My friends hamster booboo

Question
Hi
My friend just recently got a hamster and she said it has been acting a little weird and think it might be pregnat when she got it. She asked me if I could keep it before I knew all this was going on and I agreed to it . What do I do to help the hamster if it is pregnat and goes in to labor at my house?

Answer
Hello Sophie.   Hamsters have a very short gestation period (pregnancy time) of 28 days.  If you would like to provide the best care possible to the expectant mother then I would first turn my concerns over to the housing.  What type of housing is the hamster currently in?  Is it all plastic, all glass, or is it a wire cage?

I recommend you house the expectant mother in a solid terrarium,  all glass preferably or sturdy plastic.  The reason for this is because young hamsters can easily fall out between the wire frame of cages and could get seriously injured and even die.  

Offer clean litter and some long shredding of toilet paper (toilet paper will help the mother form a comfortable nest for her babies)

Hamsters do not generally have a hard time birthing.  When the hamster goes into labor she will sometimes walk around and drop a few of her babies around the cage,  after she is done she will walk around the cage and pick all her babies up.  NEVER touch a baby hamster with your bare hands, your human scent could rub off on the baby and it will affect the way the mother sees the baby and this will sometimes cause the mother to disown the baby.  If in the process of picking up her babies she accidentally forgets one and seems abandon the baby, then chances are she just didn't find it.  In this case, wash your hands and take a long chopstick-like object and gently nudge the baby closer to it's mother.

Be very careful when you approach the cage after she gives birth( I assume since she is a new hamster she is not used to your presence yet), because if you scare her she might be so frightened that she will either kill or eat her own babies in an effort to try and "hide" them from you.

The baby hamsters are old enough to be removed from the cage at 3 weeks old (you could even adopt them at this point), but I would wait until they are at least 4-5 weeks old, just to be safe.  At this point you should separate the babies by gender so that when they hit sexual maturity (by two months) you will avoid inbreeding.

Good luck setting up for Baby hamsters! Let me know if you have any more questions!