Is my hamster pregnant????? please help!!

[dawnhill]

Hi i am a new owner of 2 adorable "male" chinese dwarf hamsters which i bought on 26th april.
I left them for a few days and last night i stroked them both and gave them attention for about 5 mins, they are both very friendly but 1 is ALOT more nervous than the other.
I came downstairs this morning to find that the more nervous had made a nest and dragged alot of sawdust, tissue paper and bedding into the pipe on the front of the cage "he" comes out occasionally to eat a bit of food and runs around the cage frantically other than that just stays in the tunnel all the time?
Could this be because i scared him by stroking them or could "he" be "she" thats pregnant???
i dont know if i should pick it up to check the sex or just leave it and see what happens??
Please help im new to this so unsure what i should do

Many thanks for reading xx

[loyal_tree]

Where did you buy them from? Were they in the same cage when purchased? Pet shops do commonly get sexes wrong on hamsters. If they are just babies it might not be so obvious they are boys, but if they are adults, you should be able to see their large 'bums'.

You can take a picture and post here of their bellies and we can try to sex them for you. Building huge nests is a sign of pregnancy, but it could also just be totally normal. Him being skittish could just be a personality thing, I wouldn't chalk that up to pregnany. I would definitely work on getting them sexed though. I've also read keeping Chinese hamsters together can be a challenge, and sometimes the female can be very mean to the boys... so keep an eye on them.

[dawnhill]

hi loyal tree thanks for your response!
yes they were together when i bought them from our local petshop,

i would guess that they are about 10 wks old, ive done some research on sexing them and feel quite confident about doing it i just didnt want to upset them too much??

thankyou for your advise

[loyal_tree]

Nah, I'm sure it's a little irritating because they are squirmy and don't want to be flipped, but they will be just fine. Hope you have two males

[souffle]

I would try and remove the tube as it is not healthy for them to sleep in tubes. They can get all steamy and cause chest infections. It is also a source of aggro if they get territorial over tubes. You should be able to sex male chinese easily at 10 weeks and I really think you should try and sex them. If they are a male and female they are likely siblings and should not be bred. One may be bullying the other into the tube and this can make him very unhappy and he will not get food and water. Observe how they interact when out very closely.