2 litters in 3 weeks

Question
I bought two 'male' hamsters from the pet store 7 weeks ago and 3 weeks ago the female had babies so we separated the male etc.

It now appears that these babies must be slightly older than we thought as she has now had another litter of about 10. The first litter is still in the cage as they are no older than 21 days themselves.#

Please help I have no idea what to do - do I remove the first litter or will they be ok to remain in the cage with the mother and new litter.

Is it possible to reintroduce the older litter into the same cage as the nale who is their father or would this cause problems - He has not been himself since he was removed from the cage and its almost like he could do with some company!

Thanks

Lian

Answer
Hi Lian

This sounds about right!  They mate on the day the female gives birth as she is most fertile then - this is how so many people find themselves over-run with hamsters really quickly.  Gestation period for a Syrian is 16-18 days, for a dwarf it is 18-21 days.  They also become sexually active at 4 weeks.

I'm assuming these are dwarf hamsters????? If they are not and they are Syrian then they need to be kept in their own cages anyway once they are 6 weeks old.  If they are dwarf hamsters they can live in a single sex colony.

You don't want to take the first litter out until they are 4 weeks old.  At 4 weeks - the boys need to be taken out of the cage.  They can live together.  The girls can remain with the mum and litter 2 providing there is no fighting. Sometimes the mum who will be the dominant female in the colony will fight them.  If this happens, the girls from litter 1 need to go into a cage of their own.

At 4 weeks from the birth of litter 2 - separate out the boys.  Again, the girls can stay with mum providing there is no fighting.  

When sexing the hamsters - check and double check them - just to make sure you've not left a male in with them.

If you weren't planning on having several cages of hamsters perhaps the pet shop will take some of them back when they reach 5-6 weeks old.

With regard to re-introducing the father to the first litter - you could try this, but there is no guarantee it will work.  You could attempt it by doing the following:  If the cage is large enough, put up a dividing line of chickenwire or similar so that the boys are one side and the dad is the other.  This way they will get to smell each other.  Every day, swap them over.  They will be surrounded by each other's scent.  Do this for a few days, then, keeping a really close watch you could remove the dividing barrier.  If you don't have a cage you can split, put their cages side by side and swap them over daily.  You can also mix up their bedding.  It might work - and it would be great if it did as it would be a shame for the dad to be on his own as dwarf hamsters like living in groups - but you do need to keep a close watch.  There is often squabbling between dwarf hamsters - but if it gets serious i.e. biting, then the culprit needs to be moved out.

Good luck with this. Let me know how you get on.

Regards