hamster babies?

Question

how long till i can hould a hamster baby ... and when can i seprat them all ????

Answer 1

do not touch or hold them until they are 2 weeks old!!!!
seperate themat 4 weeks or older!!

Answer 2

During the first 2-3 weeks of raising the babies, you should try not to disturb the nest. Do not clean the cage for at least the first 2 weeks.

Disturbing the nest or touching the babies can encourage the mother to kill some or all of her litter. You may not be able to see the babies, as the mother will keep them warm at all times, and cover them up while she is away from the nest.

The eyes will open at around 14 days, they will have a full coat of fur and you can start to think about handling them carefully, and for short periods of time whilst you clean the cage.

After around 21 days, the babies can be weaned from the mother, as they will no longer need her milk - although they may want to keep suckling. Shortly after they have been weaned, they need to be separated into two cages (one for each sex) where they can live for another 2-3 weeks before they will need an individual cage per hamster.

good luck xDD♥

oo- and some extra:

Day 1: Hairless, blind; thin protective covering over eyes
Day 2: Begin to develop skin color
Day 5: Develop fur, taste real food, and begin grooming
Days 14 & 15: Thin covering over eyes disappears, stuff food into cheek pouches
Day 17: Leave nest and play with other hamsters
Days 21 - 25: Can leave the mother
Days 35 - 42: Sexually mature

Answer 3

One can’t just take his eyes off hamster pups, as these tiny cute little creatures will sure have your attention. The small fragile babies are born without any fur and are closely attached to their mother. Though you may have the desire to hold them, bare in mind that there is nothing you can do within two weeks period after delivery.

REMEMBER NOT TO TOUCH THE BABIES!! Your action might harm the babies and change its scent thus confuses the mother. She will think that they are not hers, abandon them and worst she might even eat the babies (it did happened to my hamsters). Not to cause any stress to the mother, avoid cleaning up the cage within this period. It is advisable to place the babies at the bottom of the cage as none of them had opened their eyes yet.

After this ‘vital’ period, you can hold them but only for a brief period as not to disturb or stress the mom or babies. You can also clean up the cage and place fresh beddings in most of it. Remove just the soiled parts in the nest area and put a good portion of the old bedding in it. Put the babies back in the nest after it is cleaned up followed by the mother.

Once the babies eyes are opened (which should occur on the 11-12 days, but some take less/more), they should figure out how the bottle works. In order for them to reach it easily, put it lower and in an area where they frequently go. If they haven’t figured out how to use the bottle and you are worried about them not drinking enough, you can give them pieces of cucumbers to prevent dehydration. Do not put water in a bowl to prevent them from falling in and drown or catch a cold.


At three weeks, you can separate the babies if you observe any fighting among them but if they seem immature, less developed and not quite independent enough to leave mom just yet, let them stay together until they are four weeks old. When they reach five weeks old, independent and have a healthy development, they can be placed in new homes and play in new surroundings and environment.

Answer 4

Not unless she is disturbed. You have to leave the nest COMPLETELY alone. If the mother is scared, or smells your scent on her babies, she will almost certainly kill them. Just put food in the cage each day like usual, btu don't even TOUCH the nest until the baby hamsters are bigger and moving around.

Answer 5

If the mom trusts you....you can hold them. But be careful because hamsters are cannibalistic. Wash your hands then hold the mom. Then hold the baby. Always wash your hands with the same soap before you hold them. If the mom thinks that her babies are in any danger she will kill and eat them. You can separate them when they are about 2 months old or when they are eating on their own and their eyes are open.

Answer 6

When breeding, it's always a good idea to count the days of pregnancy... They are usually pregnant 15 to 17 days and the mother can spread out each birth anywhere from 20 to hour and 30 minutes. So, when cleaning the mothers cage, do so on the 13th or 14th day...

Since this really doesn't apply to your question, perhaps it could be helpful in the future? I did that-- as I bred Syrians, as for the robos or chinese, it's around the same time frame.

Do NOT touch the babies until 3 weeks. That is when you can ween the babies. The males will need to be seperated from the females, and the females should live with their mother an extra week.

If you are to touch or mess around with the cage, the mother could unintentionally eat the babies as to protect them by stuffing them in her pouch-- which would cut off oxygen to her litter.

If a mother hamster is to bite off a leg, ear, paw, etc...let her do it-- as she'll eat a part of the baby because she will sense something is wrong with it, and find that the baby is better off without the limb, than having it.

