Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful X-mas and a fabulous New year and what better way then with a festive Fennec!

Have a great Holiday season everyone!

- The Flashmans

PS: Not chosen a name for Mr Sapphire yet, will inform the winner when I have but keep the suggestions coming!

Happy belated Halloween

Firstly I would like to say HAPPY HALLOWEEN for yesterday, as would young Akiko the fennec fox:



Yesterday was a wonderful day here in the Flashman household with many more treats then tricks. Valla and Sprite sported matching Halloween costumes of which both girls were very happy, Valla even more so then Sprite as she had cloths that were hers this did however not stop her from trying to take Sprite's too but what can I say, she is a fox and they do very much like to have belongings.

Though none of the other foxes got to dress up they still joined in the merriment with treats of various luxury meats mixed into their normal food such as venison, duck, pheasant and such which they very much enjoyed!

I have taken many, many photos for you all however I have misplaced my camera so I shall when I find it I shall post the photos as soon as possible for you all to enjoy. As for now to keep you all amused have this video if Sprite and Akiko playing:

It is quite long next to our normal videos but I urge you to watch right until the end to see the magic which is Akiko swapping from a white mouse to a black mouse without anyone noticing and no camera trickery at all!

When I said that none of the other foxes bar Valla got to dress up I might have lied a little but only the tiniest little bit. You see Sapphire has donned her fall coat which we have been joking makes her look like she was dressed as a ghost for Halloween.



You will have noticed that I said her 'Fall coat' which will have puzzled you as you, being a lover of foxes will know that they only have two coats; one for winter and one for summer. Well, I have dubbed Sapphire's current coat her Fall coat as whenever I think she is as light as a blue phase Arctic will get she gets lighter so I am not totally sure if she is quite done her transformation yet.

This photo was taken on October 17th:


And this one on October 30th:


I think you will agree that she has changed a fair amount in a very short time frame.

I must say it is very odd to think that this large pale grey creature was once the tiny little black one depicted here:

Well I shall go now to find my camera, it must be here somewhere but I suppose the question as always is where. . .

TTFN!

Fennec fox Vs Papillon round 1

Sprite, the papillon has become more and more fond of playing with Akiko the fennec fox the bigger she grows. I think now Sprite is not as worried as she was before about breaking the tiny delicate little fennec.

As always Sprite will only play rough on a bed or sofa which is great as I am quite sure that if they played on the wood floor someone would get hurt. 

Akiko is getting quite good at understanding how to play, she knows that is Sprite squeaks she should let her go. 

I took a few photos of the two of them last night along with the above video, I hope you guys like them!:

In the last photo Akiko's eyes are the oddest colour, they are not like that normally before anyone asks.

Though Akiko may understand that when Sprite squeaks it means to leave her alone she has yet to learn that when I squeak I mean the same:

My poor toes! 

You may have noticed the red patch on Akiko's thigh? That is from her red feather cat teaser, she slept next to it the other night and it dyed her fur and I cannot wash it off so she is stuck with this red patch for now. I do not think I would mind so much if it was a funny colour but that it is red makes her look wounded! Maybe I can pass it off as a Halloween costume on the 31st? hehe! 

Akiko's tower.

It is not just Sapphire who has a new house, she is not even the only one to have two new houses as young Akiko the fennec fox has moved up in the world quite literally:

I had ordered her a ferret nation over a month ago but the company seem  to have never sent it but thankfully they gave me a refund which was great as the same day I managed to scoop a critter nation which is basically the same cage for half the price! Until the Critter nation arrives young Akiko has my sisters old ferret cage which is okay for now but I would never go out of my way to buy one for a fennec. There really is not much room to play and it is hard to get her out without encountering a ramp on your way.  This cage is great as a gap filler though. 

One of Akiko's favourite things is the tiny new bed I got her:

It is meant to be for rats and chinchilla's but it seems just perfect for a young fennec:

Look at those ears!:

I was really worried this morning when I went to give Akiko her breakfast of live Moreo worms as when she stood up one of her hind legs was all red! I thought she was hurt but then I noticed that the red that was on her leg matched the red of the feathery cat teaser that I have dangling in her cage, above her bed! Sometimes I think my foxes have a competition to see who can worry me the most. 

As Akiko gets through 24 moreo worms per day at least and her parents get through twice that my partner decided to try his hand at 'farming' them, he has been doing this for about a month maybe. He is also growing meal worms. 

The meal worms are going really well however the moreo worms just seemed to be getting bigger but not changing into pupae so we read up how to encourage them to do this and long story short he now has 4 huge, disgusting white pupae. When he showed me I ran out of the room screaming. I had thought spiders were the only thing that could do that to me but apparently not! Learn something new every day. . . 

I would end this entry by showing you all a photo of these disgusting, wiggling things BUT as I will not go near them let alone plaster their images all over my blog I will end today with a photo of Inari who, like the pupae is nearly white but he is awfully cute;

Even if he was being a grump! 

