Young Pregnant Hamster

Question
Hi,
I got my hamster 10 days ago and 2 (ish) days ago i noticed her getting (fatter... and fatter... and fatter) and hoarding more food than she had done. Ive researched this and ive realsed she must be pregnant. So ive cleened out her cage, moved all her things to the bottom floor of the cage and iv been feeding her carrot and boiled egg. Im just reeaaally scared she will eat them because she is so young, is there anything i can do to reduce the chances of this? also any advice on lookin afta her and the pups wud b greeeaaat! and also do u hav any idea wen they will arrive? Thanks Annie Xx (14)

Answer
Hi Annie

It's good that you've moved things in her cage.  I would suggest removing any plastic houses, tubes and toys out of her cage completely for a while as you don't want her having a litter in these.  What is her wheel like?  If it has spokes or a drainage slit - remove it.  Solid wheels are best otherwise babies can get injured. What type of bedding do you use?  If it is the fluffy cotton type - get rid of it and replace it with the shredded paper as hamsters can get themselves caught up in the fluffy type and this causes serious injuries.

The gestaton period for a Syrian is 16-18 days, for a dwarf it is 18 - 21 days so you should know pretty soon if she is pregnant.  Don't over feed her right now - it is tempting to give them extra food - but don't do this.  Just her usual food is fine as (if she's pregnant) you don't want her unborn babies getting too large.

If she produces a litter, stay a way from the nest for a few days - I always recommend you don't touch the babies until they are 2 weeks old, unless there's an emergency.  As soon as they are born you should feed the mum human baby food.  If you can get a packet of the powdered type - creamy porridge oats or similar, mix a little with water and give her this.  This gives her a lot of extra nutrients.  When the babies are 2 weeks old they can eat this if you put in in a low dish/jam jar lid.  They can also have the usual hamster food and fresh greens every evening (avoid lettuce).

If there is a litter, make sure she has plenty of food close to the nest.  After one week you can drop tiny pieces of food into the nest, such as raw porridge oats, seeds, breadcrumbs.  New borns can get cold very quickly and die, therefore it is important you don't get them out to have a look at them, however, at 2 weeks they will be leaving the nest to explore.  If you handle any at that time, only do so for a minute or two at a time, but you can increase the handling time as they get older.  When they start leaving the nest the mum often gets stressed and keeps trying to drag them back by their legs - this is normal, and she will give up eventually.

if the mum doesn't seem to want to look after her babies, take her wheel out of the cage so that she has nothing to distract her and she should go and look after them.

At 4 weeks the babies need sexing and the boys removed.  If they are dwarf hamsters, the girls can live with the mum, if they are Syrians, then at 6 weeks they all need their own cages - in which case I would suggest getting in touch with the pet store and seeing if they will take them back if you can't rehome them.  

Young mums are sometimes very good - it is hard to say how she'll be - so don't worry about it until the event happens as everything could work out just fine.

Please feel free to get back in touch if she produces a litter and you need more advice.

Regards