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Baby hamster are born without any fur and are closely attached to their mother. Though you may have the desire to hold them, bare in mind that there is nothing you can do within two weeks period after delivery.
REMEMBER NOT TO TOUCH THE BABIES!! Your action might harm the babies and change its scent thus confuses the mother. She will think that they are not hers, abandon them and worst she might even eat the babies (it did happened to my hamsters). Not to cause any stress to the mother, avoid cleaning up the cage within this period. It is advisable to place the babies at the bottom of the cage as none of them had opened their eyes yet.
After this two weeks ‘vital’ period, you can hold them but only for a brief period as not to disturb or stress the mom or babies. You can also clean up the cage and place fresh beddings in most of it. Remove just the soiled parts in the nest area and put a good portion of the old bedding in it. Put the babies back in the nest after it is cleaned up followed by the mother.
Once the babies eyes are opened (which should occur on the 11-12 days, but some take less/more), they should figure out how the bottle works. In order for them to reach it easily, put it lower and in an area where they frequently go. If they haven’t figured out how to use the bottle and you are worried about them not drinking enough, you can give them pieces of cucumbers to prevent dehydration. Do not put water in a bowl to prevent them from falling in and drown or catch a cold.
At three weeks, you can separate the babies if you observe any fighting among them but if they seem immature, less developed and not quite independent enough to leave mom just yet, let them stay together until they are four weeks old. When they reach five weeks old, independent and have a healthy development, they can be placed in new homes and play in new surroundings and environment.
Gerneral Care
Hamster loves to exercise. They are naturally energetic and will do a lot of running. So make sure you provide all necessary equipment such as hamster wheels or adequate size of running space for them to
Hamsters are nocturnal creatures (active at night) so they need peace during the day to sleep. It is highly recommended to place the cage away from draughts and direct sunlight.
The cage floor should be covered with adequate layer of bedding. You can use the commercial wood shaving as they are absorbent and nontoxic.
Hamster also needs privacy during their resting time. Build them a simple small room for them to sleep. A small box will be a good idea.
Feed your hamsters adequately. Make sure they have enough food and more important water supply.
Wash the hamster cage once in a week. Keep the cage clean to prevent any infection risk.
Bathing your hamster are not recommended. Don't worry, they can clean themselves.
Build a good relationship with your hamsters. Talk to them, hold them and playing with the will keep the hamsters happy
It takes a lot of time and research to responsibly breed hamsters. And people need to know a lot more than if their hamsters are healthy to breed. They need to know the entire genetic history because their hamsters could be carrying deforming and life threatening genes that are simply not affecting them but will affect their offspring.
It is highly advised NOT to breed pet store hamsters, or other hamsters that people do not know the genetic history of.
Don't even thinking about breeding your hamster if your are not ready in terms of :-
Knowledge : You might doing it the wrong and improper way
Mentally : You might lost your enthusiasm over time or getting tired of the tedious task.
Financially : You might need to buy more cages to separate your hamster
The article below was not meant to encourage hamster owner to breed their hamsters. In fact most of experienced and responsible pet owners will advise new hamster owner (especially kids) to stay away from breeding their hamster.
Only read further if you are 100% confident that you are the kind of person who will take full responsibility of anything you are doing.
The male golden hamsters should be first bred when they are 14 weeks old while the female as early as 10 weeks old. The best is to wait for the female hamsters reached four months of age as to minimize the chances of eating/destroying its own litter. It is always a good idea to breed hamsters of the same breed but make sure not to breed brother and sister hamsters. The father daughter or mother son combinations are usually fine. The next step is to make sure that your hamsters are healthy to prevent any spreading diseases.
Thin, stringy, cobweb-like mucus exits the female's vulva as the time of copulation approaches. The female is then placed into the male's cage about one hour before dark and must be carefully observed for mating activity and/or fighting. In this situation, the females can be very aggressive to males thus can harm them. Do remove the males at once if fighting occurs. If it is a success, the full term pregnancy will only take 15 to 16 days. Just before delivery, the female will become restless and usually discharges a small amount of blood from her vulva. The newborn pups are born hairless with its ears and eyes closed usually range from 5 to 10 pups. However, they do have their front teeth at birth.
