Breeding your hamsters. (Rodent and Small Pet Breeding in General)

Member Name: stephbond89

Product:	Rodent and Small Pet Breeding in General
Date:	18/06/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rewarding, quite easy.

Disadvantages: some new mummy hamsters kill their babies.

HAMSTER BREEDING:

Hamsters are actually quite easy to breed, but you need to be commited to it, and you need to know what your doing, and you must be sure your ready for the responsibility, yes it may be the hamster who is having the babies, but you will play a big part in their upbringing.

Your first task is of course getting a male and female hamster, this is simple, just ask your pet shop for one male and one female, but they MUST live in seperate cages, two hamsters CANNOT live together, I cannot stress that enough! Once two syrian hamsters are put into one cage together they will fight, there is no two ways about it, its not a case of "oh they might be ok", hamsters are solitary animals, they would possibly be "ok" for an hour or so, but there would be a fight and one or both, would end up dead.

The breeding process can take just 10 minutes, but it could take a few trys and so a few weeks for the hammy to conceive.

STEPS TO BREEDING:

Firstly you need to introduce your hamsters to one and other. This is simple, just take them out of their individual cages for half an hour a day, and put them on a chair, or in a box. Never put one hamster into the others cage, always let them meet on neutral ground, this will reduce the chances of fights.

A box is best, as this keeps them in close proximity to one and other so they don't end up simply ignoring the other. Always keep a gardening glove on your hand, or a stick of some variety nearby when they're together, just so that if a fight does break out, you can hit them off each other, you don't want to be putting a bare hand in there trust me!!!

When you have sorted out where they will meet, and you have put them together, this is some of the behaviour you will see:

Sniffing, rolling around in a ball- this is not fighting...you will know when its a fight when the ball is rolling everywhere and there are loud squaking noises, then you need to separate them asap! And you will find the male hamster humping the female at strange angles and in strange places. This is normal!!!!

You need to introduce the hamsters a few times before anything will happen between the hamsters, but sometimes you will get lucky, and it could happen to first time you try! Its best to introduce the hamsters when the female is "on heat". This happens every 3 days.

Knowing when your female is on heat:

This is pretty easy, the female will get a very strong smell on her coat, this is hard to explain, but you will just KNOW when she is on, you can smell it as soon as you go near her, this will happen every three days, the smell really isn't very nice, and it sticks to everything, but its a very clear way of knowing when she is on, as this is the smell she gives out to the male.

When she has this smell, get her out, and sit her on your knee, stroke her down her back and she will "freeze", and stay like that for a good few seconds, this is another way of knowing she is ready to conceive.

When she does this, its time to try to make babies!!

Doing the Deed:

When the male has finally got the hang of what he is doing, he will mount the female, and do his business, you should leave them together in a box around 30cm by 30cm for at least half an hour, when he stops been interested in her, he's done, so you can put her back in her house, and him back in his. Leave them like this for a week...check on the female everyday.

Knowing your female is pregnant:

Well unlike with humans you can't just go and get a test and know for sure your female is pregnant, but there are signs which are a good way of knowing, and are pretty much a sure thing.

A female is pregnant for around 16 days. Before this, you will notice the nipples on your females stomach sticking out, not lots, but you can see little dots on her. She will also start to make a nest out of fluff you put in there.
You will also notice that the smell doesn't come. Around 13 days after she has conceived clean the cage out completely, she will get annoyed at you ruining her nest, but you won't be able to clean it out for a few weeks after she has given birth and it will get smelly!!! Just make sure you put enough wool in for her to make a new nest!

Also ensure your giving her enough food, about double her normal intake. Bread soaked in milk is a great nutritious meal for your pregnant hammy!! :-D

When day 15 comes, make sure your hamster is in a room and a place where she will be left undisturbed, and where she will not need to be moved from within the next week or so.

Leave her overnight and don't feel tempted to go in there and watch, she needs to be as unstressed as possible.

The next day, just go in and gently lift the nest, hopefully you will see alot of little babies sitting there (usually between 4 and 28 babies), don't touch them as this could make the female kill the babies due to the smell of you on them. Its not worth the risk, and it will only be a couple of weeks until you can handle them!

The babies need to be left until they're walking around the cage until you can touch them! :)

Its quite exciting watching the little babies grow, but you need to make sure your caring for them, making sure your putting enough food in for them, and putting an extra water bottle on, which needs to be low enough for the babies to reach.

The first 12 days or so are a little boring, you don't see the babies at all, unless mum leaves the nest, you need to keep checking the babies are getting food given to them, they will nurse for a week or so, but as they get older, sprinkle smaller pieces of food into the nest so you know they're getting food. This will be around 3 weeks.

At 5-6 weeks males and females need separating, if you cannot work out for yourself which are which, take them to your nearest vet, as if they're kept together, males can impregnate the girls from a very early age, and this is dangerous for the baby girls.

At around 7 weeks, the hamsters can go to their new homes, make sure you charge for the hamsters, even if its only £3, this will stop snake owners getting the babies as free food for their snake...yes you may think this is something that won't happen...but trust me, as a snake ownder myself, mice cost between £1 and £2, so if there are free baby hamsters for sale, some people wouldn't think twice about taking them!!! :(

At around 9 weeks, the hamsters will need to be separated into separate tanks, so you need to try and give them to new homes as soon as possible really as if you have 20 babies, thats 20 cages you will need!!!!!!

Breeding is very simple and very rewarding! I definitely recommend it, I loved it and since giving birth my female hamster has been a lovely little thing wheras before she was a little aggresive!!! :)

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!

Summary: Something I would love to do again!