Hey folks,
My family are preparing to breed our Winter Whites and have just started introducing them. Before we do, however, we want to make sure we've covered all of the bases. So please indulge me while I try to empty my head
We bought the hamsters a few months apart from the same shop at a garden centre we chose within a reasonable distance of home. Now before everyone jumps in with "Hybrids!!!!11one", we watched and waited for pedigree WW for months and none came up within hundreds of miles of us in the north of the UK. IIRC, the only ones that came up were a pair in Somerset, and they were siblings. More on provenance later because it's obviously of paramount importance.
One thing I'm not entirely clear on is the expected litter size. I see numbers from 3 to 15, which can't be right, so was wondering if those with experience of their own litters could perhaps share their litter sizes. It would be great to be able to properly manage expectations in that area and plan accordingly. We already have homes for many future babies and the shop from which the parents came is willing to buy some back but if we're talking 15 kids then it's a slightly bigger deal
We've bought many spare houses for the kids though - we are approaching this as if we have to house them all for life. Better safe than sorry and better to be prepared but again, 15 is a different prospect from 3
Another question I'd like to ask is around what to do about separating Mum and Dad before or after the birth. Again, I have read completely contradictory information in this area. Some say that Dad should be removed from the equation before the kids are born and others say that Dad will actually provide help for Mum. I've read stories from breeders saying that babies will choose to go and sleep with Dad from time to time if there's competition for feeding. I love the idea of the kids getting quality Dad-time! I know how important it was for me with my own kids but obviously don't want to anthropomorphise the baby hamsters too much
The counterpoint to that is others saying Dad will get jealous and eat the babies
Related question - if it is OK to leave Dad in with the family, how soon after the birth would we need to be implementing … erm … birth control? We want to manage the frequency of births carefully and probably only have one or two litters with this pair so how long after birth does Daddy need to do one and go into a separate cage again?
And whilst we're on the subject of eating babies (!) is this something I can expect or is it a rare anomaly? If Mum or Dad killing babies is normal or even rare but expected, then I need to prepare myself and the family for the trauma and make sure I have an educational narrative ready. Again, it's hard to get definitive intel on the interwebs and easy to find contradictory evidence. If everyone is healthy and we do everything "right", should we expect all the babies to live?
My final question on this front (and thank you or indulging me!) is about future generations. Once we have selected King Chungles, the Second of His Name, through whom the dynasty shall continue, will we have to find "new blood" to breed into the family? That seems the logical thing to do for genetic diversity but surely in the wild they'd all be humping each other all the time and rival families would fight, no? So again, it's always best to ask
