My male hamster can't make it

Cady · 01-30-2011, 09:25 PM

My hamsters are named Cheche (Girl) and Bureche (Male). Bureche can't successfully mate with Cheche. He's really having a hard time doing it. I don't know what to do. I want them to have their own babies.. and I wanna experience and see Cheche giving birth. Any suggestions or help would be highly appreciated. Many thanks in advance

souffle · 01-31-2011, 03:51 AM

Cady have you researched fully the details of breeding hamsters? Do you have the financial and physical means of supporting and keeping possibly all the hamsters in the litter. That could be 20 hamsters all in individual cages! Syrians must be kept alone as I presume you already know.
If your hamsters are of good health and temperament, not related and a suitable match (you should not be pairing pattern to pattern or satin to satin for example because of the risks of getting hamsters with no eyes or very thin coats) and your female is the right age ( about 5 -8 months old) then they should only be introduced on neutral territory when the female is in season (every 4th night). We use a large cardboard box. The female will only mate if she 'stands' Her eyes will glaze and she will stand still with her tail up. Males normally lick and groom the female then mate. Inexperienced males will often tend to mate with the wrong place but usually get it right eventually. You can nudge them into the right area. You can normaly see a succesful mating but the hamsters should be left together, supervised for about 30 minutes during which time there will be numerous matings. Not all will be successful but provided you get a good few then the female in good health will conceive.
You will not and should not see her give birth. A female needs strict peace and quiet with no touching, peeping or intrusion of any sort. You risk the mother culling her pups if you do. You may not even see the babies till they are about 10 days old and start toddling out.
I urge you to research and think very carefully about this. In mating your hamsters you accept responsibilty for these babies forever and you always run the risk that all will not go well and you may lose the mother and even the father if he is attacked by her. It is not all sunshine and light and sometimes involves heartbreak though when all is well it is a wonderful experience.

Cady · 01-31-2011, 08:19 PM

Thank you very much for all those informations Souffle.. I'll keep those in mind.. It really helped me a lot..

My hamsters are together in one cage, at times they fight but just a minor fight. I'll follow your suggestions and wish me luck.

Would you mind if I ask what do you mean by every fourth night? You mean every fourth night of the month?

Many thanks in advance =)

souffle · 02-01-2011, 01:33 AM

That isn't your hamsters in the pic is it Cady? Those look like Syrians. Syrian hamsters must never be kept together as once mature they will fight to the death. Can you post more pics? If they are syrian hamsters you MUST separate them into single cages. If you leave them together you will end up with dead hamsters and likely dead pups too.
If they are dwarfs then they may not breed for some time but will need separated eventually or else the female will be worn out with back to back litters as they mate straight after birth and also you will have so many hamsters you will be over run!
Firstly we need ID on your two.

SarahJ · 02-01-2011, 06:32 AM

I think all the advise Souffle has given you is brill and have nothing to add on the breeding side apart from a female comes in to heat every 4 days and i dont want to sound nasty by sayign this but if this is something you do not know i deff would advise you not to breed! breeding is so very complicated, ive been reading up and researching about it for 6 months now and i still dont understand all the patterns which can be bred with each other.

Also as Souffle said please split your hamsters up if they are syrians.

Cady · 02-06-2011, 11:36 PM

Thank you so much for all the advises! I really do appreciate everything.. For Souffle, I'll post more pics of them. If I'm not mistaken they called them bear hamster?

Again, thank you so much to both of you.. =)

**Hope** · 02-07-2011, 03:49 AM

Yes, bear, or Teddy bear hamsters are nicknames for syrian hamsters. They must live alone, so split them up asap or they could cause each other some terrible injuries, or worse. . . They live alone in the wild and do not need company or get lonely, so pleaee dont worry about that!

souffle · 02-07-2011, 04:17 AM

Did you buy them at the same time? If so they are likely brother and sister and you should never mate hamsters who are this closely related. You could end up with badly handicapped babies and you would not want that to happen would you.
Separate them quickly Cady. They are likely still OK together as they are still young in which case they are too young to be breeding anyway.
All Teddy Bear or Bear hamsters are Syrian Hamsters, often long haired and these names are just labels given by pet shops to sell them at higher prices.

Cady · 02-13-2011, 10:58 PM

Thank ya'll for all your comments. I learned a lot from this forum. I separated them already and will try to breed them on the 4th day (im still not sure when exactly is the 4th day but i'll try every wednesday since it's the 4th day of the week) =)

Sorry for the late response to the thread, I've been pretty busy this past few weeks..

Thanks again for everything! till next time! =)

SarahJ · 02-14-2011, 01:58 AM

Cady - the 4th day does not mean the 4th day of the week.

If you do really want to breed them please do alot of research - you can do this by asking on this forum and i found the Hamterlopaedia very helpful - this gives u a veryg ood idea about which patterns should NOT be bred with each other.

Have you found homes for the baby hamsters yet? as you will need a lot of planning ahead if you breed them. What happeneds if you can not rehome all the babies? you will need to keep these - so do you have the money, cages, time etc.

Breeding is not something to dive in to and you really need to do your research.

I do not want the above to sound nasty, Just trying to get you to research before you do it as its not as simple as you think.