hi

[mekacrew]

hello. im meka and i have a mama hamster and her 6 babies unfortunately one of them died and i have no clue why and im new of owning hamsters because when i bought her i had no idea she was pregnant so yeah im new can tell me the basic steps of owning a hamster?

[souffle]

Welcome - it is not uncommon to find that a hamster is pregnant as pet shops are bad at sexing hamsters and often get mixed sex groups in their shop tanks.
Make sure you leave the new mama very much along and apart from giving her lots of good food and small chopped veggies and clean water don;t touch anything at all or disturn her till the babies have their eyes open and are out and about. It is not unusual for one or even more to die young as sometimes there is a little something wrong inside and they do not survive. The commonest cause is when their tummies cannot accept and digest food correctly so they swell up.
If you have to remove a dead baby then use a clean spoon that you have rubbed in the bedding.
I hope the rest of the litter does well.

[mekacrew]

yeah thanx. i gotta tell ya that they are grown up now - 4 weeks or something :) and they are still with their mom. is that bad ? because i want to breed her with another mate ?

[Drago]

Hello and welcome to hamster central :)

I'm no breeder and souffle knows a lot more than me on this subject so she can correct me if I get any information wrong, but I would recommend separating them into groups of their own sex, or better yet to avoid more pregnancies, all in separate enclosures. I don't believe you specified which species they are, but either way they'll need to be seperated as they may fight or become pregnant again and the last thing you want is hamsters multiplying exponentially! As for breeding I would highly discourage you from it. As your female is from the pet store and you are unsure of both her genotype and phenotype as well as her lineage, it's a very risky thing to try. You mention in your original post that you're new to hamsters and ideally you should have a few years of experience with just owning hamsters before considering breeding. Breeding is very costly and will be tiring and heartbreaking. Breeding is not something to take lightly. It requires extensive knowledge of hamster colors, patterns, and genetics. You must also know and understand hamsters inside and out! You'll need to find a breeder to mentor you and acquire quality hamsters to start your line with. All in all a very complicated process, and definitely not something a beginner should be taking on.

Do you have homes picked out for all the pups? If not, you're going to need to buy large cages (450 bare minimum to start, but if they need more you'll have to upgrade) to house each and every one of them. Feeding seven hamsters is expensive and if they were to become sick, the vet bills could rack up! I hope I didn't come off as pessimistic or rude in this, just want to make sure you're aware of what it takes to keep hamsters and why breeding should be left to the pros! Good luck with them and if you need any more help, please ask :)

[cypher]

You definitely need to separate the pups into different sex groups straight aways as they may already be old enough to mate if you're not sure which is which as Drago said put each ham into a separate cage, if you don't do it now you will end up with more pups.

[Thin Lizzy]

Hi Meka and Welcome to HC.
What a shock for you realising your ham was pregnant when you got her. Sorry to hear about one if the babies dying. Be sure to follow Souffle's advice.
Good Luck with the rest of the babies, becsure to keep us updated.
You've come to the right place for advice/help.

[mekacrew]

hey guys thank you so much , and i gotta tell ya that i didn't start separating them yet because im still working on two diy cages anyway, 2 days ago and today i saw Isac hobbing his mom mating with her could she be pregnant?!

[Drago]

hey guys thank you so much , and i gotta tell ya that i didn't start separating them yet because im still working on two diy cages anyway, 2 days ago and today i saw Isac hobbing his mom mating with her could she be pregnant?!

Glad to hear they're all growing well! It's definitely important they are seperated so you can avoid things like an accidental mating like you've described. It is possible she's pregnant so you'll need to keep a close eye on her and prepare once again as if she will be having a litter even if it turns out to be nothing. The mother likely isn't the only one to have been mated with unfortunately so if possible, I'd go out and get a few cheap and small bins to separate them in. Hope all goes in your favor, please ask if you have any other questions. Hopefully a breeder can come along and advise you more on preparation for a litter :)

[mekacrew]

yeah i guess she's pregnant because she seems heavy but i don't know some of the signs besides that she may look buffy and eats alot i don't know ...

[JLPrairie]

Separate them right away. Small cages will do, for now, just make sure they can't mate again.
It's good what you're doing for the pups, a lot of beginner hamster owners kill the pups (whether intentionally or by accident) when they get accidentally pregnant hamsters.

[mekacrew]

but they're 6 of them and i can't put them in a small cage they get paranoid and they bite the wires and monkey climbing..

[Drago]

In all honesty, it would be better for them to be subjected to cramped conditions for a short amount of time rather than having your amount of hamsters grow to 20+ in cramped conditions. You're doing well in caring for them all so far, don't get too stressed out! Keep us updated and ask if you have any more questions :)

[mekacrew]

yeah can i keep the females together in one cage including the pregnant one ? i want more babies but i have those kind of parents like ughhhhhhhhh ! and im an animals lover and they don't respect that unfortunately..just ignore it ,and can i let them sleep in the dark at night ?

[cypher]

As long as you're sure which are females & which are males you can keep all the females together for a short while but they will soon be growing up & need to be kept alone or they will fight, syrian hamsters are solitary animals & must live alone.
Please don't breed your hams again for more babies, unless you have studied breeding & genetics you could end up with hams that have real problems & do remember that each & every one of them will need it's own cage at a fairly young age so unless you have a huge amount of space to provide them all with good cages then it is unfair on them.

If one of the females is pregnant she definitely needs to be kept alone & she should be left in peace with as little disruption as possible, so just giving her food & water or she may kill the pups when she gives birth.

[mekacrew]

ok got it ,and no i don't have much space and my folks suggested to sell them like never gonna do that they're my babies...and id like to keep even when i get married or something meaning that i will protect em and keep em no matter what ! they're the reason why i wanna be a veterinary physician.

[Thin Lizzy]

I love your determination to keep them.
Fingers crossed there's no unexpected pregnancies.