Pregnant djungarian has ants in her cage

[RymeRej]

This issue is kind of a weird catch 22. I've got a djungarian hamster that is about 2 weeks pregnant. She's noticeably larger so I know the day must be getting close. I've been trying to limit my interaction with her over the past few days so that she feels safe, but I've noticed a constant stream of ants going in and out of her tank (glass aquarium). I really want to clean out the tank and make sure there isn't any food hidden away somewhere that's attracting the ants, but I also don't want to disturb her while she's getting close to giving birth. Any suggestions for what I could do?

[souffle]

Is she definitely pregnant? Did you mate her or is she in with a male?
Usually arts are attracted by sweet things and diabetic hamsters pass very sweet urine. They can also look chubby due to fluid retention or because of the diabetes.
You can't have ants going in there anyway regardless of whether she is pregnant or not as they could bite her and she does not want to have ants in her cage stealing her food as well. You need to clean her cage and make sure you remove any access of ants to the area where she is. If she is passing a lot of urine she needs checked for diabetes too.

[Pebbles82]

Nightmare. I would also suggest getting some Nippon - works a treat. You put some drops on a coin and leave it near where they are coming from (gap in window or whatever). It's nasty stuff with Borax in so don't get it on your hands. The Ants are attracted to it, eat it and take it back to the nest and it kills the whole nest. No more ants. But you need to do it now - once the nest hatches you get flying ants and nothing works on those except opening the window and fly spray (been there, got the t-shirt - ants floor to ceiling and giant queens with wings!) And obviously keep the stuff well away from your hamster - the place to put it is not where they are going (her tank) but where they come from - or nearby where they come from. They can get through the tiniest gap so it might be an idea to move the tank to a different location that isn't on their 'route' - plus all the above info from Souffle.

[racinghamster]

Is this hamster kept indoors or outdoors for ants to be getting in to her cage? I would certainly get rid of the ants (thoroughly clean the cage outside) and keep the hamster inside in a nice small tank with a cosy box until you can do this. Throw out all the destructible stuff and wash everything else. Check the food bags too. x

[RymeRej]

Originally Posted by souffle

Is she definitely pregnant? Did you mate her or is she in with a male?
Usually arts are attracted by sweet things and diabetic hamsters pass very sweet urine. They can also look chubby due to fluid retention or because of the diabetes.
You can't have ants going in there anyway regardless of whether she is pregnant or not as they could bite her and she does not want to have ants in her cage stealing her food as well. You need to clean her cage and make sure you remove any access of ants to the area where she is. If she is passing a lot of urine she needs checked for diabetes too.

I'm fairly certain she's pregnant. I bought two "female" from the store and figured out a week ago that one is a male. These are my first hamsters so I've been learning a lot as I go and didn't know how to tell the difference between genders at first. They lived in the same tank for a week or so until they started squabbling a lot. I separated them into their own tanks and that's when I realized one is a male.

[racinghamster]

It`s good that they are now separated but the store should have checked their genders before selling them, or the female may well have got pregnant in the store and she`s been sold to you already pregnant? It`s tricky to say. But if you definitely have a male and a female, then separating them was the best thing to do. The female will have her babies and manage to care or them natural, so she will need peace and quiet. You just need to make sure she a high protein food and check on her to make sure all is well. Take a note of the day/date they are born as this will tell you what age they are when they need separating from the mother.

Dad will be fine on his own now. Any baby males could possibly stay together for now but start making pans for separations and spare tanks/cages.

Did you manage to get rid of the ants?

[Pebbles82]

They can get into anything - months after we had them we found dead ones inside the salt pot urgh! Crawled through the little hole in the top - tiny hole for salt to come out. We found them under the rims of jam jars as well. The house we were in at the time had foam cavity insulation and they were nesting in the foam and coming out into the house through tiny little cracks between the wall and window. About 8pm every night it was like a scene from that Tom and Jerry cartoon, if you've seen it - there would be a trail come down the wall, across the carpet, round the table, into the kitchen and up the kitchen table leg - a moving army! 3 days after we put the nippon down - not one. They eat it and feed it to the eggs and queens who then die.

The second incidence was later in the summer - July/August and the eggs had already hatched so we got flying ants. Are yours flying ones or crawling ones? If they are crawling ones, work out where they are coming from and put that Nippon stuff down. If they are flying ones I think you'll just have to move the tanks to a different room. Fly spray works on them but obviously that is bad for hamsters. I used to hoover them up!

I suppose if there are only the odd one or two she might eat them Are there a lot?

[RymeRej]

Just to update: she definitely was pregnant because she's now much thinner and I can hear little baby hammies squeaking away. There are still a few ants but I managed to clean the cage before the babies were born and I've gotten rid of any potential sweet smelling food. From now on I'll just do my best to keep the ants out and give little Lady Sif the space she needs to be a good mama. Thank you for everyone's input!!

[Pebbles82]

Well done. Hope all goes well with Mother and babies.