Matilda (New Syrian Female In Labour)

[ilex81]

Hi Everyone,

New to the forum, and looking for some urgent advice...

We bought Matilda from a local (not chain!) pet shop two weeks ago, we popped out of town for two days with work and had left her with my parents for the duration, picked her up this morning and thought she looked wider around the middle.

Refilling her bedding, she bit my partners finger, which thus far is completely out of character for her.

Popped through to refill her food and when she left her bed, noticed a streak of blood on the bedding, a closer look into her bed, we thought we could see movement and possibly a couple of pups.

Matilda was out of the nest at this point, making noises,breathing heavily and licking her nether regions. She also appeared to be chewing. At the moment, no sign of dead pups or debris. If a hamster culls her pups, would you have any sign of the carcass or blood etc? or is it as if they didn't exist?

At the moment, we can't hear any noises from her nest and she has closed it off is this normal? And at what stage should we worry, because she comes first?

We have left her alone in a quiet room and have been researching frantically.

Does anyone have any general advice/answers to the following?

- we don't want to disturb her, but are aware that she has fresh-ish fruit and veg in her cage, which will rot - at what intervals and points do we change this?

- we have read that she should have lots of fresh water, but Matilda has only half a bottle left, can we change this or will the noise scare her?

- have also read that a mother and pups should not be in a traditional barred cage. Right now, having no idea she was pregnant, she is in an Alexander - we are worried the pups could fall out, as there is a lot of substrate. Is there anything we can do to safeguard against this without worrying or disturbing her?

Thanks for reading our saga, all advice and comments are great fully received and we hope to be back with positive updates as this progresses.

Thanks,
Worried Owners!!

[ANGELBABIES]

Hi ilex81 - welcome to the forum. You are in the right place. Many of us here have rescued hammies, and been surprised with a litter. It happened to me when I rescued my girl Indie end of Jan.
She must have just given birth when you brought her home from your parents. She would have the pups at different intervals. Best to leave her and pups well alone in a quiet room with least disturbances. The first two weeks are crucial, and if mum is stressed she would cull the babies. Mum knows best - if any of the pups have any deformity she would cull them.
So on a daily basis - give her her food and water as quietly as you can and leave the room. No peeping to have a look at the pups. This will stress her.
Along with her usual hamster dry mix, give her protein rich food every day. One food each day - piece of bread soaked in kitten milk, plain cooked chicken, some baby food without onion or garlic (I buy grandpas sunday lunch, orchard chicken), boiled egg white. Only a very small piece is needed on a daily basis. Any uneaten food should be cleared away when you go in to refill the next day.
Please keep coming back to the forum to give us update, and ask any questions. We are all here to help you. Best of luck to the little mum and the babies. xx

[kyrilliondaemon]

As far as the bars go, I'd wait a few days (the pups shouldn't be wandering for a while yet) and just tape some cardboard around the edge of the cage as a barrier. Luckily the Alexander bars are only 7mm anyway though and even our dwarf pups'd have struggled to get through bars that small

[ANGELBABIES]

Also throw in some extra bedding - toilet tissue torn up is fine.
If she is in an Alexander cage - let her be. You cant move her. At the moment babies will not come out of the nest. If there is a shelf, the pups would try to climb, you will have to remove the shelf or remove the access to the shelf - but not now please. Take care xx

[ilex81]

Thanks for the responses.

We have put in more shredded toilet paper and bedding from the pet store. I wasn't too sure if that was a good idea as I was worried the bedding would have our scent on it? We also gave her some scrambled egg in another dish as read this was a good top up food to give a nursing hamster. We don't know how much of the egg to give though (I gave her another bowl which was probably half full)?

Over the course of the night I don't think she has eaten much of either her hard food or egg. We want to put her food closer to the nest but again don't want to disturb her. At this stage would scattering some food on her nest be a bad idea? She must be exhausted, so just want to make sure she can reach her food easily.

We have done a lot of reading since last night and have found some very useful old threads from people that have had a similar experience on this forum. However, there is so much conflicting information out there on the web that we are questioning everything. We understand nature will take its course, but we don't want to be a contributing factor that creates stress for Matilda.

At present there is very little noise or movement from the nest. Her cage is in a quiet spare room. We have been poking our heads round the door every few hours but haven't seen her. I'm hoping that this is a good sign for the babies at present, meaning the stress of moving Matilda in a car, later opening the cage and feeding her while she was giving birth etc, hasn't meant she has culled them all. However, I don't know if that is reality.

[Zoopism]

Unfortunately I don't know anything about birthing hamsters but I hope she and the pups are ok! From what I have read myself just make sure they stay in a quiet room as some loud noises have caused mummy hammy to cull her babies.

Good luck, keep us updated

[souffle]

Don't put the food near the nest as she does need to pop out and toddle around and stretch her legs for a few minutes anyway as a break from the pups and to keep her circulation going. You are doing fine and if she is staying in the nest then there is a good chance that she is nursing pups. Try and get a peep at her when she is out and about just to check she seems bright and healthy enough and does not look hunched or bedraggled. Keep up the quiet feeding and water changes.
Don't try and count them. It's best not to know and mother always knows best. As you say what will be will be and it is very common for young mums to either cull or not know what to do or their bodies be too underdeveloped to raise a litter.
This is the best info source here by an experienced breeder and moderator here spud's mum:
Hamsters - Mad About Hamsters - Breeding Advice and Guidance
You can skip to the latter half
Good luck and welcome to the forum. Keep us posted on how things go and ask any questions x

[ilex81]

Thanks for the link soufflé, it looks extremely helpful.

We went and checked on her around an hour ago and she popped her head out. She came out the nest, walked around for a few seconds and went to the scrambled egg. As Matilda had left the nest open, my partner could see a few babies wriggling around. Not sure how many as we didn't want to stay long, but thought there could be around 8 or so.

I know there is a long way to go, but a bit relieved that the stresses from yesterday haven't so far caused a catastrophic event, which with everything we read last night basically said there was a high probability it should have.

I know there is some carrot that Matilda hasn't eaten in her nest area that we couldn't clean out when we tried yesterday (wee thing took a chunk out my finger but now I understand why lol). Will this become an issue as it will go mouldy over time (foolishly gave her too big a bit of carrot before we gave her to my girlfriend's parents for a few days)?

Niel (initial post came from my partner)

[souffle]

It'll be fine. Carrot tends to sort of just go dry and wrinkly rather than mouldy. Get some small seeds in stock like budgie seed and wheatgerm so you can give to mum and she will take that in for the pups. They start to eat at around 5 days and you may hear them nibbling in the nest.
The clicking noise you may hear is them suckling and when mum leave the nest they start to make a squaking noise like baby birds!
She sounds to be coping well. Good luck

[kyrilliondaemon]

I'm really glad that she's ok and the pups seem ok so far The once we had a litter of pups in the flat Mum was moved literally hours before she gave birth and we got away with it, as far as we know all pups grew up happy and healthy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the same happens for Matilda and her litter too