Breeding

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	BREEDING
Diet Illness Handling Housing/Bedding Play time *Breeding*
This section isn't included to encourage people to breed hamsters, but more to give advice if your hamster produces an unexpected litter. The fact is, there are many unwanted hamsters all desperately needing homes, therefore breeding them is often best left to the experts. If you do decide you want to mate your hamsters, please think carefully beforehand. There are dangers to the hamsters either during mating (especially for Syrians - the female will attack the male if you try to mate her on the 'wrong' day), during pregnancy and the birthing process. If your Syrian has 12 babies will you be able to re-home them all? They will need separating into single sexed cages at 4 weeks, and into single cages between 6-8 weeks. Pet shops often don't want them, even if they sold you the pregnant hamster in the first place. Also, if you have a colony of dwarfs or Robos the male and dominant female will mate again the very day the female gives birth, so you could find yourself with a lot of unexpected litters.
Information regarding mating hamsters can be found in books, see Hamsters in Sickness and in Health, or on many websites. Alternatively, contact one of the hamster organisations who can advise you. If you just like the idea of raising a litter, contact a local rescue centre - sometimes they are happy to foster out a mum and her new borns for a few weeks, under their guidance, then you can return them for rehoming after that.
But what happens if your 'male' hamster suddenly produces a bundle of little pink 'jelly beans'?
There are certain do's and don'ts that might help you: Never touch the new born babies. If you do, especially if you don't know the mother, she either may attack you or, if your scent has gone onto one of her babies, attack the babies. She will sit in the nest feeding them, covering them with bedding if she leaves the nest for any reason.
Make sure the 'mum' has plenty to eat and is within easy reach. Some people offer her milky food at this time while she is feeding her young, in addition to her usual food. Use a jam jar lid to put small amounts of food on it for her. If you accidentally touch any of the babies, it is important to gently put your hand over the nest and also touch the rest of the sawdust and bedding. This will ensure that your scent is everywhere and you haven't just singled out one baby that could be picked on.
If the mum doesn't appear to be feeding her babies or abandons them, you should get advice either from your vet or local rescue centre. See Neo's story, who was abandoned when his mum escaped from her cage when he was only a baby. Due to the incredible dedication of .the rescue centre, Neo and one brother survived, having been fed hourly.
In Half Pint's case, his mother Bonny abandoned the litter as it was too hot for her to feed them, but was coaxed back, only Half Pint got left behind in the sawdust and nearly died. Fortunately, Bonny took him back.
After a week - ten days the babies will have a layer of 'fluff' which will give you an idea of their colours. You will also be able to tell their eye colours, even though their eyes will still be closed. If you can see them through the skin, they are black, if you can't, they are red.
Start dropping small pieces of food into the nest - bread, raw porridge oats, seeds etc. At two weeks they will start leaving the nest to use the 'loo'. You can start putting baby food on jam jar lids, night and morning for them to eat. You should also start handling them at this time, making sure that each one gets the same amount of handling. Be careful as they will be 'pingy' and can 'ping' out of your hands, so ideally you should handle them over their nest or over another soft surface in case you drop any.
If mum is overprotective, try and coax her out for some exercise. If she liked going in a ball for a run before giving birth she'd probably enjoy that now too. This also gives you a chance to handle her babies without her getting anxious. Don't leave her away from them for too long though. The babies will also enjoy a run in a wheel. Depending on the size of the cage and number of babies, put small wheels into their cages - ideally not the 'all terrain' wheels, which are great for adult hamsters, but with babies all fighting to have a run, as they have a drainage slit in the centre, the babies can get trapped and hurt themselves. At 4 weeks old you will need to sex and separate out the boys. The best way to do this is to examine the mum and compare the babies with her. Some of the litter will be easy to differentiate. Once you have one that is very obviously male or female, check the others against this one. If you turn the hamster over - it is unlikely that you will be able to see the row of nipples on the females, therefore you are looking for the anogenital distance. On a male this distance is greater than on a female. The girls and mum can stay in one cage and the boys in another providing they don’t fight. There will be some play fighting but there is a real difference when this turns into more serious fighting. A sign that there is a problem is when one of the litter starts sleeping on its own and usually shortly after noticing this the serious fighting begins. By 6 weeks they will all need a cage of their own but you may need to separate them a few days before this if fighting occurs. Dwarf hamsters can live together in single sex cages but they can sometimes turn on each other so you should be prepared to have extra cages if necessary. If one is picking on the others, try to identify it and remove the trouble maker. If one is being picked on by all the others, then take out the victim. Once separated these hamsters cannot be put back together. It is very hard, if not impossible to introduce adult dwarf hamsters to each other unless they are opposite sexes (for breeding purposes) and even then you have no guarantee they won’t fight and therefore you may end up with several cages with single hamsters. Key points to remember: Never overfeed a pregnant hamster – just give her the usual amount of food. When the litter is born you should increase her food – you can also give her human baby food – powdered creamy porridge oats is a favourite. If you mix a little with water she will enjoy this. When the babies are about 2 weeks old and leaving the nest they will eat this too. If you are mating hamsters, some important points to note are: Never mate one species of hamster with another – such as Winter White with a Campbell as there can be complications. Don’t mate brother and sister. Mother and son, or father and daughter are OK, but brother and sister can cause some abnormalities. Some hamsters will produce eyeless offspring. Refer to http://www.hamsoc.org.uk/varieties.php?id=white for more details.