Well, you might be wondering what these little dudes are just here... Well they're Lemmings... Steppe Lemmings to be precise! Although they aren't mine, they are my brothers'. As you can see they both look very similar, so they've still basically have no name... I've suggested to call them Bert and Ernie, but he doesn't know which is which, so they're generally refered to 'as the Lemmings'

August 2004

As my brother went on holiday I was left baby sitting his Lemmings. Awww.

Well, I do have to say that they are quite dumb. They had a tendancy not to realise your finger was there until you were actually poking them. As I had to clean them out during their stay - water leaked and bedding was all wet, I had the chance to play with the little dudes. They were surprisingly friendly, and quite happily climbed up into my hand to have a look around and then, being dumb they would just like roll off it... madness. Got quite a cool video clip of one doing just that, and then taking a long hard look at the camera as if to say 'What you lookin at?!'

 

 

 

Ok, so I am assume you want some actual information on Steppe Lemmings then?? Well I can try to supply some, although I guess not all that much is known about them.

Steppe Lemmings originate, well from the steppes, and so their main diet would be root vegetables and grains. It is rumoured that Steppe Lemmings are infact sugar intolerant, however this has never been prooved. But seems as they would not have much sugar in their natural diet it is best not to give it anyway, in case this theory should indeed be true. So the best diet to provide would be a wild bird seed mix with flash dried grass and a part of a root veg like carrot once a week. If you can not find flash dried grass then you can always use straw or hay, but these are not as nutritious as the flash dried grass.

Steppe Lemmings do not have a massively long life span and they are generally expected to live between 15-18 months.

There are now a number of breeders in the UK breeding Steppe Lemmings, and they seem to be fairly popular at the moment because they are easy to look after and are actually pretty friendly - if a bit lacking in brain cells- they also must have a wheel and be sure to house them away from drafts as they are pretty suseptable to cold. There are also a lot of breeders experimenting with keeping Steppe Lemmings in colonies, but there seems to be a mix of experiences, some find they do very well in colonies, where others have found them to fight. So perhaps it is best to keep them in pairs for safety.