Chronicles Of Riggle: Travelling Long Distances With A Hamster

Hey there!

As I mentioned in a recent blog I had a new addition to the family last November - the beautiful, quirky and highly entertaining Riggle the Hamster. Since she joined the fam we've started our own little hashtag #ChroniclesofRiggle on Instagram and Facebook (although I've largely given up in IG since it's weird new algorithm.. I just want to snoop on celebrities and see the weird selfies my friends take guys, what's wrong with that? Sorry, side rant..) and I've had great fun sharing some of her weirder antics.

Yes, that is Riggle defying gravity on the cage roof...

So what better way to continue sharing her craziness with everyone than giving her her very own series on the blog? So I present to you Chronicles Of Riggle Part One.

While researching how wise it would be to bring Riggle with me to Belfast I was quite disappointed at how little information there is out there about travelling with hamsters. Most people kept the hamster in the cage (seriously not safe with a climber like Riggs!) and didn't go more than about 30 minutes - not even close to the 10+ hour journey we had planned! There were a few reports of people making longer journeys, but they didn't include much in the way of logistics. So to remedy that here is my experience of travelling with a hamster for 11 hours in a car and on a ferry. The things I did before, during and after the trip to keep her happy! Sadly I didn't get to take any pictures of our travel set up on the way, so I'll just be super descriptive where necessary.

1. Get them checked by a vet.

This may seem obvious or even unnecessary, but Riggle had never been to the vets before so I thought it was time she popped in for a check up. Her coat had been losing some of its shine in recent months anyway so it was largely to put my mind at ease.

The vet was really helpful - she gave Riggle a clean bill of health and reassured me that my plan for in the car was a good one. Her fur issues are because it's been a bit toasty in England lately, so that stopped me worrying too and I made a mental note to make sure we were even more vigilant about the car temperature.

Bonus: because it was her first visit and it was just a check up we didn't have to pay, woohoo!

2. Find fruits and vegetables that they like with a high water content for snacks.

This one sounds a little weird, but you might not be able to give them a water bottle during your journey in case it leaks, which is where this tip come in handy. Riggs is mostly a cashews and sunflower seeds kinda girl when it comes to snacks, so the week before the trip we tried her out on strawberries and cucumber to make sure she liked them. The strawberry was gone in seconds and the cucumber got eaten... eventually, so we knew we could keep her hydrated and would offer her the water bottle whenever we stopped for a break ourselves.

Warning: Strawberries will make your hamster's paws bright red. They will then run all over their bedding, staining everything red. Remember this and don't panic that they're dying when you check up on them! (Sorry Kass, I really should've warned you..)

3. Pick your travel case carefully.

This will depend on the length of your journey, but I'm assuming you're not just going round the corner if you've found this blog! Your average hamster carrier assumes you're only going to the vet and doesn't allow you much space.

I opted for a larger carrier, possibly designed for rats or guinea pigs, so that she'd have space to stretch out and move around on the journey. It also meant I could include a toy, her litter tray (more on that in a minute), some bedding for comfort/padding and her food bowl (waste of time, she stuffed her face in seconds then spat it on the floor).

4. Give them something stable to sleep in.

I stumbled upon this one by accident, and by I did I mean Riggle worked it out. A few hours into our trip I noticed she had not only tipped up her litter tray (I believe she did that on minute 5 actually..) but she had filled it with bedding and was sleeping in it. Confused at first, I then realised that the bottom of the travel case was plastic, so prior to that she'd been slipping around each time we went around a bend or braked, poor thing. She's a clever cookie to have worked it out on her own - the tray didn't budge an inch and she slept soundly the rest of the way.

5. Speaking of sleep...

Remember if you're travelling through the day your little one will want to sleep. Initially they'll run around like crazy trying to eat everything in sight (at least Riggle did), but eventually the excitement will wear off, they'll realise they're in it for the long haul and they'll want to curl up and snooze. Have a blanket ready to cover their travel case so it's not too bright for them. Ideally you want to find a balance between thick enough to block the light, but thin enough that it doesn't trap too much heat. We didn't think this far ahead, so all we had was a denim jacket.

