Hamster Babies?

Question

My hamster had babies last saturday night. Mama hamster has allowed me to change the bedding without freaking out. She and the five babies are living in this tiny little wooden house. I was wondering if I could remove the house, so we can watch the babies grow. Plus it stinks in the cage.....this cant be good for the babies.

Answer 1

nest should not be disturbed for at least ten days. just do some spot cleaning in areas where mom leaves the nest to go pee. give mom small amounts of hard boiled egg & cheese for extra protein.

Answer 2

Leave the house. If mamma's territory or comfort spot is disturbed then ignoring the babies may be the way she vents. Also, you are going to want to separate the babies from mamma at about 2 1/2- 3 mths. The male babies are sexually active at this time and can impregnate momma and sisters. And keep an eye on momma for another litter. Small animals can hold sperm and pop out babies again at about that time if she decides to.

Answer 3

Leave the cage and the babies alone until they are at least 10 days old. Your mama hamster will be defensive with them, and messing around with where and how they live will only cause her distress. If she feels the pups are in any danger, she can and will eat the babies.

This is not something she will do because she doesn't like the babies. It's a survival mechanism. If a pup is sick, or the litter is too large for her to safely feed, or if she senses a danger that might cause death to a pup, she will eat it to avoid it dying another way.

Spot clean the cage only. Don't go near the nest until the pups are 10 days old. At 10 days, they will be wandering around the cage on their own from time to time, they will have fur, and their eyes will be open.

Remove your mama hamster from the cage first, and put her in a tub or somewhere safe so you can change the bedding. Once you have her out, you can carefully get the pups out to clean the entire cage top to bottom.

The pups will be extremly fragil, so be careful when handling them to not squeeze them, or drop them at all. This can cause broken limbs or ribs very easily, which can cause death.

At 10 days, the pups will also be trying to eat on their own, but are not ready to be weaned. Provide them with cucumber slices (remove the skin) to eat. It's high in liquid content, so they won't dehydrate, and it's good for them. It's good for mom, as well, and they'll all enjoy the treat. To prevent squabling over it, take 2 slices, and cut them into 4's, and stick all of them in the cage so there are enough for each ham.

Now, if your hamsters are syrian hamsters (also called golden hamsters, black bear, panda bear, or teddy bear hamsters), they are solitary creatures. The pups will be ready to wean around 3 weeks old, and should be seperated from mom at this time. Put the boys in 1 cage, and the girls in a seperate cage. This is to prevent accidental breeding in the pups. Both male and female pups are able to reproduce by the age of 4-5 weeks old, though they should NOT be breed until the female is at least 4 months old, but less than 6 months. Males can safely reproduce between 2-3 months of time. Though male & female pups can be kept in together for longer, they should all have their own cage by the time they are 10 weeks old at the very latest, to prevent territorial fighting, which is often to the death, and very bloody.

If they are dwarf hamsters, they are social creatures, and as such, can be left in with mom, or the girls can be, at least. They wean at 4 weeks, and the males she be removed from the cage at the same time, as they also become reproductive at 4 weeks old. Boys should have their own cage, with lots of space if there are more than 1 boys. The girls can remain in with mum for a bit of time, but if you have lots of either boys or girls, you'll want to try to seperate them into groups.

With 5 pups, it's usually not a big problem. Ideally, you'd have 2 girls and 3 boys, so you'd have 3 to a cage. But the world isn't always ideal. You might have ended up with all 5 girls, or 4 girls and 1 boy, etc.

Cage size is a big issue, as dwarves need room to roam. They prefer being in pairs, at the very least, but if it's a tiny cage, you'll want to consider moving up a size. A standard Crittertrail cage, for instance, is too small for 3 dwarves. I currently have 1 crittertrail and 1 habitrail both interconnected with lots of tubes and external houses for 3 girl dwarves, and they still will bicker over space from time to time. Bickering in dwarf hamsters is far different from the territorial fighting of syrians. It's never anything more than them squawking at each other.

Good luck with your pups!

Answer 4

from what i understand to do mess with the babies for a week and then you can change the bedding and wait a till they are 2 weeks before you tonch them

Answer 5

As long as there is enough bedding for mama to nest it should be fine...as long as there isn't a ton of activity going on constantly.

Answer 6

either way you'll still need to clean the bedding everyday. put them in a glass tank with a mesh lid on top. they'll have more room and you'll be able to watch them more closely.