Oh Oh Shadow has got awfully fat...

[nooboo]

We just got in, and now I am worrying... we have one rather fat Shadow. She reminds rather of another podgy hamster that gave us a surprise... it would only be 9 days though, am I worrying over nothing?? I have a few pictures of her I will put up to see what you think :? It looks like Dave will be back on the sofa :lol:

[nooboo]

http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/shadowfat2.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/shadowfat6.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/shadowfat.jpg



what do you think? she need a diet or do i have to send dave to the sofa??



i am sure she wasnt on heat though...



(oh and dave wants complementing on his handleing skills in the pictures :roll: )

[nooboo]

a few more pictures simply because she was being cute!



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/wowfatshadow4.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/wowfatshadow5.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/wowfatshadow6.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/wowfatshadow2.jpg

[souffle]

She does indeed look pregnant nooboo but I am not sure what she was like before. I would play safe and give her extra protein and prepare her cage for a litter just in case. If she was in season and mated she may still have attacked si after the dirty deed was done as they will not mate indefinatly and it was HER territory he was in. She may be carrying a large litter if she is much heavier and fatter than normal. A couple of ways to check. Weigh her daily to see if she is gaining weight quickly, and present her to si on neutral territory to see if she is coming into season. If she does not stand to mate over 4 night she is probably pregnant. The second suggestion I do not think you should try at this time as it may stress her out and she will abort. You could have tried it on the five days following the suspected mating but then si was not up to it. Make sure she is in a suitable breeding cage, preferably a tank type not a rotastack and in a quiet place away from the others and hopefully you will help her raise a full litter if she is pregnant. Ask around for homes now just in case. Dave you have a lot to answer for.

[nooboo]

i have tried to be angry with him, but he has been doing great of late, more activly helping with them all, and he is being fantastic with her, went out and got baby food and coked her up scrambled egg... all without being asked!!



she looks bigger today, so i dont know wether to be happy or not. he wanted a litter from her, and i feel he has got what he wanted, though i know he didnt do it deliberatly, she is his hamster and he w,uldnt put her in danger (he is quite protective in his own way)



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/wowshadowfat3.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/wowshadowfat.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/adultsyrians/wowshadowfat4.jpg

[souffle]

What will be will be and there is no point in being angry now. If the babies do come make the best of it and don't plan to keep them all. Accidental matings between related hamsters can result in problems and Si is father to both. Move her to a breeding tank all clean and with a nest area 3-4 days before you expect the babies. Enjoy it this time and don't worry... you have had the experience with Ponder so you can only be a better 'Nanny' this time. Keep us posted

[babyboos]

She looks a lot more than 9 days pregnant and that may explain why she went so mental with Si as a hamster once mated is even more territorial and defensive than a non-pregnant female I find. I'd get ready for some babies before the end of the week...

[flogging_molly]

what do you think? she needs a diet or do I have to send Dave to the sofa??



she looks pregnant - send Dave to the sofa.



She looks a lot more than 9 days pregnant



I agree she does look quite pregnant - however it could just be a big litter - hope Dave's prepared for lots of tiny mouths to feed :wink:

[babyboos]

nooboo check her nipples and see how obvious and swollen they are. Treat her as pregnant if you can see them through her belly fur and err on the side of caution and get her ready now - is she still in her tub?

[nooboo]

she is in her tub all cleaned out, and being nasty to us (i say us she went for dave)



seems she wants some her time :?



taken out her wheel too for now. i hope thats right, and she has some baby food and protein to eat

[i-love-paddy]

She is definitely pregnant. If she isn't being very friendly the pups are probably due any day now. You are dong everything right for her. Hope it goes OK

[Skwee]

I think she is about to explode with many, many babies soon ;)



good luck!

[Emma]

Goodness! Any chance she could have been mated longer than 9 days ago? I agree with everyone she looks incredibly suspicious. I think nipples are the best sign - if they're more obvious (swollen/pink), it's definite.

[nooboo]

she has (to my knowledge ) not had any other chance - she is behaving oddly now, and not wanting to come out, and sat on her food bowl like its her throne!

[babyboos]

Well I would say Dave has some explaining to do ..... :twisted: :roll: :wink:

[souffle]

When the pups are born you can count back 16 days and be fairly sure that was when she was mated. Then we shall know if Dave will have to sleep permanently on the sofa!

[nooboo]

well sqweeking was observed last night, and little pick wiggles were spotted today.



can hardly have a go at dave today though its been a hard enough day

[souffle]

Well by our calculations she was mated 26th or 27th October. Was that the escape date? Never mind anyway you seem to have a good healthy litter so well done Shadow and look forward to seeing pics of the tinies when they start to emerge. Plenty good food for mum, peace and quiet and get looking for new homes NOW nooboo. This is a good time as there may be some responsible youngsters who you should vet for suitability who want a pet hamster for Christmas. They should be just about the right age to go then as long as you have separated the boys and girls into two tanks at 4wks.

[nooboo]

yep starting to look now, a pet shop we go to for some food offered to take them but I would rather that was a last resort!! The escape was found out on the 29th but could have then happened on the 28th... I guess that's not close enough though??

[nooboo]

Shadow does indeed have a litter and they seem very cute and at least twice the size of Ponder's (then again two is not a hard score to beat!) We have had a problem with string. We use it to hold up water bottles in the bins, and Shadow has insisted of late to tear her bottle down (very annoying). We ran out of strng and as a stopgap measure used a new cheap dish cloth twisted up instead. She pulled this down and has added it to the nest!! Should I try to remove the bits or not? If I should when would be safe to? Thank goodness I bought more string today!

[Demondog]

Try velcro tape - it works really well in our cages, although we have small mouse bottles.

