White banded tortoishell and her litter update.

sarahh · 03-29-2008, 04:56 PM

Hi everyone we have 8 day old babies born on 21st march.
We have experience in having litters of baby hamsters before. We did everything by the book as it were we gave Christie sunflower hearts, bits of fruit and veg everynight and baby porridge everynight aswell. Everything went fine with the birth and we carried on giving her porridge and sunflower hearts and still do. The babies are doing fine and growing everyday.
I have a question though, why does my hamster only have 3 babies? I'm sure thats all there ever has been. My hamster is about 5 months and we did refer to the book as to when it would be safe to breed with her and wanted to make sure she wasn't a baby herself when she had them. The fewest we've ever had has been 6 but that was years ago when we first bred hamsters. Could it be because she is a small hamster maybe? We're not worrieds about it we just wanted to ask aswell whether anyone had had a small litter aswell before.

Any advice much appreciated.

Sarah x

souffle · 03-29-2008, 05:03 PM

It is not uncommon especially at the very start of the breeding season to get small litters. It is no reflection on how well you have cared for her. Mother always knows best and she may have had some babies she felt were weak or she did not feel she could cope with and has disposed of however it may just be a small litter. You may get a large litter if you mate her again when she is fully recovered from this litter at say 9 or 10 months. I look forward to seeing them when their eyes are open.

**Spuds Mum** · 03-29-2008, 05:19 PM

oh congratulations sarah! The average litter size is described as 6-8 but of course this is the average, so it may be that this time, Mum just gave birth to a smaller litter. As Souffle says, her fertility may have been affected by the time of year.

I wouldn't worry about it, it is much better I think to have a smaller litter that all make it, rather than a larger litter where quite a few of the pups dont. We previously had a litter of 13 but by 3 weeks only 3 survived, which was quite distressing, but nature's way.

I was talking to quite a large scale breeder recently who reported that she had had lots of hamsters either not produce, produce smaller litters, or had lost a lot of pups, and she mentioned the season as being a possible reason.

Hope your 3 darlings grow well and fast, and when their eyes are fully open we would love you to introduce them to us!

sarahh · 03-30-2008, 07:53 AM

Hi Souffle and Spuds mum thanks you so much for your replies. We are definatly going to breed from her again as we have 2 males. I will definatly try and take some pics when they start coming out and when their eyes open.
Christie is a brilliant mum and always makes sure the babies are ok and are warm. She by accident was coming out the nest and 2 babies were attached to her we got quite a look at them. She managed to put them back in the nest quickly. We know for definite that there are 2 brown and the pink must be where the white is going to come. The 3rd baby is still pink I'm not quite sure what this babies colour is going to be. We have a home for atleast one of the babies already.

Thank you

Sarah x

sarahh · 03-31-2008, 02:45 PM

Today the little ones have been putting their head out the house I don't think its going to be long before they take their first steps outside. Also I have seen another baby today that makes 4 of them now I only thought there was 3 but ope 4 I wonder if there is any others. Will have to wait and see hehe.

Sarah x

**Spuds Mum** · 03-31-2008, 02:58 PM

Oh congratulations on the extra surprise Sarah! If you only saw the 3 in the nest then it is possible that there may be more in there still! They are so tiny and it is easy for one to be hidden under another or buried in the nest so I guess you'll only now for sure when they venture out, not long now though!

It sounds like you have some banded pups there with the brown/white bits. The pups that look pink will probably be a lighter colour - you may have to wait until a bit longer to see their colour properly. Its the surprise part I enjoy

Glad Christie is doing well, and at 10(?) days old, you will Im sure see Mum chasing everywhere after pups and wearing herself out very shortly

sarahh · 04-01-2008, 05:29 AM

Hi Spud's mum thanks, I hope they start coming out soon I can't wait to see them and how many there are for definite. 11 days old today. Have heard alot of squeeking going on. There are definatly some banded pups. As far as I can see on the pink ones in the light you can see they are like a golden yellow colour.
I too love seeing what colours they all turn out to be. Christie yep is a good mum, I do love when they have to keep chasing the babies everywhere and then they eventually give up as so many keep coming out.

Also a baby picked up a bit of food last night and was eating it.

I will let you know how things progress.

Sarah x

Bourne Valley Hams · 04-01-2008, 06:02 AM

Within a couple of days they will be toddling blindly out of the nest in search of food and poor mum will be run ragged dragging them back! Chances are you have tortoiseshell girls and yellow boys.

sarahh · 04-01-2008, 06:36 AM

Hi ya thanks for that, is it possible to have tortoishell babies from a white banded tort being the mum and a LH sable dad?

sarahh · 04-07-2008, 04:33 AM

Hi All

Thought I would update you all. We cleaned out the cage on Friday because it was getting smelly and mum kept piling things up and we were afraid babies would get stuck under it all. We cleaned it and let the babies settle back in before we put mum back

About 15 mins later mum went back and she went mad kept picking up babies and dropping them everywhere, then she decided to go in her wheel and take one of the babies with her so we stopped her and got her back out and put mum back in the ball for a while thinking this was it mum had rejected them at 14 days old, A little while later we tried again and she went back in there like nothing had happened she fed babies and made sure they were ok.

Christie seems to be a protective mother and still half heartidly puts them back in the nest but babies now just come back out again, have seen one of them push her in the face like I am not going back in mum lol its quite funny to watch.

Yesturday we were able to start handling them and Christie is fine about us doing it. There are 2 brown and whites, a golden blondie colour and the runt of the litter is a really dark golden but with bits of grey in her at the moment. The runt who we are keeping she is so cute have named her Tanika she has an extra joint on one of her front legs so it looks like she has 2 elbows instead of 1. She can walk fine with but mum and I have fallen in love with her.

So far we know that there are 2 girls and 1 boy but not sure what the other brown and white is at the mo everytime we try getting the little one it runs off back in the nest hopefully I will be able to have a look tonight.

I will try and get some pics at some point.

I thought I would update you all though.

Sarah x