Russian Hamster Pregnancy by sibling

Question
Hi! Back in September I bought a Russian Hamster and was told it was a boy; however, two days later I realized the hamster was a girl and had a litter of babies. I removed the two babies out of the cage that she raised about a month later because the mother was being nasty to them. My boyfriend and I had checked to see the sexes of the babies and they both appeared to be girls. All was fine until this past week, when I caught the one trying to mate with the other. I got it off and saw his penis retract. I realized it was a boy and moved him to another cage, but I think the sister is pregnant. She is a lot more aggressive and is getting quite round. What is going to happen to the babies since the parents were siblings?? I'm so worried about the babies being in danger. What should I do or look for? Please help! Thank you!

Answer
Hi Alex,

it is not a good idea to let closely related hamsters breed, but in this case there is nothing you can do about it.  

There is a high chance that there could be something wrong with the babies because the mother and father are siblings and the mother and father of them must have been siblings too, if she was pregnant as soon as you got her!

Try not to worry about it too much.  If there is anything wrong with the babies then the mother might destroy them anyway.  If not, then you will have to deal with it when it happens.  

The babies could just have a leg missing (sounds bad but its not really, i brought a three legged hamster from a pet shop and she was fine as a pet and never new any different becasue she had been born with only three legs!!

Or, they could just have very bad behavioural problems and need a lot more time spent on them to tame them.  You never know what problems can occur really!

Male hamsters will sometimes mount other males as a way to show dominance, so are you sure one is definately female?

Please let me know how you get on - i am interested in what happens, and please let me know if you need any further help.

Kind Regards,

Tammy