Breeding Roborovski

Question
Hi, I bet you wont like this, but read on anyway. I got a male and female robo.
at Petco. I need to breed them for a science project. So, I got a male and a
female. I put them together and they seem like they have known eachother ever
since. I hope she is pregnant. I don';t even know their age. Please give me some
tips and ideas. Thanks again!! Please respond, i really need this because it is a
sci. project :)

Answer
Hi Charlotte,

It seems to me as if you already know that what you are doing is wrong!

If you know it is wrong and you feel bad about doing it then you shouldnt be doing it in the first place.

I have not heard of any schools making it compulsory for a student to have to breed two hamsters for their science project so maybe you have volunteered to do it or maybe it is just something you wish to do as a hobby?

Either way, it is something which takes a lot of patience and knowledge to carry out succesfully.

You should never let a brother and sister mate, so if the two hamsters are from the sale litter then you should separate them immediately and hope that the female is not already pregnant!  The babies could be seriously harmed if any are born.

You should never breed from pet shop hamsters either because you do not know anything about them, they could have genetic problems, they could also have a mother and father who are from the same litter so you should not be breeding from them either.

If you want to breed then you need to obtain a Male and Female from two separate reputable breeders, who have generations of history on all of their hamsters, and can tell you about problems (if any) which might occur!

But it is not just a case of putting two hamsters together and leaving them to it hoping for the best!

What happens if the babies are born dead, or the babies are born alive and the mother eats them?  Or how about if the babies are born but the mother wont feed them and they are left to die slowly?  How about if the babies are stuck and the mother is in extreme pain and she eventually dies? !!!

All these things and more could happen, so you must have a vet who you know can attend to your hamsters at any hour of any day incase you do need expert advise or interference!!

If all goes well, then you still have a lot of work to do!

Please do not disturb the parents or the babies until at least two weeks after the birth!

You can not clean them out for two weeks after the babies have been born.

You can leave the Father in with the babies as he will be a big help but it does mean that the female will become pregnant again between 22 and 30 days after the day she gives birth, because the female comes into heat for a few hours on the day she has given birth.

So it may be best if you separate the father before the birth!!

You can separate the babies into same sex groups when they are four weeks old and then rehome them when they are 6 weeks old.

Please think long and hard BEFORE breeding these hamsters and let me know if you need any more info.

Regards,

Tammy