[babyboos]

Nooboo it is best to remove the cloth however only you can judge if that will be possible or not. If you can only take a small amount then do that, a little each night for example. Only you know your hamster and will have to take the judgement call. My mums would not get the opportunity in the first place and IF they did I know I can comfortably remove things from the nest without disturbing the babies too much. Maybe give her lots of extra safe bed when you remove the cloth she will hopefully be too busy rearranging it into her nest to care too much, but the choice has to be yours.



And yes from your dates they were definitely together before the 28/29th.

[nooboo]

it's odd Ponder was bad, never in the nest but I could have disturbed it -Shadow is very nervous and barely leaves the nest... except to pull her bottle down! It seemed better to use the cheap dishcloth than to use a hair band * I did consider it at the time we just needed to use something!* but that would have had rubber etc. so I chose to use the dishcloth. At least now there is plenty of string, and there is not too much of it. I will try to move a bit of it tonight, and offer her lots of toilet roll... see how it goes

[babyboos]

how did it go? were you able to remove any or are you leaving her be for now?

[Pendragon]

it's odd Ponder was bad, never in the nest but I could have disturbed it -Shadow is very nervous and barely leaves the nest... except to pull her bottle down! It seemed better to use the cheap dishcloth than to use a hair band * I did consider it at the time we just needed to use something!* but that would have had rubber etc. so I chose to use the dishcloth.



Try using the Velcro - you need the sticky-backed kind. I use it in my tanks and it works great even for the Hamster-size bottles. Just glue an L-shape of the harsher velcro into a corner of the bin/tank, and wrap a circle of the softer Velcro around the bottle (making sure all surfaces are dry). Then just stick bottle in corner! Even hamsters who like to climb on top of the bottles have not managed to knock them off.



Also if you haven't already, please do remove the dish cloth. I learnt the hard way 25 years ago - long before rat books & the internet - about giving cloth to mothers for nesting. I would really hate to see this happen to anyone else.... A mother rat chewed small holes in the cloth I gave her, and I lost two babies from strangulation - squeezed through the holes and couldn't get out - and one lost a leg, another a tail, from the fraying fibres getting caught up around their limbs. Not good!

[babyboos]

The velcro seems to work really well in bins I was surprised thinking it would come off but no it holds fast, and pretty inexpensive in the long run. String is not suitable for a long term solution. Only other thing you can do is try drilling a hole in the side of the bin to feed the water spout through? Specialist metal bottle holders are available in some stores which you can bolt to the side but the velcro works so might as well give it a try :wink:

[nooboo]

well while removing all that blue wash cloth I managed to get a nice picture of the babies, well two nice pictures, I risked three but the third was terrible :? They don't seem that hairy when you look at them but on these photos wow do they seem fuzzy!!



they will be a week old tomorrow



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/baby-syrians/shadow_babies1.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/baby-syrians/shadow_babies_3.jpg



the sad thing is that with Ponder's small litter I could have homed them and more, but all those who wanted them have gone elsewhere. So I really had better get trying to find most of these homes... I doubt I can get Dave to say yes to keeping more than a couple. Oh and will be getting some Velcro, and will put it in as soon as I can, but what with bothering her trying to get the cloth out I thought I would do the Velcro at the weekend or once their eyes open

[souffle]

Nooboo, they look lovely healthy little pups. How many do you think there are? I think I can see at least 8 in the pics. Some may be sable or golden when they get coats and the others, maybe greys? Don't keep more than you can manage as you don't want any more accidents! Try calling garden centres and look to see if they keep hams in good conditions. I think you will home these as they will be perfect for Christmas to well vetted homes. Make sure you handle and tame them from 2 weeks so they are good with their new owners. Maybe an ad in the local shop or something?

[nooboo]

there is a pet shop near that sells hamsters woh said they would take any, but i want that as a last resort. there is a jollies too where i can put up an add for free, and we have one on daves uni department newsgroup, that way we can talk with them a lot etc before we even meet them. we have been asking around mates including a few that were going to take one last time but got another, see if they want two.



i am trying to sell off some of my unused rotastak too, so was thinking of selling a hamster a round and a kidney for say £15



i think there are 7, but i dont want to count too well, it upset me last time to know ponder had three and went down to two

[nooboo]

http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/shadowbabies/shadbabies2.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/shadowbabies/shadbabies7.jpg



http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/albums/shadowbabies/shadbabies10.jpg



there seems to be so many colours, out of the pale ones, one is a different shade to the other two, two seem to be Golden or something and two seem more of a grey, it's all getting rather exciting!! I can't wait for their eyes to open. I must be calm I know, but at least I got some nice pictures, almost makes Shadow nibbling on me today worth it (hand holding food as it puts it into food bowl must be food itself in her book)



if you want to see the rest (I uploaded every picture I took of them so some are not so good) go here http://www.hamsterhouse.co.uk/gallery/shadowbabies

[souffle]

Ahhh. Nooboo they are gorgeous and lovely thick coats already Are there 7? Can't wait to see them toddling about.

[nooboo]

yes there are 7



they look so cute we had one nest escape yesterday - I know because it squeaked when being taken back to the nest by Shadow. I can't wait for their eyes to open, at least they seem to be trying to eat anything that they can find

[pophammy]

Ahh, they are so cute Nooboo! There is quite a wide variety of colours there! It looks as though there might be some Golden's (possibly Umbrous) and maybe some Silver or Dark Greys. It will be interesting to see what colour they actually turn out as as can't quite pinpoint it yet. Keep us posted with pictures of the little sweethearts!

[souffle]

I remember when our Barley had babies they kept climbing out and she would go out after them and pick them up and put them back in the nest. She soon got fed up with it as chasing 10 escapees can be very wearing!