Breeding Syrian Hamsters
Help Your Pet Hamster to Have Babies Safely
Your pet Syrian hamster likes its own space. It needs its own cage by the time it is eight weeks old. Breeding hamsters is easy when you know how, but it is also hard work.
As a responsible pet owner, you will need to care for both the mother and babies properly, make sure that the male babies are split away from Mum at the correct age, and find homes for all the babies which may be as few as two, but can be as many as eleven or twelve. There is a lot to consider before breeding your pet.
Breeding Your Female Hamster
Your female hamster will come into season every four days. You will soon learn to spot when she is ready to be mated. If you stroke her sides, she will stand quite still, four legs apart and tail in the air. Only this night will she accept a male without attacking him.
She must be at least eight weeks old and no older than six months old for her first litter, or she may have problems giving birth.
Introduce the male and female on neutral territory: a solid plastic crate would be fine. Do not leave them alone as the risk of the female attacking the male is constant. The male will mate with the female for about 20 minutes, repeatedly, getting on and off her and having a clean. She should stand still.
Immature males may need encouragement to know what to do. If the female loses her concentration and decides to look round, it is best to get ready to remove the male. Use a plastic jug or cup to place over the female and take the male out.
Preparing for the Hamster Babies
Gestation is 16 days, or sometimes the 17th morning. If your hamster has not given birth by this point and is obviously pregnant, then take her to the Vet. The day before your hamster is due to give birth, clean her cage thoroughly. Paper bedding or torn-up kitchen towel is best as nesting material.
You might like to offer her porridge oats soaked in a little cold milk to help build her up.
Babies are usually born at night. Leave the mother hamster to attend to things. She should build a nest then give birth to each baby, removing the birth sac with her teeth. When she has had all her babies, they will be at the bottom of a tall nest. She should wipe her tummy over the edge of the nest when getting up to leave all the babies in the nest. You will hear squeaking and may see blood on the nest.
Try to keep quiet round the cage and not disturb the mother hamster too much for the first week. Be careful not to get your smell on the nest. If any babies are accidentally left out, then scoop them up with a teaspoon and drop them in, taking mother hamster out of the cage for a moment.
Development of the Baby Hamsters
At about ten days, the first babies escape the nest. By sixteen days, they should all be out. Their colours will be clear and their eyes just opening. You can now give the cage its first clean. By three weeks they look like hamsters. At 27 days old, the males should be removed from the cage and into their own cage where they can live together for up to another four weeks. Depending on how fed-up Mum is getting with them, the females can stay a few days longer.
By five weeks old, the babies are ready for their new homes. If you have handled them regularly after the first cleaning then they will be lovely and tame. They do not bite when they come out of the nest, but they are very fast and the challenge is keeping them safe.
Enjoy your hamsters. Always be aware that each will be an individual animal requiring its own cage by eight weeks old, and find homes as soon as you know how many there are.
Hamster Babies Aged 22 Days
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