handling baby hamsters

Question
i have a syrian hamster who gave birth about three weeks ago and the babies have all their fur, their eyes are open and they walk around.  I was told not to touch them or change the cage for a while, but the cage is kind of bad and i REALLY want to clean it and switch cages...when is it okay to do this?

Answer
Hi Kirstin

Yes, you can clean them out now.  The danger of cleaning them out when they are very young is that the mother can get really stressed and panic - I had this happen once and two babies ended up dead - so I'll never make the same mistake again.

At this age you need to do some serious handling of the babies - the more you handle them now the better they will be as pets.  If you have a carry case or another cage, put them all into that, then handle them one at a time before you return them to their cage - this way you know you've handled them all the same, rather than only handling the more confident ones in the litter.

Remember to make a real fuss of the mum - and you might want to introduce human baby food into their diet for the next couple of weeks - the powdered variety is best - mix with water (not milk as this causes diarrhea).  I find the creamy porridge oat variety a real favorite with hamsters.

At exactly 4 weeks (or a day before if they were born in the night and you're not sure exactly what day they were born) you need to sex and take the males out into a cage of their own.  If you can, put as many wheels (the solid types - not the ones with spokes) into the cages so they don't all fight.  At 5-6 weeks they should be ready for homing, but around that time they often start fighting so they'll need their own cages then.

If when you are cleaning them out for the first time, there is any unsoiled bedding, you could put that back in their cage - this way at least their scent is on something.  I usually put the wheel back in (unwashed) so that they can  recognize the cage as theirs.  You will find you will need to start cleaning them out every couple of days or so (depending on the size of the litter) as it can become smelly pretty quickly.

Hope this helps.

Regards