When can I tell my hamster is pregnant

Question
My female, 5 month old Syrian (1st litter) might be pregnant, how can I tell ASAP?

Answer
When did you mate her?  Did you do a test mating 4 days later?

Syrians come into season every 4 days- so that when you mate them you need to find the 4th day - the other three days they reject the male and can be very aggressive.  Once they have mated, you can test to see if they are pregnant by attempting to mate them again - the best way to do is to let the female wander over the male's cage - scratch her back and if she is in season she will raise her rear end and go rigid.  This needs to be tried several times during the course of the day/evening of the 4th day, just to be sure as you don't know exactly what time they come into season.  If she is pregnant she won't do this and she will be aggressive towards the male.

If you have gone beyond this, the gestation time for a Syrian is 16-18 days.  During this time the hamster will probably relocate her nest.  You will see her starting to bulge - they carry their young on their hips so when she reaches up the bars the bulge remains.  She will also be drinking a lot more water.  If you think she is pregnant, don't overfeed her - just give her the usual amount.  Once she's produced a litter, then you can supplement her food to help her feed her young - but if you overfeed her, the babies might get too large and cause complications during labor.

I hope this helps you.  Please let me know if she produces a litter and I can advise you what to do.

Regards
Sheila