6. Keeping them cool.

We covered hydration, but another issue is that hamsters can't regulate their own temperate very easily. They mostly do this through water and controlling how much bedding they have around them, neither of which is up to them in a carrier. We kept the air conditioning on most of the time in the car (even when slightly cold ourselves) to keep it comfortable for Riggle - especially as the less-than-ideal denim jacket trapped a lot of heat in on an already sunny day.

We also turned the car into a bit of an ice box prior to getting on the ferry as we knew we wouldn't be able to do anything for the 2 hours we were on there.

7. Attention and when to give it.

Finally, you will be tempted to check on your furry friend frequently. It's natural to worry about them over such long distances - at one point I considered opening the carrier because Riggle was so still I was certain she had died. A yawn and a stretch a few moments later meant I didn't have to disturb her, but I was arguing with myself for a long time over whether I was being silly or not. Remember #5 - they will probably sleep through a lot of your journey, perhaps waking up whenever you stop for a break yourself. Just make sure to offer them water whenever they're awake, watch for signs of stress and then leave them to it. Overdoing it will just stress them out further. Then get ready for a big hug that night when you reach your destination!

8. The main cage.

I was in a rather unique situation that Riggle's cage wouldn't be coming with us as it wouldn't fit in the car. The plan was to have the new one shipped directly to where we'd be staying, but we left it too late so our final solution was to have the new (much bigger) cage flat packed in among the boxes of my things and to build it when we arrived the other end.

You'll need to think about where their cage is going in the car; remember to store loose pieces separately, empty and clean the cage before you leave and bring plenty of bedding and other bits and pieces with you. There's nothing worse than bedding flying everywhere and if you're on a longer journey things can get a little smelly in the carrier (sorry Riggs but someone had to say it) so they'll want a fresh bed to move into.

And that's everything! You're now set to take your hamster with you on a long drive. Do you think I've missed anything? I'd love to hear your travel stories in the comments! And also whether your hamster is as weird as mine in her love of being upside down.. I look forward to sharing more Chronicles of Riggle with you over time. :)

Love,
Ami
xx

Pack Up The Car, I'm Moving To Belfast!

Ohey friend!

In my last blog I casually dropped in that I've moved to Belfast as if it was no biggie, when really it was quite a spur-of-the-moment decision that happened very quickly. From making the decision to moving was actually under 6 weeks - only 3 of which were spent in Bristol preparing to move (and to be really dramatic, 2 of those weeks I was either too ill to move or in and out of hospital to boot) so you might imagine things were a little hectic!

Not one to skimp on the details, I thought you'd like to know the story of the run up to the move and moving day itself. Once again we're going to skip over the romance element, except to say that it has been chick-flick perfect in it's butterfly-inducing, weepy-eyed soppy-ness. Instead we're gonna jump straight to the the whys, the hows and the journey itself.

The Whys

Aside from wanting to move in with Chris there were a few other reasons that this move made sense to me. Like I mentioned before, I've never lived outside of Bath & Bristol, which seem quite big until you look at the much, much bigger picture. I'd call myself pretty adventurous, but I know that in reality I'm rather timid and my adventures are limited to my comfort zone (or a teeny bit outside it at best). Moving not only away from my family but away from the country I was born in altogether is by far the biggest and scariest thing I've done and that can only be a good thing for me.

It also comes at a stage in my life where things are very open. I was (and still am) only working 6 hours a week for Discover Your Bounce, along with a few other clients that still only add up to a small amount of my time. I was moving back in with the 'rents, so I had no ties to bills, contracts or major responsibilities - not something you experience often! So all in all I was full of possibility and the world was my oyster! My job has come with me - I do all of my tasks virtually so there was no issue on the income front. In time I may get something part time here too or expand my virtual hours, but I'm lucky that it's not essential. I'm planning lots of visits back to Bristol and everyone is excited about visiting here, so seeing my loved ones is not the issue I originally worried it might be either.

What I'd really like to do is focus more time on getting this blog running again and making money on here. I had a little success in the past with this so I've got somewhere to start. :)

The Hows

When it became clear that we were going to be spending a lot of money on flights (and delaying flights when we didn't want to part) the actual decision to move was a rather obvious one. I booked a slightly longer visit (and then extended it by another week while I was here) and we started the house hunting process.