Valla - Britain's next top model

Last night when I stopped blogging and decided that maybe it was time for bed Valla did something I had never, ever seen a non human do. . . She bit her tongue!

Now you may giggle, I actually am right now and it did look funny when she did it as it was like she forgot to put her tongue away BUT having such very big, sharp teeth it actually was quite worrying. There was blood, not much but blood at all makes me worry with my kids, mostly with my fur kids as with Audrey my only non furry kid I can sort out but with my fur kids the exotics vet is over an hour away and is not open in the middle of the night.

ANYWAY the blood that was coming from her tongue looked like far more then there was as she is blonde and it had gotten on her fur and combined with her drool had covered her face. She was a bit freaked out so ran to my room and sat in my closet. (She likes hiding under my dresses when she is in a mood.) When I picked her up out of there she snuggled into me and started licking my hands. It did not take me long to notice she was licking my hands as she could not lick her own tongue so this was the best she could do as the blood from her tongue was going on my hands and she could lick that off. A little while after she stopped licking my hands she decided to try to lick in my mouth as she did not see why I was not licking her poor tongue better! This was a wee bit too much so I passed her onto Sprite who was more then happy to help her best friend.

So Valla is all okay now, she was just a bit worried as was I but she was back to running around with Sprite a few minuets later however she still felt a bit sorry for herself.

Prior to the tongue incident Valla had seen me putting a jumper on Sprite who wanted to go in the garden but was so very cold. Valla did not understand why she was not being treated the same, why she was not being put into a jumper so she decided to run off with one!

It was very, very funny as she looked at all of Sprite's clothing for a while until she decided that the brown jacket would be perfect for herself. (I think it was the golden coloured buttons that closed the deal.)

I called Valla back to me and she came, reluctantly as she was quite sure I would be upset with her. I then went to get the coat from where she had hidden it.

As Valla sat on the bed watching me as I put the coat away I decided to let her try it out. I was being unfair not letting her join in and she seemed to think I had decided Sprite was now my favourite as she looked very unhappy.

Foxes normally do not care if you want to involve them in things but Valla really hates it when Sprite does anything she is not allowed to do or gets things she is not allowed to have so we normally make sure not to do that, the girls always have the same things.

SO I put Valla's new harness on her which seemed to be a hit as it has little diamanté bit's on it and then I put the jacket on her. I would NEVER have thought a fox would be so happy to join in with a dog wearing clothing!

Valla spun around on the bed and ran down the hall after Sprite, I would suppose to show her how she was doing the same thing. Sprite seemed confused as to why Valla was so excited about just wearing a jacket and retreated back to my room. Valla was not far behind.

As I had my camera on my bedside cabinet I decided to take a few photos.













I posted a few of the photos on Facebook and a friend said that Valla would look nice in pink so as Valla was already having such a good time trying out Sprites wardrobe I let her try on a pink jumper too:



As you can see I was not holding her lead, she was too busy bouncing on her favourite trampoline in her stylish new togs to care hehe.



Valla noticing that she had her lead on.







Oh no she's found Sprite's morning treat bag! I just love the 'hunting' foot hehe.



Practising her zombie eyes ready for Halloween.



Her show dog pose. You have no idea how hard it is to get her to stand like that. It involves allot of treats hehe.

And here is my beautiful girl in just her new harness:





Her brush is so fluffy! It is not as long as Rudi's but it is so poofy I just adore it!

I just wanted to say that I would never have put Valla in the cloths if she did not want to. Unlike Sprite she has a winter coat on her naturally and thus has no need for winter wear, I just let her try them on to join in with Sprite and as you can see she enjoyed it.

Valla's new harness is the same as the one Freyja had but in black opposed to pink. It is mean to be for adult cats but it is still way too big for Valla even on the smallest settings. You can see how much of her is just fur.

Poor Akiko, like Sprite has no winter coat but also has no winter coats so she has stolen my stripy hot water bottle:



Earlier today I had quite a shock as I was peeling mangoes to dehydrate for Audrey's lunch and Rudi jumped on the kitchen counter, took a mango skin and ran off! I was totally amazed that he managed the jump with but 3 working legs and more amazed that he managed to land on his 3 good legs!

He does not seem to impressed with him mango skin but he will not give it up for anything, not even a chicken wing as I think he is proud of himself for getting it. . . I must be honest, I am proud of him too.

The fennec formerly known as ' Princess '

So as 'Princess' go older and we had to use her name more often ("Princess, drop the sock!", "Princess don't poop there!" etc) we decided that we really had to change her name.


We had planned to for some time but it had become quite urgent as Valla, Sprite, Elspeth, Sapphire and even my 7yr old human daughter Audrey were becoming increasingly annoyed with me telling them off for things they did not do as I have a habit of calling all my girls 'Princess'.


