How do you tell if your Hamsters are trying to mate?

Question

Well for the last few days i have had to keep my hamsters seperated because everytime i put them together they fight. what is up with that? anyone have an answer for me please help!

Answer 1

There is no easy answer as you have not specified what breed of hamster you're interested in breeding. There are five species of hamsters commonly kept as pets: Syrians, Campbells Russian Dwarf, Winter White Russian Dwarf, Roborovski Dwarf and Chinese. Syrian hamsters are the ones that every pet store incorrectly sell as "Teddy Bears", "Black Bears", "Panda Bears", "Honey Bears", "Calicos", "Dalmations", etc.. It has become such a long standing practice that many people think that they are all separate breeds. The pet stores do this to get more money for them.

Syrian hamsters must be kept separately. You are witnessing first hand what happens when you try to have two Syrians living in the same cage. If you were to force them, then there is a good chance that one will kill the other. It is their nature. Syrians are solitary animals. If you don't have the means to have two cages then take one back to the pet store. The pet store has not educated you nor their employees about the proper housing of an animal they're selling.

Breeding Syrian hamsters takes a great deal of work. I know because I'm a Syrian hamster breeder. Syrians are solitary animals and each must have their own cage. A female Syrian will go into heat every 4-5 days. A female in heat will display very obvious signs: lowering her body and raising her tail ("freezing"), musky smell and white discharge. Sometimes a female in heat will freeze when you stroke her back, other times she won't do it until introduced to a male. Place the female in heat into the males cage. He will begin licking her bottom area and then mounting. He will mount several times. With the first few mounts, he will not ejaculate enough sperm to impregnate a female so allowing him enough time with her is essential. Many breeders will leave the male and female together for ten minutes. I leave mine together until the female rejects him (she'll begin to fight with him) or until he's exhausted. Once mating is finished, remove the female to her cage and that's it. Female Syrians gestate for exactly 16 days. Syrians can be a bit tricky to breed during the winter though and breeders use artificial lights and additional heat to help overcome these problems but it's not always successful.

I do not recommend any casual breeding. If you're considering it, I suggest you join the Internet Hamster Association of North America:
http://groups.msn.com/internethamsterassoc/

On the site you will find a Code of Care and a Breeder's Code. I also strongly recommend you join a Yahoo! Group called Hamsters In Focus
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/hamstersinfocus/

This is a group discusses breeding strategies and techniques, genetics, exhibition standards, and ethics as they relate to the purposeful, goal-directed breeding of both Dwarf and Syrian hamsters.

Another excellent source of information is the California Hamster Association newsletter:
http://www.geocities.com/calhamassoc/Newsletter.html

-Janice
http://www.holmdenhillhaven.com.

Answer 2

First off, syrian hamsters (the larger types,i.e. not dwarves) are NOT social. They are territorial and will fight. So, just based on what you said, they are fighting because some unknown hamster is in the same area as them and they feel the need to defend their territory.

With that being said, with syrian's it's quite easy to tell if you have males or females. Males have large testicles that will hang out under their tail. It'll look like a growth. Females will not.

Answer 3

Trust me. You don't want them to mate! My familly learned the hard way. They actually climbed on top of each other and got lose. We had a household hamster problem for around a year (In our house).

Some are kinda territorial. If you let them fight they'll get hurt. I'd separate them.

Answer 4

They may be aggressive, both dominant hamsters, if you ant them to like each other put them in a neutral cage and watch them at the first sign of fighting separate them again.

Answer 5

in case you have a girl and male, the female will form of arch herself and stick her butt out and the male will are available in the back of her and lick and form of bypass to city. it relatively is incredibly wide-spread for women to groom eachother or sniff eachother while they're little ones. I artwork at a puppy save and that i see the ladies groom eachother continuously. while puppy shops get their hamsters, they're already sexed and seperated from the business enterprise that they get them from. it relatively is greater stable to intercourse dwarfs and consistently attainable that the breeder made mistake. you purely decide to observe your hamsters and if one is definitely a male and the female gets pregnant, you will decide to take the male out of the cage. considering you probably did purchase them from Petco and if the hammies do have little ones, Petco will take the little ones while they're waiting to bypass in case you do no longer decide to maintain the little ones.