Housing is way cheaper here than in Bristol so we were looking for 2 bedroom houses close-ish to Chris' work. While a lot of them fit our requirements, very few lived up to expectation and a lot of estate agents expected us to have all of the paperwork ready to go the second we were ready to apply. This wasn't something we were prepared for and a lot of my stuff was still in Bristol - past experiences had said I would have time to supply all of it at a later date so I didn't think to bring it just for the viewing phase.

As fate would have it someone Chris knows is in the final stages of buying a rental property that ticks all of our boxes and then some, plus it's absolutely beautiful, so at the last minute we had somewhere to move when I returned with a car full of my belongings.

And I really do mean a car full of my belongings. We worked out that by putting the seats down the back of my car would fit 8 stackable boxes, 1 large suitcase and 2 cabin bags, plus anything we could squeeze into the gaps. So my task was to either sell, give away or throw out anything that would not fit into that space. It took a monumental effort, but with the help of my family I actually succeeded. There is now 1 box of my things at mum's to be brought at a later date, but everything else is gone or in Ireland and I consider that one of our biggest achievements to date! We didn't manage to get a good picture of the car loaded up but I promise you there was not a single gap left when we were done. Chris even had to save me at one point from falling debris - it was stacked right to the backs of our chairs! Here's a selfie I took from the Port before we got on the ferry:

Happy, smiley people!

You might be wondering why we would go to this much trouble when I could've just shipped my stuff over and hopped a one hour flight. You see, I haven't introduced you to the newest member of my family yet and she wasn't someone I would be willing to leave behind. It is with absolute delight that I introduce you to Riggle!

Just look at that face!

Riggle is a Syrian Hamster who has been with me for 10 months now and she is very aptly named. She's a little lightning bolt with the quirkiest of personalities and there was no way I was going to Belfast without her, which meant we would need to travel by car and ferry.

Not wanting to leave her unattended in the car for too long we opted to take a longer drive (7 hours) but shorter ferry (2 hours 15), meaning we had to drive to Cairnryan Port in Scotland. That is no mean feat I am telling you, especially when I was suffering from intermittent blurry vision due to medication and recovering from a week of medical experiments.. I mean tests.

The Journey

But on 31st July at 11am that's exactly what we set off to do with Riggle in a carry case on the passenger's lap. Not wanting to burden Chris with all the driving I took the first stint, while my eyesight was reliable and my energy at it's peak. I was hoping to last 2 hours, unsure I'd even make 1 but in the end I managed to rack up half of the drive myself - a whole 3.5 hours in the drivers seat! It doesn't sound like much, but I was really pleased with myself (and very tired).

Chris took the second half of the drive and we made it to the port with half an hour to spare. Chris gets a special high five at this point because the playlist he set up for us (full of 90s classics and roadtrip must-haves) was only 2 songs short of being long enough for the entire journey and that's an achievement all of its' own!

The ferry ride was uneventful - we had some food, wandered the shops and settled in the lounge until it was time to head back to the car. Leaving Riggle in the car was tough for me - I worried she would get too hot or too thirsty and the trip would be too much for her, but she was a little star and was alert and waiting for us when we got back. I've got a whole blog coming up dedicated to travelling long distances with hamsters as there's more to consider than you think!

The port is only a 15 minute drive from Chris's mum's house (where we're staying while the sale on our new home completes) so it was a quick drive and then the reverse of our morning - unpacking all the boxes and building Riggle a cage so she could sleep for the night.

Tired, boiling hot and giggling like children at how everything had somehow worked out, we eventually landed in bed at 1am.

It's been a week since I arrived now and things are going as smoothly as I could've hoped. There have been challenges (sleeping with a hamster in your room is not something I recommend) and learning lessons (finding a GP is harder than it looks if you want them to have a specialist interest in your conditions - another post for another day) but also lots of laughter and not a moment of regret.

So there you have it! I hope you had as much fun reading the story of my move to Belfast as I had trying to keep it this short. My wordy blogs have not improved with time it seems, although I promise I have some shorter ones planned for you too!

Until next time my dear..

Love,
Ami
xx