The mother with young should be provided with abundant nesting and bedding materials and plenty of fresh food and water. They must not be disturbed in any way until at least 3 weeks old. Do not touch or handle the babies, disturb or clean the nest during this period. If you ignore these cautions (especially with females nursing their first litters) it often results in cannibalism of the babies.
Once you bring back the hamsters from the pet store, they will be quite terrified of the new surroundings. You can see how unsettled and panic they are in their new home. The first thing you need to do is to establish a bond between you and your new hamsters. This type of bond is to generate its trust in you so that they will feel protected and safe. Remember not to play with the hamsters at once because they will bite you and do not FORCE them out of the carrying box. Place the box on the floor of the cage and let them come out freely. Leave the cage in the dark for few hours to let them settle down.
Suggested day-to-day Hamster Taming procedure:-
Day 1 - Observe your hamsters but do not disturb them.
Day 2 - Introduce yourself by putting your hand in the cage and wait for a few minutes. Do not move your hand. Let them smell your hand to make them familiar with your scent. Repeat this process for few times.
Day 3 - Try to hand feed your hamsters and while doing it, talk to them softly.
Day 4 - 5 - You can try picking up your hamster and let it run from one hand to the other outside of its cage. As it runs, curl your fingers around its body so as to get them used to being held.
Day 6 - 14 - You can start introduce your new hamsters to your family and friends.
Day 15 onwards - Handle and play with your hamsters constantly and regularly as to tame them thus will form a wonderful bond between you and the hamsters.
Do you know how to determine gender of your hamsters? Well, it's pretty easy to identify (as long as you know how) especially when they are sexually matured. (Easier to say I think because I did mixed up my hammys once).
Basically the male exhibits large, pronounced testicles and scrotal sack, and the anogenital distance is greater. The opposite is true for the female, as in most rodent species, where the anogenital distance is less than that if the male.
If the task of peeking their genital by holding them is too tricky (the hamster might be too active or aggressive for you to handle) you can use the 'transparent box' technique. First thing you need to do is to find a transparent box. Once you got it, carefully hold your hamster and transfer it into the box. From there you can simply take a peek underneath the box.
In males, try to look for large testicles underneath its body. There is also a bigger gap between the perineal area (area between the genitals and the anus) and it looks more rounded. Whereas in females, this perineal area comes to a point at the base of the tail.
Another great way to identify the gender is to look for punctuation. Yes, punctuation!! You read that right…you will usually find that a female sexual and anal organs are lined up like an exclamation point. Take a look at your hamster now and you will be surprised that I'm right. But if you notice two dots in a row that resemble a colon mark, then you've got a male on your hands.
If you found that your hamsters act differently, weirdly or anything out of their ordinary behavior, it could a symptom that your hamster is sick. Usual symptom such as shaking, looking weak and tired for a long time, coughing, walking weirdly or anything abnormal should alert you for immediate action. The best advice is to go and see a vet.
Some of the warning sign from a sick hamster:-
Anus smeared with droppings.
Their tail is wet (dangerous)
Noisy or heavy breath
Appearance of bald spots and sores
Unhealthy eyes
Treatment should only been done by a vet unless you have been provided with adequate guideline by the vet. No over the counter medicine, drugs or antibiotic should be applied unless prescribed by your vet.
Prior to vet visits, you are advised to do some precaution procedures to prevent any more harms or damages to the hamster or other hamsters such as :-
Separate the sick hamster from other hamsters if you are afraid that the sickness/disease could be contagious.
Clean up the cage and if possible sterilized all parts including toys, tubes, bottles and wheels.
All used bedding and unfinished foods should be discarded.
Keep the sick hamster in a quiet place away from any noisy environment to keep the hamster calm and prevent any further stress
Provide the sick hamster with enough water
In the mean time, monitor health condition of other hamsters for the same symptoms.
