and Martyn are friends of JennyB and Martyn has been very helpful in providing information regarding Buddy's health issues.
The transportation costs to get the chippies shipped from Cheekychipmunksse in England to Newark, NJ, US were extremely expensive as Heathrow will only accept animals from animal transportation companies.
Martyn was kind enough to sell me a breeding pair of one year old agoutis and unrelated female and male Dilute babies. The Dilute babies were going to be sent to John who was Canela's breeder (Psychotic Feather from thesquirrelboard.com). the day before (3 days after they arrived at my home), the dilute male died fairly suddenly. Given his death, I called Martyn very upset and decided that the stress probably killed the baby so I decided not to ship the dilute female baby.
The dilute is named Lilly, Remy is the female agouti and Martyn is the male agouti.
I had a cage to put Remy and Martyn in upon their arrival but had to split the cage in half for Lilly until the other cage is assembled. Now I have three Martin's cages (
www.martinscages.com). Buddy and Lilly will each have their own cages and Remy and Martin will share one.
Lilly has been very active and eating non-stop. I am sure she will appreciate having a cage to herself. Lilly will come and take almond butter from my finger inside the cage but she will run away when I try to pet her.
I have not seen much of Remy but the little that I have seen her, she is beautiful. She has a lot of the same fine features as Buddy. Remy seems to come out of her more at night, I think she is still on English time. When Remy sees me, she immediately goes into her nesting box. I have stuck my hand into her nesting box to pet her and she bit me so I know to stay away. She makes this low chirping sound for a few seconds when she jumps into her box.
Martyn comes out more, it appears that he is getting more acclimated towards me and his surroundings. I can't wait until the cage is assembled so he and Remy will have access to their own cage. Martyn is cute, he turns his head to the side sometimes when he looks at me. He also shares the box with Remy most of the time which is really nice since they have each other for company. Martyn will let me pet him when I know he in the box by himself.
Lilly is so funny. There is only a cage floor separating them and I have seen Lilly pull sugar snap peas thru the cage floor holes and steal Remy and Martin's food.
All three have not met Buddy yet since he has been sick and I want to keep them separated for some more time until I know they are all well. I have walked into the room where the English Chips are with Buddy on my shoulder so I am not sure if they even know about each other.
None of the 4 of them like mushrooms so I can cross that off the shopping list. They all like peas and sugar snap peas. Buddy is still the most picky eater.
My goal is to have them bond with me like Buddy has. My first impression is that Buddy was a bit tamer than the English chips but it takes time, patience, and food bribery.
I will post photos later.
Marci