I know people have mentioned hamsters being cannibalistic-- this is not so.. They do NOT like eating the babies.. They do so, to protect the rest of the litter from disease. And the mother does not JUST eat the baby, they stuff them.. Then, the mother will find out the baby died, and because there is no place to put the baby as for the rest of the litter to be safe from "it's" disease, she will eat it.

There is a difference between cannibalism, and sacrifice. I'm sure humans can relate if we had to operate in that same manner.

If the mother tries to eat the baby-- let her, because if you touch the area (inside the cage), the mother will feel as if you've disturbed them all, and instead of killing one, like I said, she'll try to protect those that remain by stuffing.

Just don't touch 'em till 3 weeks, when you are to ween them. The boys must be seperated because they'll fight with the females. And then, if the males fight eachother, they must be seperated. Same goes with the females.

I had a litter once, where two of the females ganged up on the mother... If that happens, seperate them all, as Syrians are solitary hamsters.

If you can't/ or don't have a place for each one, put them in a little box. Petco or Petsmart has lil boxes... just make sure they don't get out.... And, you may want to sell them to the petstore unless you have people you're giving them to...Just remember for the hamsters sake, that whoever is buying/ being given a hamster(s), that they have all the right stuff...

I hate to see hamster(s) be given out to people who mistreat them, and or feed them to their snakes, etc...Or those who have a cage, but nothing in it-- to where the home is boring.

I bred hamsters for color morphs, show hamsters, and temperament. I sold them to many petstores for 7 each.. However, I was under a breeder contract. If a breeder contract does not apply to you --which is usually at least 2 years-- You may still sell them to an accredited petstore, but they must have been checked out by a professional veterinarian beforehand, papers and all. And because you are not on a contract with the accredited petstores, expect no more than 5 dollars each.

You can however sell them to an accredited petstore, IE: Petco, Petsmart, etc..without having veterinary documents, but don't expect 7 bucks.. The only reason I had my animals checked out were for temperament and genetic diseases'. As you can imagine, breeding 475 hamsters every month with no research on anyone of them, and no file(s), nothing, would do me no importance of breeding in the first place.

If the petstore is unaccredited, ie: "Bobs Animals," or "Janes Petstore," don't expect more than 3 dollars a hamster, no matter what kind it is.

Other than that, if you have not decided, after the 4th week, the females need to be seperated from the mother and kept together for about 2 to 3 weeks.. Most of the time, my litter of boys are ready to be out on their own after 3 weeks being together-- and the females are good to go till around 2 weeks, rather than 3 weeks to a month.

So.. it kind of balances out in most situations where all the babies need to be seperated into their own cages at about the same time.

When you seperate the females from the mother-- leave the mother be, as she will probably be tired. As for breeding her again, wait about 4 months to let her rest up. I have 17 retired breeding mothers... They each had 3 litters.. Anymore than 3 is pushing their living capability and decreasing their moral. It's also good to keep them or give them away to someone that will take care of them, rather than selling them at the petstore-- as it could be months before they are received into a household....by that time, the retired breeding mother/ father is near death.

Umm...something else I was gonna say....oh!! A lot of people think it's okay to interbreed-- but it's not. Diabetes is more common in hamsters that are interbred or breeding within the family...

So, I always breed using 2 completely seperate families of each type of hamster.. So, if this is what's happened, your hamsters may catch diabetes...There are other kinds of interbred problems such as the "flippy," where the hamster does a complete backflip and lands on his feet.. It's about as equal to our terrets syndrome. The hamster can't control it and really won't know what it's doing. Another good reason to not risk interbreeding.

I could go on all day about hamsters, but I think this is enough for now. So, I'll shut up now...Take care, and good luck with the new litter...

--Rob

Answer 7

Hi...my experience is this. You can touch the little ones at around two weeks if they're wandering around on their own.
They should be weened at 3 weeks, seperate boys from girls at 4 weeks, and if you're going to give them away...wait until they're 6 weeks.
Good luck and have fun!

Answer 8

hamsters are sexually mature by 12 weeks. one pair and their children can reproduce continuouly. ou should separae the males and females and contact a pet store to get off spring off your hands or it will get out of control. i would wait at least two weeks to handle babies. momma hamsters can be nasty.

Answer 9

U should wait atleast until there eyes are opened and even then it is a bit risky. When I raised the lil guys I waited until they were eating and drinking reg. food on there own to remove them or handle them, just to be safe.

Answer 10

Well. You should seperate them from the mother in a couple of months. Than once they opened their eyes you can try to hold them.