Many of you may remember the cartoon Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. It aired on Saturday morning in the early 70’s. I remember as a six year old I was obsessed with the show. To pay homage to the show I named my pet hamster Fat Albert. To my amazement my hamster lived up to his name. He grew to the size of a guinea pig! I remember seeing a picture plate in a psychology book my freshman year of college of a rat whose hypothalamus was destroyed. One of the jobs of the hypothalamus is to regulate appetite control. Without a signal to the brain from the hypothalamus that you are full you can eat yourself to death. That is exactly what this rat had succeeded to do, ate himself to death.
The only way I am able to explain my oversized hamster is that his hypothalamus had been compromised or he had hypothyroidism. I don’t recall giving him free and unbridled access to food so the mystery remains unsolved. If I were to guess I think he had an under active thyroid.
What I do recall is that he was unusually large. I convinced my mother that I needed to enter Fat Albert in a pet show at a local park. The judges walked around the park assessing all of the pets. One of the judges stopped to take a look at Fat Albert. She said: “that is an unusual looking guinea pig.” My response to her was tinged with offense. “He is a hamster!” She seemed taken aback and perhaps a bit incredulous. When the ribbons were passed out and the winners announced, Fat Albert had won second prize as the “Most Unusual Pet.” I was quite proud of my furry anomoly.
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