I tried many, many names and none seemed to stick and I constantly caught myself calling her 'Princess' so I asked for help on Sybil's den (http://www.raskbb.com/sybilsden/) and Facebook where many people gave me many ideas but none quite worked until 'the_unstable' on Sybil's den posted a link to a website with Japanese names.


After many hours sat there with 'Princess' on my knee I tried many, many names and eventually narrowed it down to two: Akiko which means Autumn or Bright child or Kimiko which means happy beautiful or noble child.


With the help of Kimberly Deverell and her Japanese language skills she was able to tell me that the meanings were correct and I chose Akiko (Bright child).


SO without further a-do here is Akiko the fennec fox kit:

We also gave her a brand new (also her very first) collar to go with that new name: 

She looks like she 'belongs' now. 


The weather has been so very odd here as of late, this time last week it was 27 degrees and yet now it is so very cold! When it was hot Harry, Elspeth, Rudi, Valla and Sapphire were so very moody as they have their winter coats on and just could not cope with the heat. The fennecs were in their element and were so very happy with the extra days of sunshine. 


Thankfully for our winter wear foxes it has cooled right down which has now upset the fennecs, I just cannot win! Akiko has decided that a cushion on the radiator or one of the cat beds that hooks on are perfect for her: 





Her parents have decided that sleeping atop each other is more their sort of thing. 


Sprite the Papillon is also a fair weather critter and seeing as she has no undercoat and unlike the fennecs does have to go outside to go to the bathroom and go for walks I got her some jumpers and coats: 














When we were getting Sprite her Winter attire we saw the most adorable cat toy which we thought would be perfect for Akiko. It is a cube covered in the same stuff as a cat's scratch post with the shapes of cat heads cut out on four sides with mice hung in the cut outs on elastic. 











I am very glad to say that it is a hit! 

However so too is a the top of a juice carton. . . 

Oh well, whatever makes her happy! 


I must be off as Sprite and Valla are arguing over a jacket hehe. 


TTFN! 

And then there was one. . .

So here we are 21 days since my last post and my lap is decidedly empty with but one Phoenix kit sitting on it; Princess, who has become very clingy since her brothers Giggles and Churchill and her sister Amali went to their new homes.

Giggles went to a pet home on September 11th, the same day Amali went to live with http://debonaireexoticanimalencounters.com/  and hopefully the future love of her life Pharaoh who is a few months older then her who I had the pleasure to meet at the Ark exotics awareness back in July.  Here are Pharaoh and Amali together:

Pharaoh was the sole survivor of a litter of two kits and I think that is why he seems so mellow next to Amali who grew up with 3 siblings (and a Papillon) to play with at all hours of the day and night. I am sure he will become more accustomed to her idea of play in time. Thankfully she really seems to like him!

Churchill stayed with us  for an extra week before going to his new pet home in Wales. He seems to be having an amazing time with his new family especially his new mum Paula.

Here he is in his new home where his new name is Phoenix:

Doing his favourite thing, eating! I am glad the move did not effect his appetite hehe!

Exploring:

Phoenix: 'Shh I'm hiding! :

And then there was one.

Young 'Princess' took her big brother moving out worst then when her Amali and Giggles left as 'Churchill' was her great protector. He was the ring leader and the bravest of them where she was very much the most fearful when it came to exploration.  Now instead of eating Morio worms being great fun she is a little worried of them and yesterday actually ran away from them! Before her big brother would have saved her but now that job belonged to Sprite the papillon who also does not like them so insects being a staple of her diet was not going so well so we downgraded her back to meal worms which she seems allot less worried about.


Here is a video of 'Princess' and Churchill eating moreo worms:

I think 'Princess' needs a man in her life, not necessarily a mate, just someone to protect her as now she has decided that my partner is her favourite of the humans and will sit and watch him for hours calling to him whenever she cannot see him to be sure he has not gone far. She also likes to sit on his lap but that is tricky as the other lap fox in my partner life Sapphire the arctic fox is SO big he cannot hug them both at once for fear that Sapphire will crush 'Princess'.

You may wonder why I keep writing 'Princess' like that, well I am still not sure what to name her. The other day she was 'Prinseski' as my other half watched something about Russia, she has been Persil as she is small and mighty I just do not know what to name her. Should I name her something Japanese like Inari and Kitsune or maybe something Egyptian? I cannot decide so if any of you have any ideas let me know. My 7 year old daughter thinks Tinkerbell is nice or Tinker but she already named one of my Asian garden dormice Tinkerbell so we can't reuse the same names. I thought maybe Pixie as they are meant to have pointy ears and then I would have Sprite and Pixie. . . I don't know, I like the idea of all the corsacs names matching and all the fennecs names matching. . . Is there a Japanese Pixie?

Here are some random photos of the Phoenix kits last week or so together:

Bath time! 

A visit to see Auntie Nix:

Together:

And then there was one: 

I have so many more photos I need to upload of everyone and videos I need to edit but sadly I have to go now, I am falling to sleep at my desk so good night people!