My hamster might be pregnant...

Question
QUESTION: I've noticed a few days ago that my Hammy has been getting pretty big around her abdomen and she's been acting weird lately. She's being louder than usual at night, biting me, being jumpy, and during the days she'll sleep longer than she normally has been. I also tried putting her back with my male hamster, Mr. Jenkins, and she tried attacking him.

I've also read on a few cites about what to feed her other than regular food, so tonight I gave her some milk soaked bread and she stored it in 3 different places in her cage.
Is there anything else I should do for her?

ANSWER: Please let me know what kind of hamsters you have.

Kind Regards,

Tammy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: She is a Syrian. I hope you can help me!

Answer
Hi Haley,

First of all Syrian hamsters are solitary hamsters and must never be kept in the same cage.  If they are kept together they will fight until one or both of them is dead so please do not keep them together.

Secondly, are you deliberatly trying to breed your hamsters?  If you are then please read the following first and think about everything carefully:

To breed syrians you must find out when the female is receptive to the male and this is only a few short hours every three or four hours, but it depends on each individual hamster too!

If they are put together at the wrong time they will fight and could end up killing each other!

Breeding hamsters is a very complicated process and many things need to be considered before you let your hamsters breed.

Breeding hamsters is not a very easy thing to do correctly!  I would suggest that you not think about breeding until you have researched everything fully!

Hamsters who are closely related should not be bred from, hamsters who are not in top health should not be bred from either.  Breeding hamsters should be about improving the breed so only the best quality hamsters should be bred from.

Also, certain colours should not allowed to mix and will produce undesirable traits e.g. hairless babies etc.  An many more problems can occur.

Female hamsters should be approx. 6 months old when having their first litter, and should not be over 12 months either.

I do not currently breed Syrians so i can not give you the information you need but please get in touch with as many syrian breeders as you can to find out all about breeding them - before you start to breed them!!

You also need to think about all of the problems which could occur with the female before, during and after the birth - do you have a reliable vet who will come out to you at any hour if you need him to??  If everything does go ok you could have up to 20 babies needing new homes - do you have that many homes lined up??  If not, them do you have that many cages to keep them all separately in when they get too old to be kept together??

If your hamster is already pregnant then you will probably not know until the last few days of her pregnancy (if at all) and only then if she is having a large litter!

If you think she is pregnant then it is a good idea to feed her extra protein by giving her well done scrambled egg, but only a little every two or three days and remove any uneaten bits to stop them from going off.

Please think about this before doing it!!

Regards,

Tammy